debhelper(7) Debhelper debhelper(7)
debhelper - the debhelper tool suite
dh_* [-v] [-a] [-i] [--no-act] [-ppackage] [-Npackage] [-Ptmpdir]
Debhelper is used to help you build a Debian package. The philosophy
behind debhelper is to provide a collection of small, simple, and
easily 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
debhelper commands in sequence, or use dh(1) to automate this
process. 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 debhelper.
Except where tool explicitly denotes otherwise, all of the debhelper
tools assumes that they run from root directory of an unpacked source
package. This is so they can locate find debian/control and
debian/compat when needed.
Here is the list of debhelper commands you can use. See their man
pages for additional documentation.
dh_auto_build(1)
automatically builds a package
dh_auto_clean(1)
automatically cleans up after a build
dh_auto_configure(1)
automatically configure a package prior to building
dh_auto_install(1)
automatically runs make install or similar
dh_auto_test(1)
automatically runs a package's test suites
dh_bugfiles(1)
install bug reporting customization files into package build
directories
dh_builddeb(1)
build Debian binary packages
dh_clean(1)
clean up package build directories
dh_compress(1)
compress files and fix symlinks in package build directories
dh_dwz(1)
optimize DWARF debug information in ELF binaries via dwz
dh_fixperms(1)
fix permissions of files in package build directories
dh_gconf(1)
install GConf defaults files and register schemas
dh_gencontrol(1)
generate and install control file
dh_icons(1)
Update caches of Freedesktop icons
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_installgsettings(1)
install GSettings overrides and set dependencies
dh_installifupdown(1)
install if-up and if-down hooks
dh_installinfo(1)
install info files
dh_installinit(1)
install service init files 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_installmenu(1)
install Debian menu files into package build directories
dh_installmime(1)
install mime files into package build directories
dh_installmodules(1)
register kernel modules
dh_installpam(1)
install pam support files
dh_installppp(1)
install ppp ip-up and ip-down files
dh_installsystemd(1)
install systemd unit 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_lintian(1)
install lintian override files into package build directories
dh_listpackages(1)
list binary packages debhelper will act on
dh_makeshlibs(1)
automatically create shlibs file and call dpkg-gensymbols
dh_md5sums(1)
generate DEBIAN/md5sums file
dh_missing(1)
check for missing files
dh_movefiles(1)
move files out of debian/tmp into subpackages
dh_perl(1)
calculates Perl dependencies and cleans up after MakeMaker
dh_prep(1)
perform cleanups in preparation for building a binary package
dh_shlibdeps(1)
calculate shared library dependencies
dh_strip(1)
strip executables, shared libraries, and some static libraries
dh_systemd_enable(1)
enable/disable systemd unit files
dh_systemd_start(1)
start/stop/restart systemd unit files
dh_testdir(1)
test directory before building Debian package
dh_testroot(1)
ensure that a package is built with necessary level of root
permissions
dh_ucf(1)
register configuration files with ucf
dh_update_autotools_config(1)
Update autotools config files
dh_usrlocal(1)
migrate usr/local directories to maintainer scripts
Deprecated Commands
A few debhelper commands are deprecated and should not be used.
dh_installmanpages(1)
old-style man page installer (deprecated)
Other Commands
If a program's name starts with dh_, and the program is not on the
above lists, then it is not part of the debhelper package, but it
should still work like the other programs described on this page.
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 commands. These files are typically named
debian/package.foo (where package 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
destinations or slightly more complicated formats.
Note for the first (or only) binary package listed in debian/control,
debhelper will use debian/foo when there's no debian/package.foo
file.
In some rare cases, you may want to have different versions of these
files for different architectures or OSes. If files named
debian/package.foo.ARCH or debian/package.foo.OS exist, where ARCH
and OS are the same as the output of "dpkg-architecture
-qDEB_HOST_ARCH" / "dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_ARCH_OS", then they
will be used in preference to other, more general files.
Mostly, these config files are used to specify lists of 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.
The syntax of these files is intentionally kept very simple to make
them easy to read, understand, and modify. If you prefer power and
complexity, you can make the file executable, and write a program
that outputs whatever content is appropriate for a given situation.
When you do so, the output is not further processed to expand
wildcards or strip comments.
The following command line options are supported by all debhelper
programs.
-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 architecture dependent packages that should be built for
the DEB_HOST_ARCH architecture.
-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
packages.
-s, --same-arch
Deprecated alias of -a.
This option is removed in compat 12.
-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.
