1debhelper(7) Debhelper debhelper(7)
2
6 debhelper - the debhelper tool suite
7
9 dh_* [-v] [-a] [-i] [--no-act] [-ppackage] [-Npackage] [-Ptmpdir]
10
12 Debhelper is used to help you build a Debian package. The philosophy
13 behind debhelper is to provide a collection of small, simple, and
14 easily understood tools that are used in debian/rules to automate
15 various common aspects of building a package. This means less work for
16 you, the packager. It also, to some degree means that these tools can
17 be changed if Debian policy changes, and packages that use them will
18 require only a rebuild to comply with the new policy.
19 A typical debian/rules file that uses debhelper will call several
21 debhelper commands in sequence, or use dh(1) to automate this process.
22 Examples of rules files that use debhelper are in
23 /usr/share/doc/debhelper/examples/
24 To create a new Debian package using debhelper, you can just copy one
26 of the sample rules files and edit it by hand. Or you can try the dh-
27 make package, which contains a dh_make command that partially automates
28 the process. For a more gentle introduction, the maint-guide Debian
29 package contains a tutorial about making your first package using
30 debhelper.
31 Except where the tool explicitly denotes otherwise, all of the
33 debhelper tools assume that they run from the root directory of an
34 unpacked source package. This is so they can locate find files like
35 debian/control when needed.
36
38 Here is the list of debhelper commands you can use. See their man pages
39 for additional documentation.
40 dh_assistant(1)
42 tool for supporting debhelper tools and provide introspection
43 dh_auto_build(1)
45 automatically builds a package
46 dh_auto_clean(1)
48 automatically cleans up after a build
49 dh_auto_configure(1)
51 automatically configure a package prior to building
52 dh_auto_install(1)
54 automatically runs make install or similar
55 dh_auto_test(1)
57 automatically runs a package's test suites
58 dh_bugfiles(1)
60 install bug reporting customization files into package build
61 directories
62 dh_builddeb(1)
64 build Debian binary packages
65 dh_clean(1)
67 clean up package build directories
68 dh_compress(1)
70 compress files and fix symlinks in package build directories
71 dh_dwz(1)
73 optimize DWARF debug information in ELF binaries via dwz
74 dh_fixperms(1)
76 fix permissions of files in package build directories
77 dh_gencontrol(1)
79 generate and install control file
80 dh_icons(1)
82 Update caches of Freedesktop icons
83 dh_install(1)
85 install files into package build directories
86 dh_installalternatives(1)
88 install declarative alternative rules
89 dh_installcatalogs(1)
91 install and register SGML Catalogs
92 dh_installchangelogs(1)
94 install changelogs into package build directories
95 dh_installcron(1)
97 install cron scripts into etc/cron.*
98 dh_installdeb(1)
100 install files into the DEBIAN directory
101 dh_installdebconf(1)
103 install files used by debconf in package build directories
104 dh_installdirs(1)
106 create subdirectories in package build directories
107 dh_installdocs(1)
109 install documentation into package build directories
110 dh_installemacsen(1)
112 register an Emacs add on package
113 dh_installexamples(1)
115 install example files into package build directories
116 dh_installgsettings(1)
118 install GSettings overrides and set dependencies
119 dh_installifupdown(1)
121 install if-up and if-down hooks
122 dh_installinfo(1)
124 install info files
125 dh_installinit(1)
127 install service init files into package build directories
128 dh_installinitramfs(1)
130 install initramfs hooks and setup maintscripts
131 dh_installlogcheck(1)
133 install logcheck rulefiles into etc/logcheck/
134 dh_installlogrotate(1)
136 install logrotate config files
137 dh_installman(1)
139 install man pages into package build directories
140 dh_installmenu(1)
142 install Debian menu files into package build directories
143 dh_installmime(1)
145 install mime files into package build directories
146 dh_installmodules(1)
148 register kernel modules
149 dh_installpam(1)
151 install pam support files
152 dh_installppp(1)
154 install ppp ip-up and ip-down files
155 dh_installsystemd(1)
157 install systemd unit files
158 dh_installsystemduser(1)
160 install systemd unit files
161 dh_installsysusers(1)
163 install and integrates systemd sysusers files
164 dh_installtmpfiles(1)
166 install tmpfiles.d configuration files
167 dh_installudev(1)
169 install udev rules files
170 dh_installwm(1)
172 register a window manager
173 dh_installxfonts(1)
175 register X fonts
