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. 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 debhelper.
DEBHELPER COMMANDS
Here is the complete list of available debhelper commands. See their man
pages for additional documentation.
migrate usr/local directories to maintainer scripts
If a program's 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 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 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/package.foo.arch
exist, where ``arch'' is the same as the output of
``dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_ARCH'',
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 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 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 packages.
-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/<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.
COMMON DEBHELPER OPTIONS
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.
-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, 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.
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} 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.
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 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.
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/<package> for all other packages listed in the control file.
This mode is deprecated.
V2
In this mode, debhelper will consistently use debian/<package>
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.
V6
This mode is still under development. Currently it has these differences
compared to V5:
-
Commands that generate maintainer script fragements will order the
fragements 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''. Now it does.
-
dh_installman allows overwriting existing man pages in the package build
directory. In previous compatability levels it silently refuses to do this.
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 dangling symlink in the binary
package, that points to some other doc directory. Policy says this is ok if
your package depends on the package whose doc directory it uses. To
accomplish this, just don't 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 package's 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 haven't bothered to document this in all the
man pages, but for example, dh_installdeb knows to make debian/<package>/DEBIAN/
before trying to put files there, dh_installmenu knows you need a
debian/<package>/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 compatibility 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 command 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 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
SEE ALSO
/usr/share/doc/debhelper/examples/
A set of example debian/rules files that use debhelper.