--remaining-packages
Do not act on the packages which have already been acted on by
this debhelper command earlier (i.e. if the command is present in
the package debhelper log). For example, if you need to call the
command with special options only for a couple of binary
packages, pass this option to the last call of the command to
process the rest of packages with default settings.
--ignore=file
Ignore the specified file. This can be used if debian/ contains a
debhelper config file that a debhelper command should not act on.
Note that debian/compat, debian/control, and debian/changelog
can't be ignored, but then, there should never be a reason to
ignore those files.
For example, if upstream ships a debian/init that you don't want
dh_installinit to install, use --ignore=debian/init
-Ptmpdir, --tmpdir=tmpdir
Use tmpdir for package build directory. The default is
debian/package
--mainpackage=package
This little-used option changes the package which debhelper
considers 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.
-O=option|bundle
This is used by dh(1) when passing user-specified options to all
the commands it runs. If the command supports the specified
option or option bundle, it will take effect. If the command does
not support the option (or any part of an option bundle), it will
be ignored.
The following command line options are supported by some debhelper
programs. 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. The \fIitem\fR is
typically part of a filename, and any file containing the
specified text will be excluded.
-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.
The following command line options are supported by all of the
dh_auto_* debhelper programs. These programs support a variety of
build systems, and normally heuristically determine which to use, and
how to use them. You can use these command line options to override
the default behavior. Typically these are passed to dh(1), which
then passes them to all the dh_auto_* programs.
-Sbuildsystem, --buildsystem=buildsystem
Force use of the specified buildsystem, instead of trying to
auto-select one which might be applicable for the package.
-Ddirectory, --sourcedirectory=directory
Assume that the original package source tree is at the specified
directory rather than the top level directory of the Debian
source package tree.
-B[directory], --builddirectory=[directory]
Enable out of source building and use the specified directory as
the build directory. If directory parameter is omitted, a default
build directory will be chosen.
If this option is not specified, building will be done in source
by default unless the build system requires or prefers out of
source tree building. In such a case, the default build
directory will be used even if --builddirectory is not specified.
If the build system prefers out of source tree building but still
allows in source building, the latter can be re-enabled by
passing a build directory path that is the same as the source
directory path.
--parallel, --no-parallel
Control whether parallel builds should be used if underlying
build system supports them. The number of parallel jobs is
controlled by the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS environment variable ("Debian
Policy, section 4.9.1") at build time. It might also be subject
to a build system specific limit.
If neither option is specified, debhelper currently defaults to
--parallel in compat 10 (or later) and --no-parallel otherwise.
As an optimization, dh will try to avoid passing these options to
subprocesses, if they are unnecessary and the only options
passed. Notably this happens when DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS does not
have a parallel parameter (or its value is 1).
--max-parallel=maximum
This option implies --parallel and allows further limiting the
number of jobs that can be used in a parallel build. If the
package build is known to only work with certain levels of
concurrency, you can set this to the maximum level that is known
to work, or that you wish to support.
Notably, setting the maximum to 1 is effectively the same as
using --no-parallel.
--list, -l
List all build systems supported by debhelper on this system. The
list includes both default and third party build systems (marked
as such). Also shows which build system would be automatically
selected, or which one is manually specified with the
--buildsystem option.
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 must tell debhelper which
compatibility level it should use, and it modifies its behavior in
various ways. The compatibility level is specified in the
debian/compat file and the file must be present.
Tell debhelper what compatibility level to use by writing a number to
debian/compat. For example, to use v11 mode:
% echo 11 > debian/compat
Your package will also need a versioned build dependency on a version
of debhelper equal to (or greater than) the compatibility level your
package uses. So for compatibility level 11, ensure debian/control
has:
Build-Depends: debhelper (>= 11)
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
compatibility level, so if you are not using the most recent
compatibility level, you're advised to read below for notes about
what is different in earlier compatibility levels.
Supported compatibility levels
These are the available compatibility levels:
v5 This is the lowest supported compatibility level.
If you are upgrading from an earlier compatibility level, please
review debhelper-obsolete-compat(7).
This mode is deprecated.
v6 Changes from v5 are:
- Commands that generate maintainer script fragments will
order the fragments in reverse order for the prerm and
postrm scripts.
- dh_installwm will install a slave manpage link for
x-window-manager.1.gz, if it sees the man page in
usr/share/man/man1 in the package build directory.
- dh_builddeb did not previously delete everything matching
DH_ALWAYS_EXCLUDE, if it was set to a list of things to
exclude, such as CVS:.svn:.git. Now it does.
- dh_installman allows overwriting existing man pages in
the package build directory. In previous compatibility
levels it silently refuses to do this.