176 dh_link(1)
178 create symlinks in package build directories
179 dh_lintian(1)
181 install lintian override files into package build directories
182 dh_listpackages(1)
184 list binary packages debhelper will act on
185 dh_makeshlibs(1)
187 automatically create shlibs file and call dpkg-gensymbols
188 dh_md5sums(1)
190 generate DEBIAN/md5sums file
191 dh_missing(1)
193 check for missing files
194 dh_movefiles(1)
196 move files out of debian/tmp into subpackages
197 dh_perl(1)
199 calculates Perl dependencies and cleans up after MakeMaker
200 dh_prep(1)
202 perform cleanups in preparation for building a binary package
203 dh_shlibdeps(1)
205 calculate shared library dependencies
206 dh_strip(1)
208 strip executables, shared libraries, and some static libraries
209 dh_systemd_enable(1)
211 enable/disable systemd unit files
212 dh_systemd_start(1)
214 start/stop/restart systemd unit files
215 dh_testdir(1)
217 test directory before building Debian package
218 dh_testroot(1)
220 ensure that a package is built with necessary level of root
221 permissions
222 dh_ucf(1)
224 register configuration files with ucf
225 dh_update_autotools_config(1)
227 Update autotools config files
228 dh_usrlocal(1)
230 migrate usr/local directories to maintainer scripts
231 Deprecated Commands
233 A few debhelper commands are deprecated and should not be used.
234 dh_installmanpages(1)
236 old-style man page installer (deprecated)
237 Other Commands
239 If a program's name starts with dh_, and the program is not on the
240 above lists, then it is not part of the debhelper package, but it
241 should still work like the other programs described on this page.
242
244 Many debhelper commands make use of files in debian/ to control what
245 they do. Besides the common debian/changelog and debian/control, which
246 are in all packages, not just those using debhelper, some additional
247 files can be used to configure the behavior of specific debhelper
248 commands. These files are typically named debian/package.foo (where
249 package of course, is replaced with the package that is being acted
250 on).
251 For example, dh_installdocs uses files named debian/package.docs to
253 list the documentation files it will install. See the man pages of
254 individual commands for details about the names and formats of the
255 files they use. Generally, these files will list files to act on, one
256 file per line. Some programs in debhelper use pairs of files and
257 destinations or slightly more complicated formats.
258 Note for the first (or only) binary package listed in debian/control,
260 debhelper will use debian/foo when there's no debian/package.foo file.
261 However, it is often a good idea to keep the package. prefix as it is
262 more explicit. The primary exception to this are files that debhelper
263 by default installs in every binary package when it does not have a
264 package prefix (such as debian/copyright or debian/changelog).
265 In some rare cases, you may want to have different versions of these
267 files for different architectures or OSes. If files named
268 debian/package.foo.ARCH or debian/package.foo.OS exist, where ARCH and
269 OS are the same as the output of "dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_ARCH" /
270 "dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_ARCH_OS", then they will be used in
271 preference to other, more general files.
272 Mostly, these config files are used to specify lists of various types
274 of files. Documentation or example files to install, files to move, and
275 so on. When appropriate, in cases like these, you can use standard
276 shell wildcard characters (? and * and [..] character classes) in the
277 files. You can also put comments in these files; lines beginning with
278 # are ignored.
279 The syntax of these files is intentionally kept very simple to make
281 them easy to read, understand, and modify.
282 Substitutions in debhelper config files
284 In compatibility level 13 and later, it is possible to use simple
285 substitutions in debhelper config files for the following tools:
286 • dh_clean
288 • dh_install
290 • dh_installcatalogs
292 • dh_installdeb
294 • dh_installdirs
296 • dh_installdocs
298 • dh_installexamples
300 • dh_installinfo
302 • dh_installman
304 • dh_installwm
306 • dh_link
308 • dh_missing
310 • dh_ucf
312 All substitution variables are of the form ${foo} and the braces are
314 mandatory. Variable names are case-sensitive and consist of
315 alphanumerics (a-zA-Z0-9), hyphens (-), underscores (_), and colons
316 (:). The first character must be an alphanumeric.
