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debhelper(7) Debhelper debhelper(7)
debhelper - the debhelper tool suite
dh_* [-v] [-a] [-i] [--no-act] [-ppackage] [-Npackage] [-Ptmpdir]
Debhelper is used to help you build a Debian package. The
philosophy behind debhelper is to provide a collection of small,
simple, and easily understood tools that are used in debian/rules
to automate various common aspects of building a package. This
means less work for you, the packager. It also, to some degree
means that these tools can be changed if Debian policy changes,
and packages that use them will require only a rebuild to comply
with the new policy.
A typical debian/rules file that uses debhelper will call several
debhelper commands in sequence, or use dh(1) to automate this
process. Examples of rules files that use debhelper are in
/usr/share/doc/debhelper/examples/
To create a new Debian package using debhelper, you can just copy
one of the sample rules files and edit it by hand. Or you can try
the dh-make package, which contains a dh_make command that
partially automates the process. For a more gentle introduction,
the maint-guide Debian package contains a tutorial about making
your first package using debhelper.
Except where the tool explicitly denotes otherwise, all of the
debhelper tools assume that they run from the root directory of an
unpacked source package. This is so they can locate find files
like debian/control when needed.
Here is the list of debhelper commands you can use. See their man
pages for additional documentation.
dh_assistant(1)
tool for supporting debhelper tools and provide introspection
dh_auto_build(1)
automatically builds a package
dh_auto_clean(1)
automatically cleans up after a build
dh_auto_configure(1)
automatically configure a package prior to building
dh_auto_install(1)
automatically runs make install or similar
dh_auto_test(1)
automatically runs a package's test suites
dh_bugfiles(1)
install bug reporting customization files into package build
directories
dh_builddeb(1)
build Debian binary packages
dh_clean(1)
clean up package build directories
dh_compress(1)
compress files and fix symlinks in package build directories
dh_gencontrol(1)
generate and install control file
dh_dwz(1)
optimize DWARF debug information in ELF binaries via dwz
dh_fixperms(1)
fix permissions of files in package build directories
dh_gencontrol(1)
generate and install control file
dh_icons(1)
Update caches of Freedesktop icons
dh_install(1)
install files into package build directories
dh_installalternatives(1)
install declarative alternative rules
dh_installcatalogs(1)
install and register SGML Catalogs
dh_installchangelogs(1)
install changelogs into package build directories
dh_installcron(1)
install cron scripts into etc/cron.*
dh_installdeb(1)
install files into the DEBIAN directory
dh_installdebconf(1)
install files used by debconf in package build directories
dh_installdirs(1)
create subdirectories in package build directories
dh_installdocs(1)
install documentation into package build directories
dh_installemacsen(1)
register an Emacs add on package
dh_installexamples(1)
install example files into package build directories
dh_installgsettings(1)
install GSettings overrides and set dependencies
dh_installifupdown(1)
install if-up and if-down hooks
dh_installinfo(1)
install info files
dh_installinit(1)
install service init files into package build directories
dh_installinitramfs(1)
install initramfs hooks and setup maintscripts
dh_installlogcheck(1)
install logcheck rulefiles into etc/logcheck/
dh_installlogrotate(1)
install logrotate config files
dh_installman(1)
install man pages into package build directories
dh_installmenu(1)
install Debian menu files into package build directories
dh_installmime(1)
install mime files into package build directories
dh_installmodules(1)
register kernel modules
dh_installpam(1)
install pam support files
dh_installppp(1)
install ppp ip-up and ip-down files
dh_installsystemd(1)
install systemd unit files
dh_installsystemduser(1)
install systemd unit files
dh_installsysusers(1)
install and integrates systemd sysusers files
dh_installtmpfiles(1)
install tmpfiles.d configuration files
dh_installudev(1)
install udev rules files
dh_installwm(1)
register a window manager
dh_installxfonts(1)
register X fonts
dh_link(1)
create symlinks in package build directories
dh_lintian(1)
install lintian override files into package build directories
dh_listpackages(1)
list binary packages debhelper will act on
dh_makeshlibs(1)
automatically create shlibs file and call dpkg-gensymbols
dh_md5sums(1)
generate DEBIAN/md5sums file
dh_missing(1)
check for missing files
dh_movefiles(1)
move files out of debian/tmp into subpackages
dh_movetousr(1)
canonicalize location according to merged-/usr
dh_perl(1)
calculates Perl dependencies and cleans up after MakeMaker
dh_prep(1)
perform cleanups in preparation for building a binary package
dh_shlibdeps(1)
calculate shared library dependencies
dh_strip(1)
strip executables, shared libraries, and some static libraries
dh_systemd_enable(1)
enable/disable systemd unit files
dh_systemd_start(1)
start/stop/restart systemd unit files
dh_testdir(1)
test directory before building Debian package
dh_testroot(1)
ensure that a package is built with necessary level of root
permissions
dh_ucf(1)
register configuration files with ucf
dh_update_autotools_config(1)
Update autotools config files
dh_usrlocal(1)
migrate usr/local directories to maintainer scripts
Deprecated Commands
A few debhelper commands are deprecated and should not be used.
