debhelper(7) Debhelper debhelper(7)
NAME
debhelper - the debhelper tool suite
SYNOPSIS
dh_* [-v] [-a] [-i] [-s] [--no-act] [-ppackage] [-Npackage] [-Ptmpdir]
DESCRIPTION
Debhelper is used to help you build a debian package. The philosophy
behind debhelper is to provide a collection of small, simple, and eas
ily understood tools that are used in debian/rules to automate various
common aspects of building a package. This means less work for you, the
packager. It also, to some degree means that these tools can be
changed if debian policy changes, and packages that use them will
require only a rebuild to comply with the new policy.
A typical debian/rules file that uses debhelper will call several deb
helper commands in sequence. Debhelper commands are all named with a
"dh_" prefix. Examples of rules files that use debhelper are in
/usr/share/doc/debhelper/examples/
To create a new debian package using debhelper, you can just copy one
of the sample rules files and edit it by hand. Or you can try the dh-
make package, which contains a dh_make command that partially automates
the process. For a more gentle introduction, the maint-guide debian
package contains a tutorial about making your first package using deb
helper.
DEBHELPER COMMANDS
Here is the complete list of available debhelper commands. See their
man pages for additional documentation.
dh_builddeb(1)
build debian packages
dh_clean(1)
clean up package build directories
dh_compress(1)
compress files and fix symlinks in package build directories
dh_desktop(1)
Register .desktop files
dh_fixperms(1)
fix permissions of files in package build directories
dh_gconf(1)
generate GConf schema registration scripts
dh_gencontrol(1)
generate and install control file
dh_install(1)
install files into package build directories
dh_installcatalogs(1)
install and register SGML Catalogs
dh_installchangelogs(1)
install changelogs into package build directories
dh_installcron(1)
install cron scripts into etc/cron.*
dh_installdeb(1)
install files into the DEBIAN directory
dh_installdebconf(1)
install files used by debconf in package build directories
dh_installdirs(1)
create subdirectories in package build directories
dh_installdocs(1)
install documentation into package build directories
dh_installemacsen(1)
register an emacs add on package
dh_installexamples(1)
install example files into package build directories
dh_installinfo(1)
install and register info files
dh_installinit(1)
install init scripts into package build directories
dh_installlogcheck(1)
install logcheck rulefiles into etc/logcheck/
dh_installlogrotate(1)
install logrotate config files
dh_installman(1)
install man pages into package build directories
dh_installmanpages(1)
old-style man page installer
dh_installmenu(1)
install debian menu files into package build directories
dh_installmime(1)
install mime files into package build directories
dh_installmodules(1)
register modules with modutils
dh_installpam(1)
install pam support files
dh_installppp(1)
install ppp ip-up and ip-down files
dh_installudev(1)
install udev rules files
dh_installwm(1)
register a window manager
dh_installxfonts(1)
register X fonts
dh_link(1)
create symlinks in package build directories
dh_listpackages(1)
list binary packages debhelper will act on
dh_makeshlibs(1)
automatically create shlibs file
dh_md5sums(1)
generate DEBIAN/md5sums file
dh_movefiles(1)
move files out of debian/tmp into subpackages
dh_perl(1)
calculates perl dependencies
dh_python(1)
calculates python dependencies and adds postinst and prerm python
scripts
dh_scrollkeeper(1)
generate ScrollKeeper registration scripts
dh_shlibdeps(1)
calculate shared library dependencies
dh_strip(1)
strip executables, shared libraries, and some static libraries
dh_suidregister(1)
obsolete suid registration program
dh_testdir(1)
test directory before building debian package
dh_testroot(1)
ensure that a package is built as root
dh_testversion(1)
ensure that the correct version of debhelper is installed
dh_undocumented(1)
obsolete undocumented.7 symlink program
dh_usrlocal(1)
migrate usr/local directories to maintainer scripts
If a programs name starts with "dh_", and the program is not on the
above list, then it is not part of the debhelper package, but it should
still work like the other programs described on this page.
DEBHELPER CONFIG FILES
Many debhelper commands make use of files in debian/ to control what
they do. Besides the common debian/changelog and debian/control, which
are in all packages, not just those using debhelper, some additional
files can be used to configure the behavior of specific debhelper com
mands. These files are typically named debian/package.foo (where "pack
age" of course, is replaced with the package that is being acted on).
For example, dh_installdocs uses files named debian/package.docs to
list the documentation files it will install. See the man pages of
individual commands for details about the names and formats of the
files they use. Generally, these files will list files to act on, one
file per line. Some programs in debhelper use pairs of files and desti
nations or slightly more complicated formats.
Note that if a package is the first (or only) binary package listed in
debian/control, debhelper will use debian/foo if no debian/package.foo
file can be found.
In some rare cases, you may want to have different versions of these
files for different architectures. If files named debian/pack
age.foo.arch exist, where "arch" is the same as the output of "dpkg
--print-architecture", then they will be used in preference to other,
more general files.
In many cases, these config files are used to specify various types of
files. Documentation or example files to install, files to move, and so
on. When appropriate, in cases like these, you can use standard shell
wildcard characters (? and * and [..] character classes) in the
files.