317 If you need a literal dollar sign that cannot trigger a substitution,
319 you can either use the ${Dollar} substitution or the sequence ${}.
320 The following expansions are available:
322 DEB_HOST_*, DEB_BUILD_*, DEB_TARGET_*
324 Expands to the relevant dpkg-architecture(1) value (similar to
325 dpkg-architecture -qVARIABLE_HERE).
326 When in doubt, the DEB_HOST_* variant is the one that will work
328 both for native and cross builds.
329 For performance reasons, debhelper will attempt to resolve these
331 names from the environment first before consulting
332 dpkg-architecture(1). This is mostly mentioned for completeness as
333 it will not matter for most cases.
334 Dollar
336 Expands to a single literal $-symbol. This symbol will never be
337 considered part of a substitution variable. That is:
338 # Triggers an error
340 ${NO_SUCH_TOKEN}
341 # Expands to the literal value "${NO_SUCH_TOKEN}"
342 ${Dollar}{NO_SUCH_TOKEN}
343 This variable equivalent to the sequence ${} and the two can be
345 used interchangeably.
346 Newline, Space, Tab
348 Expands to a single ASCII newline, space and tab respectively.
349 This can be useful if you need to include a literal whitespace
351 character (e.g. space) where it would otherwise be stripped or used
352 as a separator.
353 env:NAME
355 Expands to the environment variable NAME. The environment variable
356 must be set (but can be set to the empty string).
357 Note that all variables must expand to a defined value. As an example,
359 if debhelper sees ${env:FOO}, then it will insist that the environment
360 variable FOO is set (it can be set to the empty string).
361 Substitution limits
363 To avoid infinite loops and resource exhaustion, debhelper will stop
365 with an error if the text contains many substitution variables (50) or
366 they expand beyond a certain size (4096 characters or 3x length of the
367 original input - whichever is bigger).
368 Executable debhelper config files
370 If you need additional flexibility, many of the debhelper tools (e.g.
371 dh_install(1)) support executing a config file as a script.
372 To use this feature, simply mark the config file as executable (e.g.
374 chmod +x debian/package.install) and the tool will attempt to execute
375 it and use the output of the script. In many cases, you can use
376 dh-exec(1) as interpreter of the config file to retain most of the
377 original syntax while getting the additional flexibility you need.
378 When using executable debhelper config files, please be aware of the
380 following:
381 • The executable config file must exit with success (i.e. its return
383 code should indicate success).
384 • In compatibility level 13+, the output will be subject to
386 substitutions (see "Substitutions in debhelper config files") where
387 the tool support these. Remember to be careful if your generator
388 also provides substitutions as this can cause unnecessary
389 confusion.
390 Otherwise, the output will be used exactly as-is. Notably,
392 debhelper will not expand wildcards or strip comments or strip
393 whitespace in the output.
394 If you need the package to build on a file system where you cannot
396 disable the executable bit, then you can use dh-exec(1) and its strip-
397 output script.
398
400 The following command line options are supported by all debhelper
401 programs.
402 -v, --verbose
404 Verbose mode: show commands that modify the package build
405 directory.
406 Note that verbose mode may also output other "internal" commands
408 that do not directly affect the package build directory.
409 --no-act
411 Do not really do anything. If used with -v, the result is that the
412 command will output what it would have done.
413 -a, --arch
415 Act on architecture dependent packages that should be built for the
416 DEB_HOST_ARCH architecture.
417 -i, --indep
419 Act on all architecture independent packages.
420 -ppackage, --package=package
422 Act on the package named package. This option may be specified
423 multiple times to make debhelper operate on a given set of
424 packages.
425 -s, --same-arch
427 Deprecated alias of -a.
428 This option is removed in compat 12.
430 -Npackage, --no-package=package
432 Do not act on the specified package even if an -a, -i, or -p option
433 lists the package as one that should be acted on.
434 --remaining-packages
436 Do not act on the packages which have already been acted on by this
437 debhelper command earlier (i.e. if the command is present in the
438 package debhelper log). For example, if you need to call the
439 command with special options only for a couple of binary packages,
440 pass this option to the last call of the command to process the
441 rest of packages with default settings.