dh_installmanpages(1)
old-style man page installer (deprecated)
Other Commands
If a program's name starts with dh_, and the program is not on the
above lists, then it is not part of the debhelper package, but it
should still work like the other programs described on this page.
Many debhelper commands make use of files in debian/ to control
what they do. Besides the common debian/changelog and
debian/control, which are in all packages, not just those using
debhelper, some additional files can be used to configure the
behavior of specific debhelper commands. These files are typically
named debian/package.foo (where package of course, is replaced
with the package that is being acted on).
For example, dh_installdocs uses files named debian/package.docs
to list the documentation files it will install. See the man pages
of individual commands for details about the names and formats of
the files they use. Generally, these files will list files to act
on, one file per line. Some programs in debhelper use pairs of
files and destinations or slightly more complicated formats.
Note if there is only one binary package listed in debian/control,
then debhelper will use debian/foo when there's no
debian/package.foo file. In compat levels before compat 15, this
fallback also occurs for the first binary package listed in
debian/control when there are multiple binary packages. However,
it is often a good idea to keep the package. prefix as it is more
explicit and also required when upgrading to compat 15.
Additionally, there are some special cases where debhelper will
always fallback to a prefix-less version. These are cases such as
debian/copyright and debian/changelog, where the files are
generally used and needed for all binary packages.
In some rare cases, you may want to have different versions of
these files for different architectures or OSes. If files named
debian/package.foo.ARCH or debian/package.foo.OS exist, where ARCH
and OS are the same as the output of "dpkg-architecture
-qDEB_HOST_ARCH" / "dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_ARCH_OS", then
they will be used in preference to other, more general files.
Mostly, these config files are used to specify lists of various
types of files. Documentation or example files to install, files
to move, and so on. When appropriate, in cases like these, you
can use standard shell wildcard characters (? and * and [..]
character classes) in the files. You can also put comments in
these files; lines beginning with # are ignored.
The syntax of these files is intentionally kept very simple to
make them easy to read, understand, and modify.
Substitutions in debhelper config files
In compatibility level 13 and later, it is possible to use simple
substitutions in debhelper config files for the following tools:
• dh_clean
• dh_install
• dh_installcatalogs
• dh_installdeb
• dh_installdirs
• dh_installdocs
• dh_installexamples
• dh_installinfo
• dh_installman
• dh_installwm
• dh_link
• dh_missing
• dh_ucf
All substitution variables are of the form ${foo} and the braces
are mandatory. Variable names are case-sensitive and consist of
alphanumerics (a-zA-Z0-9), hyphens (-), underscores (_), and
colons (:). The first character must be an alphanumeric.
If you need a literal dollar sign that cannot trigger a
substitution, you can either use the ${Dollar} substitution or the
sequence ${}.
The following expansions are available:
DEB_HOST_*, DEB_BUILD_*, DEB_TARGET_*
Expands to the relevant dpkg-architecture(1) value (similar to
dpkg-architecture -qVARIABLE_HERE).
When in doubt, the DEB_HOST_* variant is the one that will
work both for native and cross builds.
For performance reasons, debhelper will attempt to resolve
these names from the environment first before consulting
dpkg-architecture(1). This is mostly mentioned for
completeness as it will not matter for most cases.
