dh_installdocs - install documentation into package build directories
dh_installdocs [
debhelper options] [
-A]
[
-Xitem] [
file ...]
dh_installdocs is a debhelper program that is responsible for installing
documentation into
usr/share/doc/package in package build directories.
In compat 10 and earlier,
dh_install(1) may be a better tool for handling
the upstream documentation, when upstream's own build system installs all the
desired documentation correctly. In this case,
dh_installdocs is still
useful for installing packaging related documentation (e.g. the
debian/copyright file).
From debhelper compatibility level 11 on,
dh_install will fall back to
looking in
debian/tmp for files, if it does not find them in the
current directory (or wherever you've told it to look using
--sourcedir).
In compat 11 and later,
dh_installdocs offers many of the features that
dh_install(1) also has. Furthermore,
dh_installdocs also
supports the
nodoc build profile to exclude documentation (regardless
of compat level).
- debian/package.docs
- List documentation files to be installed into
package.
Supports substitution variables in compat 13 and later as documented in
debhelper(7).
- debian/copyright
- The copyright file is installed into all packages, unless a
more specific copyright file is available.
- debian/package.copyright
- debian/package.README.Debian
- debian/package.TODO
- Each of these files is automatically installed if present
for a package.
- debian/README.Debian
- debian/TODO
- These files are installed into the first binary package
listed in debian/control.
Note that README.debian files are also installed as
README.Debian, and TODO files will be installed as
TODO.Debian in non-native packages.
- debian/package.doc-base
- Installed as doc-base control files. Note that the doc-id
will be determined from the Document: entry in the doc-base control
file in question. In the event that multiple doc-base files in a single
source package share the same doc-id, they will be installed to
usr/share/doc-base/package instead of usr/share/doc-base/doc-id.
- debian/package.doc-base.*
- If your package needs to register more than one document,
you need multiple doc-base files, and can name them like this. In the
event that multiple doc-base files of this style in a single source
package share the same doc-id, they will be installed to
usr/share/doc-base/package-* instead of usr/share/doc-base/doc-id.
Please be aware that this deduplication is currently done in memory only, so
for now it requires dh_installdocs to be called no more than once
during the package build. Calling dh_installdocs
-ppackage in combination with using
debian/package .doc-base.* files can lead to
uninstallable packages. See <https://bugs.debian.org/980903> for
details.
-
-A, --all
- Install all files specified by command line parameters in
ALL packages acted on.
-
-Xitem, --exclude=item
- Exclude files that contain item anywhere in their
filename from being installed. Note that this includes doc-base
files.
-
--sourcedir=dir
- Look in the specified directory for files to be installed.
This option requires compat 11 or later (it is silently ignored in compat
10 or earlier).
Note that this is not the same as the --sourcedirectory option used
by the dh_auto_* commands. You rarely need to use this
option, since dh_installman automatically looks for files in
debian/tmp in debhelper compatibility level 11 and above.
-
--doc-main-package=main-package
- Set the main package for a documentation package. This is
used to install the documentation of the documentation package in
/usr/share/doc/ main-package as recommended by the
Debian policy manual 3.9.7 in §12.3.
In compat 11 (or later), this option is only useful if debhelper's
auto-detection of the main package is wrong. The option can also be used
to silence a warning from debhelper when the auto-detection fails but the
default happens to be correct.
This option cannot be used when dh_installdocs is instructed to act
on multiple packages. If you need this option, you will generally need to
combine it with -p to ensure exactly one package is acted on.
Please keep in mind that some documentation (the copyright file,
README.Debian, etc.) will be unaffected by this option.
-
--link-doc=package
- Make the documentation directory of all packages acted on
be a symlink to the documentation directory of package. This has no
effect when acting on package itself, or if the documentation
directory to be created already exists when dh_installdocs is run.
To comply with policy, package must be a binary package that comes
from the same source package.
debhelper will try to avoid installing files into linked documentation
directories that would cause conflicts with the linked package. The
-A option will have no effect on packages with linked documentation
directories, and copyright, changelog, README.Debian,
and TODO files will not be installed.
(An older method to accomplish the same thing, which is still supported, is
to make the documentation directory of a package be a dangling symlink,
before calling dh_installdocs.)
Please note that this option only applies to the documentation directory for
the package itself. When the package ships documentation for another
package (e.g. see --doc-main-package), it will not use a symlink
for the documentation of the other package.
CAVEAT 1: If a previous version of the package was built without
this option and is now built with it (or vice-versa), it requires a
"dir to symlink" (or "symlink to dir") migration.
Since debhelper has no knowledge of previous versions, you have to enable
this migration itself.
This can be done by providing a "debian/
package.maintscript" file and using dh_installdeb(1) to
provide the relevant maintainer script snippets.
CAVEAT 2: The use of --link-doc should only be done when the
packages have same "architecture" type. A link from an
architecture independent package to an architecture dependent package (or
vice versa) will not work. Since compat 10, debhelper will actively reject
unsupported combinations.
-
file ...
- Install these files as documentation into the first package
acted on. (Or in all packages if -A is specified).
This is an example of a
debian/package.docs file:
README
TODO
debian/notes-for-maintainers.txt
docs/manual.txt
docs/manual.pdf
docs/manual-html/
Note that
dh_installdocs will happily copy entire directory hierarchies
if you ask it to (similar to
cp -a). If it is asked to install a
directory, it will install the complete contents of the directory.
debhelper(7)
This program is a part of debhelper.
Joey Hess <
[email protected]>