442 -Ptmpdir, --tmpdir=tmpdir
444 Use tmpdir for package build directory. The default is
445 debian/package
446 --mainpackage=package
448 This little-used option changes the package which debhelper
449 considers the "main package", that is, the first one listed in
450 debian/control, and the one for which debian/foo files can be used
451 instead of the usual debian/package.foo files.
452 -O=option|bundle
454 This is used by dh(1) when passing user-specified options to all
455 the commands it runs. If the command supports the specified option
456 or option bundle, it will take effect. If the command does not
457 support the option (or any part of an option bundle), it will be
458 ignored.
459
461 The following command line options are supported by some debhelper
462 programs. See the man page of each program for a complete explanation
463 of what each option does.
464 -n Do not modify postinst, postrm, etc. scripts.
466 -Xitem, --exclude=item
468 Exclude an item from processing. This option may be used multiple
469 times, to exclude more than one thing. The item is typically part
470 of a filename, and any file containing the specified text will be
471 excluded.
472 -A, --all
474 Makes files or other items that are specified on the command line
475 take effect in ALL packages acted on, not just the first.
476
478 The following command line options are supported by all of the
479 dh_auto_* debhelper programs. These programs support a variety of build
480 systems, and normally heuristically determine which to use, and how to
481 use them. You can use these command line options to override the
482 default behavior. Typically these are passed to dh(1), which then
483 passes them to all the dh_auto_* programs.
484 -Sbuildsystem, --buildsystem=buildsystem
486 Force use of the specified buildsystem, instead of trying to auto-
487 select one which might be applicable for the package.
488 Pass none as buildsystem to disable auto-selection.
490 -Ddirectory, --sourcedir=directory, --sourcedirectory=directory
492 Assume that the original package source tree is at the specified
493 directory rather than the top level directory of the Debian source
494 package tree.
495 Warning: The --sourcedir variant matches a similar named option in
497 dh_install and dh_missing (etc.) for historical reasons. While
498 they have a similar name, they have very distinct purposes and in
499 some cases it can cause errors when this variant is passed to dh
500 (when then passes it on to all tools).
501 -B[directory], --builddir[=directory], --builddirectory[=directory]
503 Enable out of source building and use the specified directory as
504 the build directory. If directory parameter is omitted, a default
505 build directory will be chosen.
506 If this option is not specified, building will be done in source by
508 default unless the build system requires or prefers out of source
509 tree building. In such a case, the default build directory will be
510 used even if --builddirectory is not specified.
511 If the build system prefers out of source tree building but still
513 allows in source building, the latter can be re-enabled by passing
514 a build directory path that is the same as the source directory
515 path.
516 --parallel, --no-parallel
518 Control whether parallel builds should be used if underlying build
519 system supports them. The number of parallel jobs is controlled by
520 the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS environment variable ("Debian Policy, section
521 4.9.1") at build time. It might also be subject to a build system
522 specific limit.
523 If neither option is specified, debhelper currently defaults to
525 --parallel in compat 10 (or later) and --no-parallel otherwise.
526 As an optimization, dh will try to avoid passing these options to
528 subprocesses, if they are unnecessary and the only options passed.
529 Notably this happens when DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS does not have a
530 parallel parameter (or its value is 1).
531 --max-parallel=maximum
533 This option implies --parallel and allows further limiting the
534 number of jobs that can be used in a parallel build. If the package
535 build is known to only work with certain levels of concurrency, you
536 can set this to the maximum level that is known to work, or that
537 you wish to support.
538 Notably, setting the maximum to 1 is effectively the same as using
540 --no-parallel.
541 --reload-all-buildenv-variables
543 By default, dh(1) will compute several environment variables (e.g.
544 by using dpkg-buildflags(1)) and cache them to avoid having all
545 dh_auto_* tool recompute them.
546 When passing this option, the concrete dh_auto_* tool will ignore
548 the cache from dh(1) and retrigger a rebuild of these variables.
549 This is useful in the very rare case where the package need to do
550 multiple builds but with different ...FLAGS options. A concrete
551 example would be needing to change the -O parameter in CFLAGS in
552 the second build:
553 export DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND=-O3
555 %:
557 dh $@
558 override_dh_auto_configure:
560 dh_auto_configure -Bbuild-deb ...
561 DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND=-Os dh_auto_configure \
562 --reload-all-buildenv-variables -Bbuild-udeb ...