Dollar
Expands to a single literal $-symbol. This symbol will never
be considered part of a substitution variable. That is:
# Triggers an error
${NO_SUCH_TOKEN}
# Expands to the literal value "${NO_SUCH_TOKEN}"
${Dollar}{NO_SUCH_TOKEN}
This variable equivalent to the sequence ${} and the two can
be used interchangeably.
Newline, Space, Tab
Expands to a single ASCII newline, space and tab respectively.
This can be useful if you need to include a literal whitespace
character (e.g. space) where it would otherwise be stripped or
used as a separator.
[1menv:NAME
Expands to the environment variable NAME. The environment
variable must be set (but can be set to the empty string).
Note that all variables must expand to a defined value. As an
example, if debhelper sees ${env:FOO}, then it will insist that
the environment variable FOO is set (it can be set to the empty
string).
Substitution limits
To avoid infinite loops and resource exhaustion, debhelper will
stop with an error if the text contains many substitution
variables (50) or they expand beyond a certain size (4096
characters or 3x length of the original input - whichever is
bigger).
Substitution limitations: filtering
The built-in substitution cannot be used to "filter" out content.
Attempts to create "comments" or "empty lines" via substitution
will result in those variables being considered a token in its own
right with the content given.
If you want filtering, consider using an executable debhelper
config file with dh-exec as interpreter. The dh-exec tool supports
several features out of the box. Though keep in mind that dh-exec
has its own substitution logic that can feature interact with the
one from debhelper.
Executable debhelper config files
If you need additional flexibility, many of the debhelper tools
(e.g. dh_install(1)) support executing a config file as a script.
To use this feature, simply mark the config file as executable
(e.g. chmod +x debian/package.install) and the tool will attempt
to execute it and use the output of the script. In many cases,
you can use dh-exec(1) as interpreter of the config file to retain
most of the original syntax while getting the additional
flexibility you need.
When using executable debhelper config files, please be aware of
the following:
• The executable config file must exit with success (i.e. its
return code should indicate success).
• In compatibility level 13+, the output will be subject to
substitutions (see "Substitutions in debhelper config files")
where the tool support these. Remember to be careful if your
generator also provides substitutions as this can cause
unnecessary confusion. Notably, the commonly used dh-exec tool
has its own substitution support.
Otherwise, the output will be used exactly as-is. Notably,
debhelper will not expand wildcards or strip comments or strip
whitespace in the output it reads. The dh-exec tool has an
output filter on by default that will prune these things out.
If you need the package to build on a file system where you cannot
disable the executable bit, then you can use dh-exec(1) and its
strip-output script.
The following command line options are supported by all debhelper
programs.
-v, --verbose
Verbose mode: show commands that modify the package build
directory.
Note that verbose mode may also output other "internal"
commands that do not directly affect the package build
directory.
--no-act
Do not really do anything. If used with -v, the result is that
the command will output what it would have done.
-a, --arch
Act on architecture dependent packages that should be built
for the DEB_HOST_ARCH architecture.
-i, --indep
Act on all architecture independent packages.
-ppackage, --package=package
Act on the package named package. This option may be specified
multiple times to make debhelper operate on a given set of
packages.
-s, --same-arch
Deprecated alias of -a.
This option is removed in compat 12.
-Npackage, --no-package=package
Do not act on the specified package even if an -a, -i, or -p
option lists the package as one that should be acted on.
--remaining-packages
Do not act on the packages which have already been acted on by
this debhelper command earlier (i.e. if the command is present
in the package debhelper log). For example, if you need to
call the command with special options only for a couple of
binary packages, pass this option to the last call of the
command to process the rest of packages with default settings.
-Ptmpdir, --tmpdir=tmpdir
Use tmpdir for package build directory. The default is
debian/package
--mainpackage=package
Deprecated: This option has no practical use in compat 15 or
later as the behaviour it affects is removed in compat 15.
This little-used option changes the package which debhelper
considers the "main package", that is, the first one listed in
debian/control, and the one for which debian/foo files can be
used instead of the usual debian/package.foo files.
