+++ /dev/null
-This file documents things you should know to write a new debhelper program.
-
-Standardization:
----------------
-
-There are lots of debhelper commands. To make the learning curve shallower,
-I want them all to behave in a standard manner:
-
-All debhelper programs have names beginning with "dh_". This is so we don't
-pollute the name space too much.
-
-Debhelper programs should never output anything to standard output except
-error messages, important warnings, and the actual commands they run that
-modify files under debian/ and debian/tmp, etc (this last only if they are
-passed -v, and if you output the commands, you should indent them with 1 tab).
-This is so we don't have a lot of noise output when all the debhelper commands
-in a debian/rules are run, so the important stuff is clearly visible.
-
-Debhelper programs should accept the options, -v, -i, -a, -p, --no-act, and
--P, and any long forms of these options, like --verbose . If necessary, the
-options may be ignored.
-
-If debhelper commands need config files, they should use
-debian/package.filename as the name of the confile file (replace filename
-with whatever your command wants), and debian/filename should also be
-checked for config information for the first binart package in
-debian/control. Also, debhelper commands should accept the same sort of
-information that appears in the config files, on their command lines, if
-possible, and apply that information to the first package thay act on.
-
-Debhelper programs should never modify the debian/postinst, debian/prerm,
-etc scripts, instead, they can add lines to debian/postinst.debhelper, etc.
-The autoscript() function (see below) is one easy way to do this.
-dh_installdeb is an exception, it will run after the other commands and
-merge these modifications into the actual postinst scripts.
-
-There are always exceptions. Just ask me.
-
-Intoroducing dh_lib:
--------------------
-
-All debhelper programs use the dh_lib library (actually it's a shell script)
-to parse their arguments and set some useful variables. It's not mandatory
-that your program use dh_lib, but it will make it a lot easier to keep it in
-sync with the rest of debhelper if it does, so this is highly encouraged.
-
-Typically, you invoke dh_lib like this:
-
-PATH=debian:$PATH:/usr/lib/debhelper
-. dh_lib
-
-The path statement is there to make your program look first in debian/ for
-dh_lib (so users can install a modified version there if necessary), then the
-rest of the path, then the canoical location of dh_lib, /usr/lib/debhelper.
-
-Argument processing:
--------------------
-
-All debhelper programs should respond to certian arguemnts, such as -v, -i,
--a, and -p. To help you make this work right, dh_lib handles argumeny
-processing.
-
-As soon as dh_lib loads, it processes any arguments that have been passed to
-your program. The following variables may be set during this stage; your
-program can use them later:
-
-switch variable description
--v DH_VERBOSE should the program verbosely output what it is
- doing?
---no-act DH_NO_ACT should the program not actually do anything?
--i,-a,-p DH_DOPACKAGES a space delimited list of the binary packages
- to act on
--i,-p DH_DOINDEP a space delimited list of the binary independant
- packages to act on
--a,-p DH_DOARCH a space delimited list of the binary dependant
- packages to act on
--n DH_NOSCRIPTS if set, do not make any modifications to the
- package's postinst, posrtm, etc scripts.
--x DH_EXCLUDE exclude a something from processing (you
- decide what this means for your program)
--d DH_D_FLAG you decide what this means to your program
--r DH_R_FLAG you decide what this means to your program
--k DH_K_FLAG you decide what this means to your program
--P DH_TMPDIR package build directory (implies only one
- package is being acted on)
--u DH_U_PARAMS will be set to a string, that is typically
- parameters your program passes on to some
- other program.
--m DH_M_PARAMS will be set to a string, you decide what it
- means to your program
--V DH_V_FLAG will be set to a string, you decide what it
- means to your program
--V DH_V_FLAG_SET will be 1 if -V was specified, even if no
- parameters were passed along with the -V
--A DH_PARAMS_ALL generally means that additional command line
- parameters passed to the program (other than
- those processed here), will apply to all
- binary packages the program acts on, not just
- the first
-
-Any additional command line parameters that do not start with "-" will be
-ignored, and you can access them later just as you normally would ($1, $2,
-etc).
-
-If you need a new command line option, just ask me, and I will add it.
-
-Global variables:
-----------------
-
-The following variables are also set, you can use any of them:
-
-MAINPACKAGE the name of the first binary package listed in
- debian/control
-DH_FIRSTPACKAGE the first package we were instructed to act on. This package
- typically gets special tratment, addiiional arguments
- specified on the command line may effect it.
-
-Functions:
----------
-
-Dh_lib also contains a number of functions you may find useful.
-
-doit()
- Pass this function a string that is a shell command. It will run the
- command (unless DH_NO_ACT is set), and if DH_VERBOSE is set, it will
- also output the command to stdout. You should use this function for
- almost all commands your program performs that manipulate files in
- the package build directories.
-complex_doit()
- This is the same as doit(), except you can pass more complicated
- commands to it (ie, commands involving piping redirection)
-verbose_echo()
- Pass this command a string, and it will echo it if DH_VERBOSE is set.
-error()
- Pass this command a string, it will output it to standard error and
- exit.
-tmpdir()
- Pass this command the name of a binary package, it will return the
- name of the tmp directory that will be used as this package's
- package build directory. Typically, this will be "debian/tmp" or
- "debian/package".
-pkgfile()
- Pass this command the name of a binary package, and the base name of a
- file, and it will return the actual filename to use. This is used
- for allowing debhelper programs to have configuration files in the
- debian/ directory, so there can be one config file per binary
- package. The conversion is that the files are named
- debian/package.filename, and debian/filename is also allowable for
- the MAINPACKAGE. If the file does not exist, nothing is returned.
-pkgext()
- Pass this command the name of a binary package, and it will return
- the name to prefix to files in debian/ for this package. For the
- MAINPACKAGE, it returns nothing (there is no prefix), for the other
- packages, it returns "package.".
-isnative()
- Pass this command the name of a package, it returns 1 if the package
- is a native debian package.
- As a side effect, VERSION is set to the version number of the
- package.
-autoscript()
- Pass 3 parameters:
- 1: script to add to
- 2: filename of snippet
- 3: sed commands to run on the snippet. Ie, s/#PACKAGE#/$PACKAGE/
- (optional)
- This command automatically adds shell script snippets to a debian
- maintainer script (like the postinst or prerm).
-
-Notes:
------
-
-Dh_lib is still evolving.
-There will probably be a perl version too, in the future.
-
--- Joey Hess <joeyh@master.debian.org>
projects / debhelper.git / commitdiff