debhelper - the debhelper tool suite
dh_* [
-v] [
-a] [
-i] [
--no-act]
[
-p package] [
-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 the tool explicitly denotes otherwise, all of the debhelper tools
assume that they run from the root directory of an unpacked source package.
This is so they can locate find files like
debian/control when needed.
Here is the list of debhelper commands you can use. See their man pages for
additional documentation.
-
dh_assistant(1)
- tool for supporting debhelper tools and provide
introspection
-
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_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_installalternatives(1)
- install declarative alternative rules
-
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_installinitramfs(1)
- install initramfs hooks and setup maintscripts
-
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_installsystemduser(1)
- install systemd unit files
-
dh_installsysusers(1)
- install and integrates systemd sysusers files
-
dh_installtmpfiles(1)
- install tmpfiles.d configuration 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
A few debhelper commands are deprecated and should not be used.
-
dh_installmanpages(1)
- old-style man page installer (deprecated)
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. However, it is often a good
idea to keep the
package. prefix as it is more explicit.
The primary exception to this are files that debhelper by default installs in
every binary package when it does not have a package prefix (such as
debian/copyright or
debian/changelog).
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.
In compatibility level 13 and later, it is possible to use simple substitutions
in debhelper config files for the following tools:
- •
- dh_clean
- •
- dh_install
- •
- dh_installcatalogs
- •
- dh_installdeb
- •
- dh_installdirs
- •
- dh_installdocs
- •
- dh_installexamples
- •
- dh_installinfo
- •
- dh_installman
- •
- dh_installwm
- •
- dh_link
- •
- dh_missing
- •
- dh_ucf
All substitution variables are of the form
${foo} and the braces are
mandatory. Variable names are case-sensitive and consist of alphanumerics
(a-zA-Z0-9), hyphens (-), underscores (_), and colons (:). The first character
must be an alphanumeric.
If you need a literal dollar sign that cannot trigger a substitution, you can
either use the
${Dollar} substitution or the sequence
${}.
The following expansions are available:
-
DEB_HOST_*, DEB_BUILD_*,
DEB_TARGET_*
- Expands to the relevant dpkg-architecture(1) value
(similar to dpkg-architecture -qVARIABLE_HERE).
When in doubt, the DEB_HOST_* variant is the one that will work both
for native and cross builds.
For performance reasons, debhelper will attempt to resolve these names from
the environment first before consulting dpkg-architecture(1). This
is mostly mentioned for completeness as it will not matter for most
cases.
- Dollar
- Expands to a single literal $-symbol. This symbol
will never be considered part of a substitution variable. That is:
# Triggers an error
${NO_SUCH_TOKEN}
# Expands to the literal value "${NO_SUCH_TOKEN}"
${Dollar}{NO_SUCH_TOKEN}
This variable equivalent to the sequence ${} and the two can be used
interchangeably.
-
Newline, Space, Tab
- Expands to a single ASCII newline, space and tab
respectively.
This can be useful if you need to include a literal whitespace character
(e.g. space) where it would otherwise be stripped or used as a
separator.
-
env:NAME
- Expands to the environment variable NAME. The
environment variable must be set (but can be set to the empty
string).
Note that all variables must expand to a defined value. As an example, if
debhelper sees
${env:FOO}, then it will insist that the environment
variable
FOO is set (it can be set to the empty string).
Substitution limits
To avoid infinite loops and resource exhaustion, debhelper will stop with an
error if the text contains many substitution variables (50) or they expand
beyond a certain size (4096 characters or 3x length of the original input -
whichever is bigger).
If you need additional flexibility, many of the debhelper tools (e.g.
dh_install(1)) support executing a config file as a script.
To use this feature, simply mark the config file as executable (e.g.
chmod +x
debian/ package.install) and the tool will attempt to
execute it and use the output of the script. In many cases, you can use
dh-exec(1) as interpreter of the config file to retain most of the
original syntax while getting the additional flexibility you need.
When using executable debhelper config files, please be aware of the following:
- •
- The executable config file must exit with success
(i.e. its return code should indicate success).
- •
- In compatibility level 13+, the output will be subject to
substitutions (see "Substitutions in debhelper config files")
where the tool support these. Remember to be careful if your generator
also provides substitutions as this can cause unnecessary
confusion.
Otherwise, the output will be used exactly as-is. Notably, debhelper will
not expand wildcards or strip comments or strip whitespace in the
output.
If you need the package to build on a file system where you cannot disable the
executable bit, then you can use
dh-exec(1) and its
strip-output
script.
The following command line options are supported by all debhelper programs.
-
-v, --verbose
- Verbose mode: show commands that modify the package build
directory.
Note that verbose mode may also output other "internal" commands
that do not directly affect 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.
