1DH_MAKE(1) General Commands Manual DH_MAKE(1)
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6 dh_make - prepare upstream source for Debian packaging
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9 dh_make [option]...
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12 dh_make is a tool that adds necessary files for making Debian source
13 package from upstream source according to the requirements of the De‐
14 bian Policy. dh_make must be invoked within a directory containing the
15 source code, which must be named <packagename>-<version>. The <packa‐
16 gename> must be all lowercase, The <packagename> and <version> must be
17 all lowercase, digits and dashes. The <version> can also contain dig‐
18 its, and the symbols plus, dot, tilde. The <version> must start with a
19 digit. If the directory name does not conform to this scheme, you must
20 rename it before using dh_make. Alternatively, you may be able to use
21 the --packagename option to force the package name.
22 PACKAGE CLASSES
24 Classes can be set with the single direct options (such as --s for sin‐
25 gle) or with the -C,--packageclass option (-C=s for single).
26 Single binary (s)
28 The package will generate a single binary .deb package. It is
29 the standard case, so if you don't know what to do, choose this.
30 Arch-Independent (i)
32 The package will generate a single package that is arch-indepen‐
33 dent.
34 Library (l)
36 The package will generate at least two binaries. One library
37 package containing just the lib in /usr/lib and another
38 *-dev_*.deb package containing documentation and C headers.
39 ACTIONS PERFORMED
42 Unless --native was given, dh_make makes sure a original source
43 archive (<packagename>_<version>.orig.tar.gz) exists. The ar‐
44 chive can either end with .gz or one of the other supported com‐
45 pression extensions such as bz2 or lzma. If no such file ex‐
46 ists, the file specified with -f is copied in place. If no -f
47 is supplied either but --createorig is, the current directory is
48 created into a new archive ../<packagename>-<ver‐
49 sion>.orig.tar.gz The original archive is needed for other De‐
50 bian tools to generate the diffs to the original sources re‐
51 quired by the Debian packaging format. Unless there are reasons
52 against it, this file should be the pristine upstream archive.
53 Then dh_make proceeds to generate a "debian" subdirectory and the nec‐
55 essary control files in the program source directory. Those control
56 files are customized with the packagename and version extracted from
57 the directory name.
58 dh_make makes several attempts to obtain the username. It first checks
60 for the environment variables $DEBFULLNAME, $LOGNAME is used to find a
61 name in the /etc/passwd file, and through NIS, YP and LDAP.
62 The e-mail address can either be specified with the -fB--email option
64 or dh_make will attempt to find it. It will first check the environment
65 variables $DEBEMAIL and then $EMAIL. If they are not set then dh_make
66 will search an available LDAP directory using ldapsearch(1) using $LOG‐
67 NAME as the uid to search under. Finally it will use $LOGNAME and
68 /etc/mailname to generate an email address.
69 dh_make will also generate example files that are also customized for
71 the package generated. You can remove all files with *.ex if you wish.
72 You can also delete the README.Debian file if you don't have anything
73 to put in it. Renaming the example files to their name without the .ex
74 at the end (and editing them if necessary) will activate that feature
75 of debhelper.
76 If the --templates or -o (--overlay) option is used dh_make will apply
78 a customizing template to the "debian" directory. See the templates de‐
79 scribed in the FILES section of this manpage for samples.
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82 -c, --copyright license
83 Use license type in copyright file. license can be apache,
84 artistic, bsd, expat, gpl, gpl2, gpl3, isc, lgpl, lgpl2, lgpl3,
85 or custom. If this field is not specified the copyright file
86 has a space to fill in which sort of license is used. The field
87 is case-insensitive so -c GPL works as well as -c gpl. gpl and
88 lgpl will give you version 3 of the corresponding license,
89 apache implies Apache v2.0. If you need a different version,
90 change the license file afterwards or use the gpl2 and lgpl2 op‐
91 tions. If you select custom here you will need to use the
92 --copyrightfile option as well.
93 --copyrightfile filename
95 When using the custom --copyright option this is the location of
96 your custom copyright file. dh_make will process this file just
97 like the standard copyright files. It is suggested you use one
98 of the existing license files as a starting point.
99 --docs Create a separate PACKAGE-doc binary package. All found docu‐
101 ments in the source package will be installed here.
102 -e, --email address
104 Use address as the e-mail address in the Maintainer: field of
105 debian/control file.
106 -n, --native
108 Create a native Debian packages, i.e. do not generate a .orig
109 archive, since it will be generated when building with dpkg-
110 buildpackage. The version number will not have a Debian revi‐
111 sion number (e.g. -1) appended to it.
112 -f, --file file
114 Use file as the original source archive, and skip the copying of
115 the current program tree to program.orig.
116 -l, --library
118 Automatically set the package class to Library, skipping the
119 question.
120 -s, --single
122 Automatically set the package class to Single binary, skipping
123 the question.
124 -i, --indep
126 Automatically set the package class to arch-independent binary,
127 skipping the question.
128 -a, --addmissing
130 Adds missing example and control files on an existing debian
131 source directory.
132 -t, --templates directory
134 Applies the customizing templates in directory to the debian di‐
135 rectory.
136 -o, --overlay directory
138 Applies a customization template to an existing debian direc‐
139 tory.
140 -p, --packagename name
142 Force the package name to be name, good for packages with hy‐
143 phens in their name or other strangeness. You can also make the
144 parameter name_version which will set both the package name and
145 version and bypass and directory checking.
146 -d, --defaultless
148 Skips applying the default templates to the target debian direc‐
149 tory. Generally used in conjunction with either the --overlay or
150 --templates options.
151 -h, --help
153 Display the name, version, available options and authors, and
154 exit successfully.
155 -v, --version
157 Show the program name and version, and exit successfully.
158 -y, --yes
160 Automatic yes to prompts and run non-interactively. The package
161 class needs to be set for dh_make to run fully automatically.
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164 The following environment settings are used by dh_make:
165 DEBEMAIL
167 Email address to use in control and changelog entries.
168 DEBFULLNAME
170 You full name, eg "John Doe" which will appear in the control
171 and changelog entries.
172 EMAIL Email address to use in control and changelog entries, only used
174 if DEBEMAIL is no set.
175 LOGNAME
177 Default username used for looking up email and full name in
178 other directories.
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181 /usr/share/debhelper/dh_make
182 Directory that contains all the template files, separated in six
183 directories:
184 debian/
186 with files for all package classes,
187 debians/
189 with files specific to the Single binary class,
190 debianl/
192 with files specific to the Library class, and finally,
193 native/
195 with files specific to the native Debian packages.
196 licenses/
198 template files for the more common licenses used in Debian pack‐
199 ages
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202 To get dh_make to use the defaults and ask you various questions about
203 the package
204 dh_make
206 Create your single class package using the with the GPL license:
209 dh_make -s -c gpl
211 A more involved example where you set your name in the environment,
214 contact email and license in the options and specify the upstream file:
215 DEBFULLNAME="John Doe"
217 dh_make --email contact@example.com --copyright=bsd \
218 --file ../foo.tar.gz
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222 dh_make may not detect your username and email address correctly when
223 using sudo.
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226 dpkg(1), dpkg-buildpackage(1), dh(1), make-kpkg(1), debhelper(7).
227 You may also want to read the Debian Policy (in /usr/share/doc/de‐
229 bian-policy) and the New Maintainers' Guide (in /usr/share/doc/maint-
230 guide).
231Debian Project 2021-09-21 DH_MAKE(1)