This mode is deprecated.
v7 Changes from v6 are:
- dh_install, will fall back to looking for files in
debian/tmp if it doesn't find them in the current
directory (or wherever you tell it look using
--sourcedir). This allows dh_install to interoperate with
dh_auto_install, which installs to debian/tmp, without
needing any special parameters.
- dh_clean will read debian/clean and delete files listed
there.
- dh_clean will delete toplevel *-stamp files.
- dh_installchangelogs will guess at what file is the
upstream changelog if none is specified.
This mode is deprecated.
v8 Changes from v7 are:
- Commands will fail rather than warning when they are
passed unknown options.
- dh_makeshlibs will run dpkg-gensymbols on all shared
libraries that it generates shlibs files for. So -X can
be used to exclude libraries. Also, libraries in unusual
locations that dpkg-gensymbols would not have processed
before will be passed to it, a behavior change that can
cause some packages to fail to build.
- dh requires the sequence to run be specified as the first
parameter, and any switches come after it. Ie, use "dh $@
--foo", not "dh --foo $@".
- dh_auto_* prefer to use Perl's Module::Build in
preference to Makefile.PL.
This mode is deprecated.
v9 Changes from v8 are:
- Multiarch support. In particular, dh_auto_configure
passes multiarch directories to autoconf in --libdir and
--libexecdir.
- dh is aware of the usual dependencies between targets in
debian/rules. So, "dh binary" will run any build, build-
arch, build-indep, install, etc targets that exist in the
rules file. There's no need to define an explicit binary
target with explicit dependencies on the other targets.
- dh_strip compresses debugging symbol files to reduce the
installed size of -dbg packages.
- dh_auto_configure does not include the source package
name in --libexecdir when using autoconf.
- dh does not default to enabling --with=python-support
(Obsolete: As the dh_pysupport tool was removed from
Debian stretch. Since debhelper/10.3, dh no longer
enables this sequence add-on regardless of compat level)
- All of the dh_auto_* debhelper programs and dh set
environment variables listed by dpkg-buildflags, unless
they are already set.
- dh_auto_configure passes dpkg-buildflags CFLAGS,
CPPFLAGS, and LDFLAGS to perl Makefile.PL and Build.PL
- dh_strip puts separated debug symbols in a location based
on their build-id.
- Executable debhelper config files are run and their
output used as the configuration.
v10 Changes from v9 are:
- dh_installinit will no longer install a file named
debian/package as an init script.
- dh_installdocs will error out if it detects links created
with --link-doc between packages of architecture "all"
and non-"all" as it breaks binNMUs.
- dh no longer creates the package build directory when
skipping running debhelper commands. This will not affect
packages that only build with debhelper commands, but it
may expose bugs in commands not included in debhelper.
- dh_installdeb no longer installs a maintainer-provided
debian/package.shlibs file. This is now done by
dh_makeshlibs instead.
- dh_installwm refuses to create a broken package if no man
page can be found (required to register for the x-window-
manager alternative).
- Debhelper will default to --parallel for all buildsystems
that support parallel building. This can be disabled by
using either --no-parallel or passing --max-parallel with
a value of 1.
- The dh command will not accept any of the deprecated
"manual sequence control" parameters (--before, --after,
etc.). Please use override targets instead.
- The dh command will no longer use log files to track
which commands have been run. The dh command still keeps
track of whether it already ran the "build" sequence and
skip it if it did.
The main effects of this are:
- With this, it is now easier to debug the install
or/and binary sequences because they can now
trivially be re-run (without having to do a full
"clean and rebuild" cycle)
- The main caveat is that dh_* now only keeps track of
what happened in a single override target. When all
the calls to a given dh_cmd command happens in the
same override target everything will work as before.
Example of where it can go wrong:
override_dh_foo:
dh_foo -pmy-pkg
override_dh_bar:
dh_bar
dh_foo --remaining
In this case, the call to dh_foo --remaining will
also include my-pkg, since dh_foo -pmy-pkg was run in
a separate override target. This issue is not
limited to --remaining, but also includes -a, -i,
etc.
- The dh_installdeb command now shell-escapes the lines in
the maintscript config file. This was the original
intent but it did not work properly and packages have
begun to rely on the incomplete shell escaping (e.g.
quoting file names).
- The dh_installinit command now defaults to
--restart-after-upgrade. For packages needing the
previous behaviour, please use
--no-restart-after-upgrade.
- The autoreconf sequence is now enabled by default.
Please pass --without autoreconf to dh if this is not
desirable for a given package
- The systemd sequence is now enabled by default. Please
pass --without systemd to dh if this is not desirable for
a given package.
v11 This is the recommended mode of operation.