-
-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 item 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.
Pass none as buildsystem to disable auto-selection.
-
-Ddirectory,
--sourcedir=directory,
--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.
Warning: The --sourcedir variant matches a similar named
option in dh_install and dh_missing (etc.) for historical
reasons. While they have a similar name, they have very distinct purposes
and in some cases it can cause errors when this variant is passed to
dh (when then passes it on to all tools).
-
-B[directory],
--builddir[=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.
- --reload-all-buildenv-variables
- By default, dh(1) will compute several environment
variables (e.g. by using dpkg-buildflags(1)) and cache them to
avoid having all dh_auto_* tool recompute them.
When passing this option, the concrete dh_auto_* tool will ignore the
cache from dh(1) and retrigger a rebuild of these variables. This
is useful in the very rare case where the package need to do multiple
builds but with different ...FLAGS options. A concrete example
would be needing to change the -O parameter in CFLAGS in the
second build:
export DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND=-O3
%:
dh $@
override_dh_auto_configure:
dh_auto_configure -Bbuild-deb ...
DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND=-Os dh_auto_configure \
--reload-all-buildenv-variables -Bbuild-udeb ...
Without --reload-all-buildenv-variables in the second call to
dh_auto_configure(1), the change in DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND
would be ignored as dh_auto_configure(1) would use the cached value
of CFLAGS set by dh(1).
This option is only available with debhelper (>= 12.7~) when the
package uses compatibility level 9 or later.
-
--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.
In current debhelper, you can specify the compatibility level in
debian/control by adding a Build-Depends on the debhelper-compat
package. For example, to use v13 mode, ensure
debian/control has:
Build-Depends: debhelper-compat (= 13)
This also serves as an appropriate versioned build dependency on a sufficient
version of the debhelper package, so you do not need to specify a separate
versioned build dependency on the debhelper package unless you need a specific
point release of debhelper (such as for the introduction of a new feature or
bugfix within a compatibility level).
Note that debhelper does not provide debhelper-compat for experimental or beta
compatibility levels; packages experimenting with those compatibility levels
should use
debian/compat (or, if only for selected commands,
DH_COMPAT).
Prior versions of debhelper required specifying the compatibility level in the
file
debian/compat, and current debhelper still supports this for
backward compatibility. To use this method, the
debian/compat file
should contain the compatibility level as a single number, and no other
content. If you specify the compatibility level by this method, your package
will also need a versioned build dependency on a version of the debhelper
package equal to (or greater than) the compatibility level your package uses.
So, if you specify compatibility level 13 in
debian/compat, ensure
debian/control has:
Build-Depends: debhelper (>= 13~)
Note that you must use either the build-dependency on debhelper-compat or the
debian/compat file. Whenever possible, the debhelper-compat
build-dependency is recommended.
If needed be, the
DH_COMPAT environment variable can be used to override
the compat level for a given command. The feature is mostly useful for either
temporarily upgrading a few commands to a new compat level or keeping a few
commands on a lower compat level. The feature is best used sparingly as it
effectively introduces special-cases into the
debian/rules file that
may be surprising to maintainers or reviewers (or, in the long term, to
yourself).
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.
The list of supported compatibility levels and the related upgrade check list
has moved to
debhelper-compat-upgrade-checklist(7).
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.
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}");
}
}
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.
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 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.
This section describes some of the environment variables that influences the
behaviour of debhelper or which debhelper interacts with.
It is important to note that these must be actual environment variables in order
to affect the behaviour of debhelper (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 a non-empty value to enable verbose mode. Please see
the -v / --verbose option for details.
- DH_QUIET
- Set to a non-empty value 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 or -v / --verbose is
passed.
- DH_COMPAT
- Temporarily specifies what compatibility level debhelper
should run at, overriding any value specified via Build-Depends on
debhelper-compat or via the debian/compat file.
- DH_NO_ACT
- Set to 1 to enable no-act mode.
- DH_OPTIONS
- All debhelper tools will parse command line arguments
listed in this variable before any command option (as if they had been
prepended to the command line arguments). Unfortunately, some third-party
provided tools may not support this variable and will ignore these command
line arguments.
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.
-
DH_COLORS, DPKG_COLORS
- These variables can be used to control whether debhelper
commands should use colors in their textual output. Can be set to
"always", "auto" (the default), or "never".
Note that DPKG_COLOR also affects a number of dpkg related tools and
debhelper uses it on the assumption that you want the same color setting
for dpkg and debhelper. In the off-hand chance you want different color
setting for debhelper, you can use DH_COLORS instead or in addition
to DPKG_COLORS.
- NO_COLOR
- If no explicit request for color has been given (e.g.
DH_COLORS and DPKG_COLORS are both unset), the presence of
this environment variable cause the default color setting to be
"never".
