dh(1) - Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OVERRIDE TARGETS | OPTIONS | EXAMPLES | INTERNALS | DEPRECATED OPTIONS | SEE ALSO | AUTHOR | COLOPHON

DH(1)                             Debhelper                            DH(1)

NAME         top

       dh - debhelper command sequencer

SYNOPSIS         top

       dh sequence [--with addon[,addon ...]] [--list] [debhelper options]

DESCRIPTION         top

       dh runs a sequence of debhelper commands. The supported sequences
       correspond to the targets of a debian/rules file: build-arch, build-
       indep, build, clean, install-indep, install-arch, install, binary-
       arch, binary-indep, and binary.

OVERRIDE TARGETS         top

       A debian/rules file using dh can override the command that is run at
       any step in a sequence, by defining an override target.

       To override dh_command, add a target named override_dh_command to the
       rules file. When it would normally run dh_command, dh will instead
       call that target. The override target can then run the command with
       additional options, or run entirely different commands instead. See
       examples below.

       Override targets can also be defined to run only when building
       architecture dependent or architecture independent packages.  Use
       targets with names like override_dh_command-arch and
       override_dh_command-indep.  (Note that to use this feature, you
       should Build-Depend on debhelper 8.9.7 or above.)

OPTIONS         top

       --with addon[,addon ...]
           Add the debhelper commands specified by the given addon to
           appropriate places in the sequence of commands that is run. This
           option can be repeated more than once, or multiple addons can be
           listed, separated by commas.  This is used when there is a third-
           party package that provides debhelper commands. See the
           PROGRAMMING file for documentation about the sequence addon
           interface.

       --without addon
           The inverse of --with, disables using the given addon. This
           option can be repeated more than once, or multiple addons to
           disable can be listed, separated by commas.

       --list, -l
           List all available addons.

           When called only with this option, dh can be called from any
           directory (i.e. it does not need access to files from a source
           package).

       --no-act
           Prints commands that would run for a given sequence, but does not
           run them.

           Note that dh normally skips running commands that it knows will
           do nothing.  With --no-act, the full list of commands in a
           sequence is printed.

       Other options passed to dh are passed on to each command it runs.
       This can be used to set an option like -v or -X or -N, as well as for
       more specialised options.

EXAMPLES         top

       To see what commands are included in a sequence, without actually
       doing anything:

               dh binary-arch --no-act

       This is a very simple rules file, for packages where the default
       sequences of commands work with no additional options.

               #!/usr/bin/make -f
               %:
                       dh $@

       Often you'll want to pass an option to a specific debhelper command.
       The easy way to do with is by adding an override target for that
       command.

               #!/usr/bin/make -f
               %:
                       dh $@

               override_dh_strip:
                       dh_strip -Xfoo

               override_dh_auto_configure:
                       dh_auto_configure -- --with-foo --disable-bar

       Sometimes the automated dh_auto_configure(1) and dh_auto_build(1)
       can't guess what to do for a strange package. Here's how to avoid
       running either and instead run your own commands.

               #!/usr/bin/make -f
               %:
                       dh $@

               override_dh_auto_configure:
                       ./mondoconfig

               override_dh_auto_build:
                       make universe-explode-in-delight

       Another common case is wanting to do something manually before or
       after a particular debhelper command is run.

               #!/usr/bin/make -f
               %:
                       dh $@

               override_dh_fixperms:
                       dh_fixperms
                       chmod 4755 debian/foo/usr/bin/foo

       Python tools are not run by dh by default, due to the continual
       change in that area. Here is how to use dh_python2.

               #!/usr/bin/make -f
               %:
                       dh $@ --with python2

       Here is how to force use of Perl's Module::Build build system, which
       can be necessary if debhelper wrongly detects that the package uses
       MakeMaker.

               #!/usr/bin/make -f
               %:
                       dh $@ --buildsystem=perl_build

       Here is an example of overriding where the dh_auto_* commands find
       the package's source, for a package where the source is located in a
       subdirectory.