563 Without --reload-all-buildenv-variables in the second call to
565 dh_auto_configure(1), the change in DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND would
566 be ignored as dh_auto_configure(1) would use the cached value of
567 CFLAGS set by dh(1).
568 This option is only available with debhelper (>= 12.7~) when the
570 package uses compatibility level 9 or later.
571 --list, -l
573 List all build systems supported by debhelper on this system. The
574 list includes both default and third party build systems (marked as
575 such). Also shows which build system would be automatically
576 selected, or which one is manually specified with the --buildsystem
577 option.
578
580 From time to time, major non-backwards-compatible changes need to be
581 made to debhelper, to keep it clean and well-designed as needs change
582 and its author gains more experience. To prevent such major changes
583 from breaking existing packages, the concept of debhelper compatibility
584 levels was introduced. You must tell debhelper which compatibility
585 level it should use, and it modifies its behavior in various ways.
586 In current debhelper, you can specify the compatibility level in
588 debian/control by adding a Build-Depends on the debhelper-compat
589 package. For example, to use v13 mode, ensure debian/control has:
590 Build-Depends: debhelper-compat (= 13)
592 This also serves as an appropriate versioned build dependency on a
594 sufficient version of the debhelper package, so you do not need to
595 specify a separate versioned build dependency on the debhelper package
596 unless you need a specific point release of debhelper (such as for the
597 introduction of a new feature or bugfix within a compatibility level).
598 Note that debhelper does not provide debhelper-compat for experimental
600 or beta compatibility levels; packages experimenting with those
601 compatibility levels should use debian/compat (or, if only for selected
602 commands, DH_COMPAT).
603 Prior versions of debhelper required specifying the compatibility level
605 in the file debian/compat, and current debhelper still supports this
606 for backward compatibility. To use this method, the debian/compat file
607 should contain the compatibility level as a single number, and no other
608 content. If you specify the compatibility level by this method, your
609 package will also need a versioned build dependency on a version of the
610 debhelper package equal to (or greater than) the compatibility level
611 your package uses. So, if you specify compatibility level 13 in
612 debian/compat, ensure debian/control has:
613 Build-Depends: debhelper (>= 13~)
615 Note that you must use either the build-dependency on debhelper-compat
617 or the debian/compat file. Whenever possible, the debhelper-compat
618 build-dependency is recommended.
619 If needed be, the DH_COMPAT environment variable can be used to
621 override the compat level for a given command. The feature is mostly
622 useful for either temporarily upgrading a few commands to a new compat
623 level or keeping a few commands on a lower compat level. The feature
624 is best used sparingly as it effectively introduces special-cases into
625 the debian/rules file that may be surprising to maintainers or
626 reviewers (or, in the long term, to yourself).
627 Unless otherwise indicated, all debhelper documentation assumes that
629 you are using the most recent compatibility level, and in most cases
630 does not indicate if the behavior is different in an earlier
631 compatibility level, so if you are not using the most recent
632 compatibility level, you're advised to read below for notes about what
633 is different in earlier compatibility levels.
634 Supported compatibility levels
636 The list of supported compatibility levels and the related upgrade
637 check list has moved to debhelper-compat-upgrade-checklist(7).
638
640 Multiple binary package support
641 If your source package generates more than one binary package,
642 debhelper programs will default to acting on all binary packages when
643 run. If your source package happens to generate one architecture
644 dependent package, and another architecture independent package, this
645 is not the correct behavior, because you need to generate the
646 architecture dependent packages in the binary-arch debian/rules target,
647 and the architecture independent packages in the binary-indep
648 debian/rules target.
649 To facilitate this, as well as give you more control over which
651 packages are acted on by debhelper programs, all debhelper programs
652 accept the -a, -i, -p, and -s parameters. These parameters are
653 cumulative. If none are given, debhelper programs default to acting on
654 all packages listed in the control file, with the exceptions below.
655 First, any package whose Architecture field in debian/control does not
657 match the DEB_HOST_ARCH architecture will be excluded ("Debian Policy,
658 section 5.6.8").
659 Also, some additional packages may be excluded based on the contents of
661 the DEB_BUILD_PROFILES environment variable and Build-Profiles fields
662 in binary package stanzas in debian/control, according to the draft
663 policy at <https://wiki.debian.org/BuildProfileSpec>.
