dh_installdebconf(1) — Linux manual page

NAME \| SYNOPSIS \| DESCRIPTION \| FILES \| OPTIONS \| SUBSTITUTION IN MAINTAINER SCRIPTS \| SEE ALSO \| AUTHOR \| COLOPHON

DH_INSTALLDEBCONF(1)            Debhelper            DH_INSTALLDEBCONF(1)

NAME top

       dh_installdebconf - install files used by debconf in package build
       directories

SYNOPSIS top

       dh_installdebconf [debhelper options] [-n] [-- params]

DESCRIPTION top

       dh_installdebconf is a debhelper program that is responsible for
       installing files used by debconf into package build directories.

       It also automatically generates the postrm commands needed to
       interface with debconf. The commands are added to the maintainer
       scripts by dh_installdeb. See dh_installdeb(1) for an explanation
       of how that works.

       Note that if you use debconf, your package probably needs to
       depend on it (it will be added to ${misc:Depends} by this
       program).

       Note that for your config script to be called by dpkg, your
       postinst needs to source debconf's confmodule. dh_installdebconf
       does not install this statement into the postinst automatically as
       it is too hard to do it right.

FILES top

       debian/package.config
           This is the debconf config script, and is installed into the
           DEBIAN directory in the package build directory.

           Inside the script, the token #DEBHELPER# is replaced with
           shell script snippets generated by other debhelper commands.

       debian/package.templates
           This is the debconf templates file, and is installed into the
           DEBIAN directory in the package build directory.

       debian/po/
           If this directory is present, this program will automatically
           use po2debconf(1) to generate merged templates files that
           include the translations from there.

           For this to work, your package should build-depend on
           po-debconf.

OPTIONS top

-n, --no-scripts
Do not modify postrm script.

-- params
Pass the params to po2debconf.

-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/config <<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_installdebconf 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.config <<EOF
# Script for #PACKAGE#
#TOKEN#
EOF
cat >> debian/bar.config <<EOF
# Script for #PACKAGE#
#TOKEN#
EOF
cat >> debian/baz.config <<EOF
# Script for #PACKAGE#
#TOKEN#
EOF
dh_installdebconf -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.config, to unique-bar-value in debian/bar.config
and to unique-baz-value in debian/baz.config.

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.config and it will be replaced by unique-bar-value.

SUBSTITUTION IN MAINTAINER SCRIPTS top

       The dh_installdebconf will automatically replace the following
       tokens inside a provided maintainer script (if not replaced via
       -D/--define):

       #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_installdebconf to reject the command with
       an error in most cases.

AUTHOR top

       Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>

COLOPHON top

       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
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       (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       man-pages@man7.org

13.23                           2025-01-02           DH_INSTALLDEBCONF(1)

Pages that refer to this page: debhelper(7)