Changes from v10 are:
- dh_installinit no longer installs service or tmpfile
files, nor generates maintainer scripts for those files.
Please use the new dh_installsystemd helper.
- The dh_systemd_enable and dh_systemd_start helpers have
been replaced by the new dh_installsystemd helper. For
the same reason, the systemd sequence for dh has also
been removed. If you need to disable the
dh_installsystemd helper tool, please use an empty
override target.
Please note that the dh_installsystemd tool has a
slightly different behaviour in some cases (e.g. when
using the --name parameter).
- dh_installdirs no longer creates debian/package
directories unless explicitly requested (or it has to
create a subdirectory in it).
The vast majority of all packages will be unaffected by
this change.
- The makefile buildsystem now passes INSTALL=install
--strip-program=true to make(1). Derivative buildsystems
(e.g. configure or cmake) are unaffected by this change.
- The autoconf buildsystem now passes --runstatedir=/run to
./configure.
- The cmake buildsystem now passes
-DCMAKE_INSTALL_RUNSTATEDIR=/run to cmake(1).
- dh_installman will now prefer detecting the language from
the path name rather than the extension.
- dh_auto_install will now only create the destination
directory it needs. Previously, it would create the
package build directory for all packages. This will not
affect packages that only build with debhelper commands,
but it may expose bugs in commands not included in
debhelper.
- The helpers dh_installdocs, dh_installexamples,
dh_installinfo, and dh_installman now error out if their
config has a pattern that does not match anything or
reference a path that does not exist.
Known exceptions include building with the nodoc profile,
where the above tools will silently permit failed matches
where the patterns are used to specify documentation.
- The helpers dh_installdocs, dh_installexamples,
dh_installinfo, and dh_installman now accept the
parameter --sourcedir with same meaning as dh_install.
Furthermore, they now also fall back to debian/tmp like
dh_install.
- The perl-makemaker and perl-build build systems no longer
pass -I. to perl. Packages that still need this
behaviour can emulate it by using the PERL5LIB
environment variable. E.g. by adding export PERL5LIB=.
in their debian/rules file (or similar).
- The PERL_USE_UNSAFE_INC environment variable is no longer
set by dh or any of the dh_auto_* tools. It was added as
a temporary work around to avoid a lot of packages
failing to build at the same time.
Note this item will eventually become obsolete as
upstream intends to drop support for the
PERL_USE_UNSAFE_INC environment variable. When perl
drops support for it, then this variable will be removed
retroactively from existing compat levels as well.
- The dh_makeshlibs helper will now exit with an error if
objdump returns a non-zero exit from analysing a given
file.
- The dh_installdocs and dh_installexamples tools will now
attempt to guess the "main package" for a given
documentation package (e.g. pkg-doc will have pkg as main
package if the latter exists). If a main package is
found, most of the documentation will be installed into
/usr/share/doc/main-pkg by default as recommended by
Debian policy §12.3 since version 3.9.7. Notable
exceptions include the copyright file and changelog
files.
The --doc-main-package option can be used when the auto-
detection is insufficient.
- The dh_strip and dh_shlibdeps tools no longer uses
filename patterns to determine which files to process.
Instead, they open the file and look for an ELF header to
determine if a given file is an shared object or an ELF
executable.
This change may cause the tools to process more files
than previously.
v12 This compatibility level is still open for development; use with
caution.
Changes from v11 are:
- The -s (--same-arch) option is removed. Please use -a
(--arch) instead.
- Invoking dh_clean -k now causes an error instead of a
deprecation warning.
- The --no-restart-on-upgrade option in dh_installinit has
been removed. Please use the new name
--no-stop-on-upgrade
- There was a bug in the doit (and similar) functions from
Debian::Debhelper::Dh_Lib that made them spawn a shell in
one particular circumstance. This bug is now removed and
will cause helpers that rely on the bug to fail with a
"command not found"-error.
- The --list-missing and --fail-missing in dh_install has
been removed. Please use dh_missing and its
corresponding options, which can also see the files
installed by other helpers.
- The dh_installinit helper no longer installs
configuration for the upstart init system. Instead, it
will abort the build if it finds an old upstart
configuration file. The error is there to remind the
package maintainer to ensure the proper removal of the
conffiles shipped in previous versions of the package (if
any).
- The dh_installdeb tool will do basic validation of some
dpkg-maintscript-helper(1) commands and will error out if
the commands appear to be invalid.
- The dh_missing tool will now default to --list-missing.
- The dh_makeshlibs tool will now only pass libraries to
dpkg-gensymbols(1) if the ELF binary has a SONAME
(containing ".so").