664 Interaction between package selections and Build-Profiles
666 Build-Profiles affect which packages are included in the package
668 selections mechanisms in debhelper. Generally, the package selections
669 are described from the assumption that all packages are enabled. This
670 section describes how the selections react when a package is disabled
671 due to the active Build-Profiles (or lack of active Build-Profiles).
672 -a/--arch, -i/--indep OR no selection options (a raw "dh_X" call)
674 The package disabled by Build-Profiles is silently excluded from
675 the selection.
676 Note you will receive a warning if all packages related to these
678 selections are disabled. In that case, it generally does not make
679 sense to do the build in the first place.
680 -N package / --no-package package
682 The option is accepted and effectively does nothing.
683 -p package / --package package
685 The option is accepted, but debhelper will not act on the package.
686 Note that it does not matter whether a package is enabled or disabled
688 by default.
689 Automatic generation of Debian install scripts
691 Some debhelper commands will automatically generate parts of Debian
692 maintainer scripts. If you want these automatically generated things
693 included in your existing Debian maintainer scripts, then you need to
694 add #DEBHELPER# to your scripts, in the place the code should be added.
695 #DEBHELPER# will be replaced by any auto-generated code when you run
696 dh_installdeb.
697 If a script does not exist at all and debhelper needs to add something
699 to it, then debhelper will create the complete script.
700 All debhelper commands that automatically generate code in this way let
702 it be disabled by the -n parameter (see above).
703 Note that the inserted code will be shell code, so you cannot directly
705 use it in a Perl script. If you would like to embed it into a Perl
706 script, here is one way to do that (note that I made sure that $1, $2,
707 etc are set with the set command):
708 my $temp="set -e\nset -- @ARGV\n" . << 'EOF';
710 #DEBHELPER#
711 EOF
712 if (system($temp)) {
713 my $exit_code = ($? >> 8) & 0xff;
714 my $signal = $? & 0x7f;
715 if ($exit_code) {
716 die("The debhelper script failed with error code: ${exit_code}");
717 } else {
718 die("The debhelper script was killed by signal: ${signal}");
719 }
720 }
721 Automatic generation of miscellaneous dependencies.
723 Some debhelper commands may make the generated package need to depend
724 on some other packages. For example, if you use dh_installdebconf(1),
725 your package will generally need to depend on debconf. Or if you use
726 dh_installxfonts(1), your package will generally need to depend on a
727 particular version of xutils. Keeping track of these miscellaneous
728 dependencies can be annoying since they are dependent on how debhelper
729 does things, so debhelper offers a way to automate it.
730 All commands of this type, besides documenting what dependencies may be
732 needed on their man pages, will automatically generate a substvar
733 called ${misc:Depends}. If you put that token into your debian/control
734 file, it will be expanded to the dependencies debhelper figures you
735 need.
736 This is entirely independent of the standard ${shlibs:Depends}
738 generated by dh_makeshlibs(1), and the ${perl:Depends} generated by
739 dh_perl(1). You can choose not to use any of these, if debhelper's
740 guesses don't match reality.
741 Package build directories
743 By default, all debhelper programs assume that the temporary directory
744 used for assembling the tree of files in a package is debian/package.
745 Sometimes, you might want to use some other temporary directory. This
747 is supported by the -P flag. For example, "dh_installdocs
748 -Pdebian/tmp", will use debian/tmp as the temporary directory. Note
749 that if you use -P, the debhelper programs can only be acting on a
750 single package at a time. So if you have a package that builds many
751 binary packages, you will need to also use the -p flag to specify which
752 binary package the debhelper program will act on.
753 udebs
755 Debhelper includes support for udebs. To create a udeb with debhelper,
756 add "Package-Type: udeb" to the package's stanza in debian/control.
757 Debhelper will try to create udebs that comply with debian-installer
758 policy, by making the generated package files end in .udeb, not
759 installing any documentation into a udeb, skipping over preinst,
760 postrm, prerm, and config scripts, etc.
761
763 This section describes some of the environment variables that
764 influences the behaviour of debhelper or which debhelper interacts
765 with.
766 It is important to note that these must be actual environment variables
768 in order to affect the behaviour of debhelper (not simply Makefile
769 variables). To specify them properly in debian/rules, be sure to
770 "export" them. For example, "export DH_VERBOSE".