You can also put comments in these files; lines beginning with "#" are
ignored.
SHARED DEBHELPER OPTIONS
The following command line options are supported by all debhelper pro
grams.
-v, --verbose
Verbose mode: show all commands that modify the package build
directory.
--no-act
Do not really do anything. If used with -v, the result is that the
command will output what it would have done.
-a, --arch
Act on all architecture dependent packages.
-i, --indep
Act on all architecture independent packages.
-ppackage, --package=package
Act on the package named "package". This option may be specified
multiple times to make debhelper operate on a given set of pack
ages.
-s, --same-arch
This is a smarter version of the -a flag, that is used in some rare
circumstances. It understands that if the control file lists
"Architecture: i386" for the package, the package should not be
acted on on other architectures. So this flag makes the command act
on all "Architecture: any" packages, as well as on any packages
that have the current architecture explicitly specified. Contrast
to the -a flag, which makes the command work on all packages that
are not architecture independent.
-Npackage, --no-package=package
Do not act on the specified package even if an -a, -i, or -p option
lists the package as one that should be acted on.
-Ptmpdir, --tmpdir=tmpdir
Use "tmpdir" for package build directory. The default is
debian/
--mainpackage=package
This little-used option changes the package which debhelper consid
ers the "main package", that is, the first one listed in
debian/control, and the one for which debian/foo files can be used
instead of the usual debian/package.foo files.
COMMON DEBHELPER OPTIONS
The following command line options are supported by some debhelper pro
grams. See the man page of each program for a complete explanation of
what each option does.
-n Do not modify postinst/postrm/etc scripts.
-Xitem, --exclude=item
Exclude an item from processing. This option may be used multiple
times, to exclude more than one thing.
-A, --all
Makes files or other items that are specified on the command line
take effect in ALL packages acted on, not just the first.
NOTES
Multiple binary package support
If your source package generates more than one binary package, deb
helper programs will default to acting on all binary packages when run.
If your source package happens to generate one architecture dependent
package, and another architecture independent package, this is not the
correct behavior, because you need to generate the architecture depen
dent packages in the binary-arch debian/rules target, and the architec
ture independent packages in the binary-indep debian/rules target.
To facilitate this, as well as give you more control over which pack
ages are acted on by debhelper programs, all debhelper programs accept
the -a, -i, -p, and -s parameters. These parameters are cumulative. If
none are given, debhelper programs default to acting on all packages
listed in the control file.
See /usr/share/doc/debhelper/examples/rules.multi for an example of how
to use this in a package that generates multiple binary packages.
Automatic generation of debian install scripts
Some debhelper commands will automatically generate parts of debian
maintainer scripts. If you want these automatically generated things
included in your existing debian maintainer scripts, then you need to
add "#DEBHELPER#" to your scripts, in the place the code should be
added. "#DEBHELPER#" will be replaced by any auto-generated code when
you run dh_installdeb.
If a script does not exist at all and debhelper needs to add something
to it, then debhelper will create the complete script.
All debhelper commands that automatically generate code in this way let
it be disabled by the -n parameter (see above).
Note that the inserted code will be shell code, so you cannot directly
use it in a perl script. If you would like to embed it into a perl
script, here is one way to do that (note that I made sure that $1, $2,
etc are set with the set command):
my $temp="set -e\nset -- @ARGV\n" . << EOF;
#DEBHELPER#
EOF
system ($temp) / 256 == 0
or die "Problem with debhelper scripts: $!";
Automatic generation of miscellaneous dependencies.
Some debhelper commands may make the generated package need to depend
on some other packages. For example, if you use dh_installdebconf(1),
your package will generally need to depend on debconf. Or if you use
dh_installxfonts(1), your package will generally need to depend on a
particular version of xutils. Keeping track of these miscellaneous
dependencies can be annoying since they are dependant on how debhelper
does things, so debhelper offers a way to automate it.
All commands of this type, besides documenting what dependencies may be
needed on their man pages, will automatically generate a substvar
called ${misc:Depends}. If you put that token into your debian/control
file, it will be expanded to the dependencies debhelper figures you
need.
This is entirely independent of the standard ${shlibs:Depends} gener
ated by dh_makeshlibs(1), and the ${perl:Depends} generated by
dh_perl(1). You can choose not to use any of these, if debhelpers
guesses dont match reality.
Package build directories
By default, all debhelper programs assume that the temporary directory
used for assembling the tree of files in a package is debian/.
Sometimes, you might want to use some other temporary directory. This
is supported by the -P flag. For example, "dh_installdocs -Pde
bian/tmp", will use debian/tmp as the temporary directory. Note that if
you use -P, the debhelper programs can only be acting on a single pack
age at a time. So if you have a package that builds many binary pack
ages, you will need to also use the -p flag to specify which binary
package the debhelper program will act on.
Debhelper compatibility levels
From time to time, major non-backwards-compatible changes need to be
made to debhelper, to keep it clean and well-designed as needs change
and its author gains more experience. To prevent such major changes
from breaking existing packages, the concept of debhelper compatibility
levels was introduced. You tell debhelper which compatibility level it
should use, and it modifies its behavior in various ways.
