DH(1)                                                                Debhelper                                                               DH(1)

NAME

       dh - debhelper command sequencer

SYNOPSIS

       dh sequence [--with addon[,addon ...]] [--list] [debhelperoptions]

DESCRIPTION

       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

       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

       --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

       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

       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

       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

       debhelper(7)

       This program is a part of debhelper.

AUTHOR

       Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>

11.1.6ubuntu2                                                       2018-05-10                                                               DH(1)