771 DH_VERBOSE
773 Set to a non-empty value to enable verbose mode. Please see the -v
774 / --verbose option for details.
775 DH_QUIET
777 Set to a non-empty value to enable quiet mode. Debhelper will not
778 output commands calling the upstream build system nor will dh print
779 which subcommands are called and depending on the upstream build
780 system might make that more quiet, too. This makes it easier to
781 spot important messages but makes the output quite useless as
782 buildd log.
783 Ignored if DH_VERBOSE is also set or -v / --verbose is passed.
785 DH_COMPAT
787 Temporarily specifies what compatibility level debhelper should run
788 at, overriding any value specified via Build-Depends on debhelper-
789 compat or via the debian/compat file.
790 DH_NO_ACT
792 Set to 1 to enable no-act mode.
793 DH_OPTIONS
795 All debhelper tools will parse command line arguments listed in
796 this variable before any command option (as if they had been
797 prepended to the command line arguments). Unfortunately, some
798 third-party provided tools may not support this variable and will
799 ignore these command line arguments.
800 When using dh(1), it can be passed options that will be passed on
802 to each debhelper command, which is generally better than using
803 DH_OPTIONS.
804 DH_ALWAYS_EXCLUDE
806 If set, this adds the value the variable is set to to the -X
807 options of all commands that support the -X option. Moreover,
808 dh_builddeb will rm -rf anything that matches the value in your
809 package build tree.
810 This can be useful if you are doing a build from a CVS source tree,
812 in which case setting DH_ALWAYS_EXCLUDE=CVS will prevent any CVS
813 directories from sneaking into the package you build. Or, if a
814 package has a source tarball that (unwisely) includes CVS
815 directories, you might want to export DH_ALWAYS_EXCLUDE=CVS in
816 debian/rules, to make it take effect wherever your package is
817 built.
818 Multiple things to exclude can be separated with colons, as in
820 DH_ALWAYS_EXCLUDE=CVS:.svn
821 DH_EXTRA_ADDONS
823 If set, this adds the specified dh addons to be run in the
824 appropriate places in the sequence of commands. This is equivalent
825 to specifying the addon to run with the --with flag in the
826 debian/rules file. Any --without calls specifying an addon in this
827 environment variable will not be run.
828 This is intended to be used by downstreams or specific local
830 configurations that require a debhelper addon to be run during
831 multiple builds without having to patch a large number of rules
832 file. If at all possible, this should be avoided in favor of a
833 --with flag in the rules file.
834 DH_COLORS, DPKG_COLORS
836 These variables can be used to control whether debhelper commands
837 should use colors in their textual output. Can be set to "always",
838 "auto" (the default), or "never".
839 Note that DPKG_COLOR also affects a number of dpkg related tools
841 and debhelper uses it on the assumption that you want the same
842 color setting for dpkg and debhelper. In the off-hand chance you
843 want different color setting for debhelper, you can use DH_COLORS
844 instead or in addition to DPKG_COLORS.
845 NO_COLOR
847 If no explicit request for color has been given (e.g. DH_COLORS and
848 DPKG_COLORS are both unset), the presence of this environment
849 variable cause the default color setting to be "never".
850 The variable is defined according to <https://no-color.org/>. In
852 this project, the environment variables (such as DH_COLORS) are
853 considered an explicit request for color.
854 CFLAGS, CPPFLAGS, CXXFLAGS, OBJCFLAGS, OBJCXXFLAGS, GCJFLAGS, FFLAGS,
856 FCFLAGS, LDFLAGS
857 By default (in any non-deprecated compat level), debhelper will
858 automatically set these flags by using dpkg-buildflags(1), when
859 they are unset. If you need to change the default flags, please
860 use the features from dpkg-buildflags(1) to do this (e.g.
861 DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS=hardening=all or
862 DEB_CPPFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND=-DCUSTOM_MACRO=true) rather than setting
863 the concrete variable directly.
864 HOME, XDG_*
866 In compat 13 and later, these environment variables are reset
867 before invoking the upstream build system via the dh_auto_*
868 helpers. The variables HOME (all dh_auto_* helpers) and
869 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR (dh_auto_test only) will be set to a writable
870 directory. All remaining variables and XDG_RUNTIME_DIR (except for
871 during dh_auto_test) will be cleared.
