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HTML rendering created 2025-09-06 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
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NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | FILES | OPTIONS | SUBSTITUTION IN MAINTAINER SCRIPTS | SEE ALSO | AUTHOR | COLOPHON |
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DH_INSTALLDEB(1) Debhelper DH_INSTALLDEB(1)
dh_installdeb - install files into the DEBIAN directory
dh_installdeb [debhelper options]
dh_installdeb is a debhelper program that is responsible for
installing files into the DEBIAN directories in package build
directories with the correct permissions.
package.postinst
package.preinst
package.postrm
package.prerm
These maintainer scripts are installed into the DEBIAN
directory.
dh_installdeb will perform substitution of known tokens of the
pattern #TOKEN#. In generally, scripts will want to include
the #DEBHELPER# to benefit from the shell scripts generated by
debhelper commands (including those from dh_installdeb when it
processes package.maintscript files).
The #DEBHELPER# token should be placed on its own line as it
is often replaced by a multi-line shell script.
package.triggers
package.shlibs
These control files are installed into the DEBIAN directory.
Note that package.shlibs is only installed in compat level 9
and earlier. In compat 10, please use dh_makeshlibs(1).
package.conffiles
This file will be installed into the DEBIAN directory. The
provided file will be enriched by debhelper to include all the
conffiles auto-detected by debhelper (the maintainer should
not list anything there as debhelper assumes it should handle
that part).
This file is primarily useful for using "special" entries such
as the remove-on-upgrade feature from dpkg.
package.maintscript
Lines in this file correspond to dpkg-maintscript-helper(1)
commands and parameters. However, the
"maint-script-parameters" should not be included as debhelper
will add those automatically.
Example:
# Correct
rm_conffile /etc/obsolete.conf 0.2~ foo
# INCORRECT
rm_conffile /etc/obsolete.conf 0.2~ foo -- "$@"
In compat 10 or later, any shell metacharacters will be
escaped, so arbitrary shell code cannot be inserted here. For
example, a line such as "mv_conffile /etc/oldconffile
/etc/newconffile" will insert maintainer script snippets into
all maintainer scripts sufficient to move that conffile.
It was also the intention to escape shell metacharacters in
previous compat levels. However, it did not work properly and
as such it was possible to embed arbitrary shell code in
earlier compat levels.
The dh_installdeb tool will do some basic validation of some
of the commands listed in this file to catch common mistakes.
The validation is enabled as a warning since compat 10 and as
a hard error in compat 12.
Where possible, dh_installdeb may choose to rewrite some or
all of the entries into equivalent features supported in dpkg
without relying on maintainer scripts at its sole discretion
(examples include rewriting rm_conffile into dpkg's
remove-on-upgrade). The minimum requirement for activating
this feature is that debhelper runs in compat 10 or later.
Supports substitution variables in compat 13 and later as
documented in debhelper(7).
-DTOKEN=VALUE, --define TOKEN=VALUE
Define tokens to be replaced inside the maintainer scripts
when it is generated. Please note that the limitations
described in "Limitations in token names" also applies to
tokens defined on the command line. Invalid token names will
trigger an error.
In the simple case, this parameter will cause #TOKEN# to be
replaced by VALUE. If VALUE starts with a literal @-sign,
then VALUE is expected to point to a file containing the
actual value to insert.
An explicit declared token with this parameter will replace
built-in tokens.
Test examples to aid with the understanding:
cat >> debian/postinst <<EOF
#SIMPLE#
#FILEBASED#
EOF
echo -n "Complex value" > some-file
dh_installdeb --define SIMPLE=direct --define FILEBASED=@some-file
In this example, #SIMPLE# will expand to direct and
#FILEBASED# will expand to Complex value.
It is also possible to set package-specific values for a given
token. This is useful when dh_installdeb is acting on
multiple packages that need different values for the same
token. This is done by prefixing the token name with
pkg.package-name..
This can be used as in the following example:
cat >> debian/foo.postinst <<EOF
# Script for #PACKAGE#
#TOKEN#
EOF
cat >> debian/bar.postinst <<EOF
# Script for #PACKAGE#
#TOKEN#
EOF
cat >> debian/baz.postinst <<EOF
# Script for #PACKAGE#
#TOKEN#
EOF
dh_installdeb -pfoo -pbar -pbaz --define TOKEN=default --define pkg.bar.TOKEN=unique-bar-value \
--define pkg.baz.TOKEN=unique-baz-value
In this example, #TOKEN# will expand to default in
debian/foo.postinst, to unique-bar-value in
debian/bar.postinst and to unique-baz-value in
debian/baz.postinst.
Note that the #pkg.*# tokens will be visible in all scripts
acted on. E.g. you can refer to #pkg.bar.TOKEN# inside
debian/foo.postinst and it will be replaced by
unique-bar-value.
The dh_installdeb will automatically replace the following tokens
inside a provided maintainer script (if not replaced via
-D/--define):
#DEBHELPER#
This token is by default replaced with generated shell
snippets debhelper commands. This includes the snippets
generated by dh_installdeb from package.maintscript file (if
present).
#DEB_HOST_NAME#, #DEB_BUILD_NAME#, #DEB_TARGET_NAME#
These tokens are replaced with the respective variable from
dpkg-architecture(1). In almost all cases, you will want use
the #DEB_HOST_NAME variant in a script to ensure you get the
right value when cross-building.
On a best effort, tokens of this pattern that do not match a
variable in dpkg-architecture(1) will be left as-is.
#ENV.NAME#
These tokens of this form will be replaced with value of the
corresponding environment variable. If the environment
variable is unset, the token is replaced with the empty
string.
Note that there are limits on which names can be used (see
"Limitations in token names").
#PACKAGE#
This token is by default replaced by the package name, which
will contain the concrete script.
Limitations in token names
All tokens intended to be substituted must match the regex:
#[A-Za-z0-9_.+]+#
Tokens that do not match that regex will be silently ignored if
found in the script template. Invalid token names passed to -D or
--define will cause dh_installdeb to reject the command with an
error in most cases.
debhelper(7)
This program is a part of debhelper.
Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>
This page is part of the debhelper (helper programs for
debian/rules) project. Information about the project can be found
at [unknown -- if you know, please contact man-pages@man7.org] If
you have a bug report for this manual page, send it to
submit@bugs.debian.org. This page was obtained from the project's
upstream Git repository
⟨https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debhelper.git⟩ on 2025-08-11.
(At that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found
in the repository was 2025-08-10.) If you discover any rendering
problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is
a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
(which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
man-pages@man7.org
13.23 2025-01-02 DH_INSTALLDEB(1)
Pages that refer to this page: dh_icons(1), dh_installcatalogs(1), dh_installdebconf(1), dh_installdocs(1), dh_installemacsen(1), dh_installinit(1), dh_installinitramfs(1), dh_installmenu(1), dh_installmodules(1), dh_installpam(1), dh_installsystemd(1), dh_installsystemduser(1), dh_installsysusers(1), dh_installtmpfiles(1), dh_installxfonts(1), dh_makeshlibs(1), dh_usrlocal(1), dpkg-maintscript-helper(1), debhelper(7), debhelper-compat-upgrade-checklist(7)
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HTML rendering created 2025-09-06 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
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