- The dh_compress tool no longer compresses examples (i.e.
anything installed in </usr/share/doc/package/examples>.)
Multiple binary package support
If your source package generates more than one binary package,
debhelper 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 dependent packages in the binary-arch debian/rules
target, and the architecture independent packages in the binary-indep
debian/rules target.
To facilitate this, as well as give you more control over which
packages 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, with the exceptions
below.
First, any package whose Architecture field in debian/control does
not match the DEB_HOST_ARCH architecture will be excluded ("Debian
Policy, section 5.6.8").
Also, some additional packages may be excluded based on the contents
of the DEB_BUILD_PROFILES environment variable and Build-Profiles
fields in binary package stanzas in debian/control, according to the
draft policy at <https://wiki.debian.org/BuildProfileSpec>.
Interaction between package selections and Build-Profiles
Build-Profiles affect which packages are included in the package
selections mechanisms in debhelper. Generally, the package
selections are described from the assumption that all packages are
enabled. This section describes how the selections react when a
package is disabled due to the active Build-Profiles (or lack of
active Build-Profiles).
-a/--arch, -i/--indep OR no selection options (a raw "dh_X" call)
The package disabled by Build-Profiles is silently excluded from
the selection.
Note you will receive a warning if all packages related to these
selections are disabled. In that case, it generally does not
make sense to do the build in the first place.
-N package / --no-package package
The option is accepted and effectively does nothing.
-p package / --package package
The option is accepted, but debhelper will not act on the
package.
Note that it does not matter whether a package is enabled or disabled
by default.
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 $temp="set -e\nset -- @ARGV\n" . << 'EOF';
#DEBHELPER#
EOF
if (system($temp)) {
my $exit_code = ($? >> 8) & 0xff;
my $signal = $? & 0x7f;
if ($exit_code) {
die("The debhelper script failed with error code: ${exit_code}");
} else {
die("The debhelper script was killed by signal: ${signal}");
}
}
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 dependent 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}
generated by dh_makeshlibs(1), and the ${perl:Depends} generated by
dh_perl(1). You can choose not to use any of these, if debhelper's
guesses don't 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/package.
Sometimes, you might want to use some other temporary directory. This
is supported by the -P flag. For example, "dh_installdocs
-Pdebian/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 package at a time. So if you have a package that builds many
binary packages, you will need to also use the -p flag to specify
which binary package the debhelper program will act on.
udebs
Debhelper includes support for udebs. To create a udeb with
debhelper, add "Package-Type: udeb" to the package's stanza in
debian/control. 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.
The following environment variables can influence the behavior of
debhelper. It is important to note that these must be actual
environment variables in order to function properly (not simply
Makefile variables). To specify them properly in debian/rules, be
sure to "export" them. For example, "export DH_VERBOSE".
DH_VERBOSE
Set to 1 to enable verbose mode. Debhelper will output every
command it runs. Also enables verbose build logs for some build
systems like autoconf.
DH_QUIET
Set to 1 to enable quiet mode. Debhelper will not output commands
calling the upstream build system nor will dh print which
subcommands are called and depending on the upstream build system
might make that more quiet, too. This makes it easier to spot
important messages but makes the output quite useless as buildd
log. Ignored if DH_VERBOSE is also set.
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.
When using dh(1), it can be passed options that will be passed on
to each debhelper command, which is generally better than using
DH_OPTIONS.
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
directories, 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
DH_EXTRA_ADDONS
If set, this adds the specified dh addons to be run in the
appropriate places in the sequence of commands. This is
equivalent to specifying the addon to run with the --with flag in
the debian/rules file. Any --without calls specifying an addon in
this environment variable will not be run.
This is intended to be used by downstreams or specific local
configurations that require a debhelper addon to be run during
multiple builds without having to patch a large number of rules
file. If at all possible, this should be avoided in favor of a
--with flag in the rules file.
/usr/share/doc/debhelper/examples/
A set of example debian/rules files that use debhelper.
<http://joeyh.name/code/debhelper/>
Debhelper web site.
Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>
This page is part of the debhelper (helper programs for debian/rules)
project. Information about the project can be found at
⟨https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/debhelper/debhelper.git/⟩. If you
have a bug report for this manual page, send it to
submit@bugs.debian.org. This page was obtained from the project's
upstream Git repository
⟨https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/debhelper/debhelper.git/⟩ on
2018-02-02. (At that time, the date of the most recent commit that
was found in the repository was 2018-01-28.) If you discover any
rendering problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe
there is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
(which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
man-pages@man7.org
11.1.4 2018-01-23 debhelper(7)
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