               #!/usr/bin/make -f
               %:
                       dh $@ --sourcedirectory=src

       And here is an example of how to tell the dh_auto_* commands to build
       in a subdirectory, which will be removed on clean.

               #!/usr/bin/make -f
               %:
                       dh $@ --builddirectory=build

       If your package can be built in parallel, please either use compat 10
       or pass --parallel to dh. Then dpkg-buildpackage -j will work.

               #!/usr/bin/make -f
               %:
                       dh $@ --parallel

       If your package cannot be built reliably while using multiple
       threads, please pass --no-parallel to dh (or the relevant dh_auto_*
       command):

               #!/usr/bin/make -f
               %:
                       dh $@ --no-parallel

       Here is a way to prevent dh from running several commands that you
       don't want it to run, by defining empty override targets for each
       command.

               #!/usr/bin/make -f
               %:
                       dh $@

               # Commands not to run:
               override_dh_auto_test override_dh_compress override_dh_fixperms:

       A long build process for a separate documentation package can be
       separated out using architecture independent overrides.  These will
       be skipped when running build-arch and binary-arch sequences.

               #!/usr/bin/make -f
               %:
                       dh $@

               override_dh_auto_build-indep:
                       $(MAKE) -C docs

               # No tests needed for docs
               override_dh_auto_test-indep:

               override_dh_auto_install-indep:
                       $(MAKE) -C docs install

       Adding to the example above, suppose you need to chmod a file, but
       only when building the architecture dependent package, as it's not
       present when building only documentation.

               override_dh_fixperms-arch:
                       dh_fixperms
                       chmod 4755 debian/foo/usr/bin/foo

INTERNALS         top

       If you're curious about dh's internals, here's how it works under the
       hood.

       In compat 10 (or later), dh creates a stamp file
       debian/debhelper-build-stamp after the build step(s) are complete to
       avoid re-running them.  It is possible to avoid the stamp file by
       passing --without=build-stamp to dh.  This makes "no clean" builds
       behave more like what some people expect at the expense of possibly
       running the build and test twice (the second time as root or under
       fakeroot(1)).

       Inside an override target, dh_* commands will create a log file
       debian/package.debhelper.log to keep track of which packages the
       command(s) have been run for.  These log files are then removed once
       the override target is complete.

       In compat 9 or earlier, each debhelper command will record when it's
       successfully run in debian/package.debhelper.log. (Which dh_clean
       deletes.) So dh can tell which commands have already been run, for
       which packages, and skip running those commands again.

       Each time dh is run (in compat 9 or earlier), it examines the log,
       and finds the last logged command that is in the specified sequence.
       It then continues with the next command in the sequence. The --until,
       --before, --after, and --remaining options can override this behavior
       (though they were removed in compat 10).

       A sequence can also run dependent targets in debian/rules.  For
       example, the "binary" sequence runs the "install" target.

       dh uses the DH_INTERNAL_OPTIONS environment variable to pass
       information through to debhelper commands that are run inside
       override targets. The contents (and indeed, existence) of this
       environment variable, as the name might suggest, is subject to change
       at any time.

       Commands in the build-indep, install-indep and binary-indep sequences
       are passed the -i option to ensure they only work on architecture
       independent packages, and commands in the build-arch, install-arch
       and binary-arch sequences are passed the -a option to ensure they
       only work on architecture dependent packages.

DEPRECATED OPTIONS         top

       The following options are deprecated. It's much better to use
       override targets instead.  They are not available in compat 10.

       --until cmd
           Run commands in the sequence until and including cmd, then stop.

       --before cmd
           Run commands in the sequence before cmd, then stop.

       --after cmd
           Run commands in the sequence that come after cmd.

       --remaining
           Run all commands in the sequence that have yet to be run.

       In the above options, cmd can be a full name of a debhelper command,
       or a substring. It'll first search for a command in the sequence
       exactly matching the name, to avoid any ambiguity. If there are
       multiple substring matches, the last one in the sequence will be
       used.

SEE ALSO         top

       debhelper(7)

       This program is a part of debhelper.

AUTHOR         top

       Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>

COLOPHON         top

       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                            DH(1)