The variable is defined according to <https://no-color.org/>. In this
project, the environment variables (such as DH_COLORS) are
considered an explicit request for color.
-
CFLAGS, CPPFLAGS, CXXFLAGS,
OBJCFLAGS, OBJCXXFLAGS, GCJFLAGS, FFLAGS,
FCFLAGS, LDFLAGS
- By default (in any non-deprecated compat level), debhelper
will automatically set these flags by using dpkg-buildflags(1),
when they are unset. If you need to change the default flags, please use
the features from dpkg-buildflags(1) to do this (e.g.
DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS=hardening=all or
DEB_CPPFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND=-DCUSTOM_MACRO=true) rather than setting
the concrete variable directly.
-
HOME, XDG_*
- In compat 13 and later, these environment variables are
reset before invoking the upstream build system via the dh_auto_*
helpers. The variables HOME (all dh_auto_* helpers) and
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR ( dh_auto_test only) will be set to a
writable directory. All remaining variables and XDG_RUNTIME_DIR
(except for during dh_auto_test) will be cleared.
The HOME directory will be created as an empty directory but it will
be reused between calls to dh_auto_*. Any content will persist
until explicitly deleted or dh_clean.
- DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
- Please see "Supported flags in DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS"
for this environment variable.
Please note that this variable should not be altered by package
maintainers inside debian/rules to change the behaviour of
debhelper. Instead, where the package maintainer need these features, they
should look disabling the relevant feature directly (e.g. by overriding
the concrete tools).
- DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS
- This is a dpkg specific environment variable (see e.g.
dpkg-buildflags(1)). The debhelper tool suite silently ignores it.
It is documented here because it has a similar name to
DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS, which make some people mistakenly assume that
debhelper will also react to this variable.
The debhelper tool suite reacts to the following flags in
DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS.
- dherroron=obsolete-compat-levels
-
This is a debhelper specific value.
When dherroron is present and set to obsolete-compat-levels,
then debhelper tools will promote deprecation warnings for usage of old
soon to be removed compat levels into errors.
This is useful for automated checking for code relying on deprecated compat
levels that is scheduled for removal.
This option is intended for testing purposes; not production builds.
- nostrip
-
This value will change the content of the debs being
built. The .deb packages built when this is set is therefore not
bit-for-bit reproducible with a regular build in the general
case.
This value will cause the official debhelper tools will skip actions and
helpers that either remove, detach or deduplicate debugging symbols in ELF
binaries.
This value affects dh_dwz(1) and dh_strip(1).
- nocheck
- This value will cause the official debhelper build systems
to skip runs of upstream test suites.
Package maintainers looking to avoid running the upstream tests should
not rely on this. Instead, they can add an empty override target to
skip dh_auto_test.
This value affects dh_auto_test(1).
- nodoc
-
This value will change the content of the debs being
built. The .deb packages built when this is set is therefore not
bit-for-bit reproducible with a regular build in the general
case.
This value will cause several debhelper tools to skip installation of
documentation such as manpages or upstream provided documentation.
Additionally, the tools will also ignore if declared documentation is
"missing" on the assumption that the documentation has not been
built.
This value effects tools like dh_installdocs(1), which
knows it is working with documentation.
- notrimdch
-
This value will change the content of the debs being
built. The .deb packages built when this is set is therefore not
bit-for-bit reproducible with a regular build in the general
case.
This value will cause dh_installchangelogs(1) to act as if it had
been passed the --no-trim option, forcing it to forgo removing
older entries from changelogs.
-
noautodbgsym, noddebs
-
The official name is noautodbgsym. The noddebs variant
is accepted for historical reasons.
This value causes debhelper to skip the generation of automatically
generated debug symbol packages.
This value affects dh_strip(1).
- parallel=N
- This value enables debhelper to use up to N threads
or processes (subject to parameters like --no-parallel and
--max-parallel=M). Not all debhelper tools work with parallel tasks
and may silently ignore the request.
This value affects many debhelper tools. Most notably dh_auto_*,
which will attempt to run the underlying upstream build system with that
number of threads.
- terse
- This value will cause the official debhelper build systems
to configure upstream builds to be terse (i.e. reduce verbosity in their
output). This is subject to the upstream and the debhelper build system
supporting such features.
This value affects most dh_auto_* tools directly. For commands
provided by the debhelper package, it also causes the tools to act like
the DH_QUIET environment variable was non-empty.
Unknown flags are silently ignored.
Note third-party debhelper-like tools or third-party provided build systems may
or may not react to the above flags. This tends to depend on implementation
details of the tool.
-
debhelper-compat-upgrade-checklist(7)
- List of supported compat levels and an upgrade checklist
for each of them.
- /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 <
[email protected]>