Tell debhelper what compatibility level to use by writing a number to
debian/compat. For example, to turn on V5 mode:
% echo 5 > debian/compat
Unless otherwise indicated, all debhelper documentation assumes that
you are using the most recent compatibility level, and in most cases
does not indicate if the behavior is different in an earlier compati
bility level, so if you are not using the most recent compatibility
level, youre advised to read below for notes about what is different
in earlier compatibility levels.
These are the available compatibility levels:
V1 This is the original debhelper compatibility level, and so it is
the default one. In this mode, debhelper will use debian/tmp as the
package tree directory for the first binary package listed in the
control file, while using debian/ for all other packages
listed in the control file.
This mode is deprecated.
V2 In this mode, debhelper will consistently use debian/ as
the package tree directory for every package that is built.
This mode is deprecated.
V3 This mode works like V2, with the following additions:
- Debhelper config files support globbing via * and ?, when
appropriate. To turn this off and use those characters raw,
just prefix with a backslash.
- dh_makeshlibs makes the postinst and postrm scripts call
ldconfig.
- Every file in etc/ is automatically flagged as a conffile
by dh_installdeb.
This mode is deprecated.
V4 Changes from V3 are:
- dh_makeshlibs -V will not include the debian part of the
version number in the generated dependency line in the
shlibs file.
- You are encouraged to put the new ${misc:Depends} into
debian/control to supplement the ${shlibs:Depends} field.
- dh_fixperms will make all files in bin/ directories and in
etc/init.d executable.
- dh_link will correct existing links to conform with policy.
V5 This is the recommended mode of operation. It does everything V4
does, plus:
- Comments are ignored in debhelper config files.
- dh_strip --dbg-package now specifies the name of a package
to put debugging symbols in, not the packages to take the
symbols from.
- dh_installdocs skips installing empty files.
- dh_install errors out if wildcards expand to nothing.
Doc directory symlinks
Sometimes it is useful to make a package not contain a
/usr/share/doc/package directory at all, instead placing just a dan
gling symlink in the binary package, that points to some other doc
directory. Policy says this is ok if your package depends on the pack
age whose doc directory it uses. To accomplish this, just dont tell
debhelper to install any documentation files into the package, and use
dh_link to set up the symlink (or do it by hand), and debhelper should
do the right thing: notice it is a dangling symlink and not try to
install a copyright file or changelog.
udebs
Debhelper includes support for udebs. To create a udeb with debhelper,
add "XC-Package-Type: udeb" to the packages stanza in debian/control,
and build-depend on debhelper (>= 4.2). Debhelper will try to create
udebs that comply with debian-installer policy, by making the generated
package files end in ".udeb", not installing any documentation into a
udeb, skipping over preinst, postrm, prerm, and config scripts, etc.
Other notes
In general, if any debhelper program needs a directory to exist under
debian/, it will create it. I havent bothered to document this in all
the man pages, but for example, dh_installdeb knows to make
debian//DEBIAN/ before trying to put files there, dh_install
menu knows you need a debian//usr/share/menu/ before
installing the menu files, etc.
Once your package uses debhelper to build, be sure to add debhelper to
your Build-Depends line in debian/control. You should build-depend on a
version of debhelper equal to (or greater than) the debhelper compati
bility level your package uses. So if your package used compatibility
level 5:
Build-Depends: debhelper (>= 5)
ENVIRONMENT
DH_VERBOSE
Set to 1 to enable verbose mode. Debhelper will output every com
mand it runs that modifies files on the build system.
DH_COMPAT
Temporarily specifies what compatibility level debhelper should run
at, overriding any value in debian/compat.
DH_NO_ACT
Set to 1 to enable no-act mode.
DH_OPTIONS
Anything in this variable will be prepended to the command line
arguments of all debhelper commands. This is useful in some
situations, for example, if you need to pass -p to all debhelper
commands that will be run. One good way to set DH_OPTIONS is by
using "Target-specific Variable Values" in your debian/rules file.
See the make documentation for details on doing this.
DH_ALWAYS_EXCLUDE
If set, this adds the value the variable is set to to the -X
options of all commands that support the -X option. Moreover,
dh_builddeb will rm -rf anything that matches the value in your
package build tree.
This can be useful if you are doing a build from a CVS source tree,
in which case setting DH_ALWAYS_EXCLUDE=CVS will prevent any CVS
directories from sneaking into the package you build. Or, if a
package has a source tarball that (unwisely) includes CVS directo
ries, you might want to export DH_ALWAYS_EXCLUDE=CVS in
debian/rules, to make it take effect wherever your package is
built.
Multiple things to exclude can be separated with colons, as in
DH_ALWAYS_EXCLUDE=CVS:.svn
SEE ALSO
/usr/share/doc/debhelper/examples/
A set of example debian/rules files that use debhelper.
Debhelper web site.
AUTHOR
Joey Hess
5.0.42 2006-11-12 debhelper(7)
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