872 The HOME directory will be created as an empty directory but it
874 will be reused between calls to dh_auto_*. Any content will
875 persist until explicitly deleted or dh_clean.
876 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
878 Please see "Supported flags in DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS" for this
879 environment variable.
880 Please note that this variable should not be altered by package
882 maintainers inside debian/rules to change the behaviour of
883 debhelper. Instead, where the package maintainer need these
884 features, they should look disabling the relevant feature directly
885 (e.g. by overriding the concrete tools).
886 DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS
888 This is a dpkg specific environment variable (see e.g.
889 dpkg-buildflags(1)). The debhelper tool suite silently ignores it.
890 It is documented here because it has a similar name to
892 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS, which make some people mistakenly assume that
893 debhelper will also react to this variable.
894 Supported flags in DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
896 The debhelper tool suite reacts to the following flags in
897 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS.
898 dherroron=obsolete-compat-levels
900 This is a debhelper specific value.
901 When dherroron is present and set to obsolete-compat-levels, then
903 debhelper tools will promote deprecation warnings for usage of old
904 soon to be removed compat levels into errors.
905 This is useful for automated checking for code relying on
907 deprecated compat levels that is scheduled for removal.
908 This option is intended for testing purposes; not production
910 builds.
911 nostrip
913 This value will change the content of the debs being built. The
914 .deb packages built when this is set is therefore not bit-for-bit
915 reproducible with a regular build in the general case.
916 This value will cause the official debhelper tools will skip
918 actions and helpers that either remove, detach or deduplicate
919 debugging symbols in ELF binaries.
920 This value affects dh_dwz(1) and dh_strip(1).
922 nocheck
924 This value will cause the official debhelper build systems to skip
925 runs of upstream test suites.
926 Package maintainers looking to avoid running the upstream tests
928 should not rely on this. Instead, they can add an empty override
929 target to skip dh_auto_test.
930 This value affects dh_auto_test(1).
932 nodoc
934 This value will change the content of the debs being built. The
935 .deb packages built when this is set is therefore not bit-for-bit
936 reproducible with a regular build in the general case.
937 This value will cause several debhelper tools to skip installation
939 of documentation such as manpages or upstream provided
940 documentation. Additionally, the tools will also ignore if
941 declared documentation is "missing" on the assumption that the
942 documentation has not been built.
943 This value effects tools like dh_installdocs(1), which knows it is
945 working with documentation.
946 notrimdch
948 This value will change the content of the debs being built. The
949 .deb packages built when this is set is therefore not bit-for-bit
950 reproducible with a regular build in the general case.
951 This value will cause dh_installchangelogs(1) to act as if it had
953 been passed the --no-trim option, forcing it to forgo removing
954 older entries from changelogs.
955 noautodbgsym, noddebs
957 The official name is noautodbgsym. The noddebs variant is accepted
958 for historical reasons.
959 This value causes debhelper to skip the generation of automatically
961 generated debug symbol packages.
962 This value affects dh_strip(1).
964 parallel=N
966 This value enables debhelper to use up to N threads or processes
967 (subject to parameters like --no-parallel and --max-parallel=M).
968 Not all debhelper tools work with parallel tasks and may silently
969 ignore the request.
970 This value affects many debhelper tools. Most notably dh_auto_*,
972 which will attempt to run the underlying upstream build system with
973 that number of threads.
974 terse
976 This value will cause the official debhelper build systems to
977 configure upstream builds to be terse (i.e. reduce verbosity in
978 their output). This is subject to the upstream and the debhelper
979 build system supporting such features.
980 This value affects most dh_auto_* tools directly. For commands
982 provided by the debhelper package, it also causes the tools to act
983 like the DH_QUIET environment variable was non-empty.
984 Unknown flags are silently ignored.
986 Note third-party debhelper-like tools or third-party provided build
988 systems may or may not react to the above flags. This tends to depend
989 on implementation details of the tool.
990
992 debhelper-compat-upgrade-checklist(7)
993 List of supported compat levels and an upgrade checklist for each
994 of them.
995 /usr/share/doc/debhelper/examples/
997 A set of example debian/rules files that use debhelper.
998 <http://joeyh.name/code/debhelper/>
1000 Debhelper web site.
1001
1003 Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>
100413.11.6 2023-09-02 debhelper(7)