-O=option|bundle
This is used by dh(1) when passing user-specified options to
all the commands it runs. If the command supports the
specified option or option bundle, it will take effect. If the
command does not support the option (or any part of an option
bundle), it will be ignored.
The following command line options are supported by some debhelper
programs. See the man page of each program for a complete
explanation of what each option does.
-n Do not modify postinst, postrm, etc. scripts.
-Xitem, --exclude=item
Exclude an item from processing. This option may be used
multiple times, to exclude more than one thing. The item is
typically part of a filename, and any file containing the
specified text will be excluded.
-A, --all
Makes files or other items that are specified on the command
line take effect in ALL packages acted on, not just the first.
The following command line options are supported by all of the
dh_auto_* debhelper programs. These programs support a variety of
build systems, and normally heuristically determine which to use,
and how to use them. You can use these command line options to
override the default behavior. Typically these are passed to
dh(1), which then passes them to all the dh_auto_* programs.
-Sbuildsystem, --buildsystem=buildsystem
Force use of the specified buildsystem, instead of trying to
auto-select one which might be applicable for the package.
Pass none as buildsystem to disable auto-selection.
-Ddirectory, --sourcedir=directory, --sourcedirectory=directory
Assume that the original package source tree is at the
specified directory rather than the top level directory of the
Debian source package tree.
Warning: The --sourcedir variant matches a similar named
option in dh_install and dh_missing (etc.) for historical
reasons. While they have a similar name, they have very
distinct purposes and in some cases it can cause errors when
this variant is passed to dh (when then passes it on to all
tools).
-B[directory], --builddir[=directory],
--builddirectory[=directory]
Enable out of source building and use the specified directory
as the build directory. If directory parameter is omitted, a
default build directory will be chosen.
If this option is not specified, building will be done in
source by default unless the build system requires or prefers
out of source tree building. In such a case, the default
build directory will be used even if --builddirectory is not
specified.
If the build system prefers out of source tree building but
still allows in source building, the latter can be re-enabled
by passing a build directory path that is the same as the
source directory path.
--parallel, --no-parallel
Control whether parallel builds should be used if underlying
build system supports them. The number of parallel jobs is
controlled by the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS environment variable
("Debian Policy, section 4.9.1") at build time. It might also
be subject to a build system specific limit.
If neither option is specified, debhelper currently defaults
to --parallel in compat 10 (or later) and --no-parallel
otherwise.
As an optimization, dh will try to avoid passing these options
to subprocesses, if they are unnecessary and the only options
passed. Notably this happens when DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS does not
have a parallel parameter (or its value is 1).
--max-parallel=maximum
This option implies --parallel and allows further limiting the
number of jobs that can be used in a parallel build. If the
package build is known to only work with certain levels of
concurrency, you can set this to the maximum level that is
known to work, or that you wish to support.
Notably, setting the maximum to 1 is effectively the same as
using --no-parallel.
--reload-all-buildenv-variables
By default, dh(1) will compute several environment variables
(e.g. by using dpkg-buildflags(1)) and cache them to avoid
having all dh_auto_* tool recompute them.
When passing this option, the concrete dh_auto_* tool will
ignore the cache from dh(1) and retrigger a rebuild of these
variables. This is useful in the very rare case where the
package need to do multiple builds but with different ...FLAGS
options. A concrete example would be needing to change the -O
parameter in CFLAGS in the second build:
export DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND=-O3
%:
dh $@
override_dh_auto_configure:
dh_auto_configure -Bbuild-deb ...
DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND=-Os dh_auto_configure \
--reload-all-buildenv-variables -Bbuild-udeb ...
Without --reload-all-buildenv-variables in the second call to
dh_auto_configure(1), the change in DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND
would be ignored as dh_auto_configure(1) would use the cached
value of CFLAGS set by dh(1).
This option is only available with debhelper (>= 12.7~) when
the package uses compatibility level 9 or later.
--list, -l
List all build systems supported by debhelper on this system.
The list includes both default and third party build systems
(marked as such). Also shows which build system would be
automatically selected, or which one is manually specified
with the --buildsystem option.
From time to time, major non-backwards-compatible changes need to
be made to debhelper, to keep it clean and well-designed as needs
change and its author gains more experience. To prevent such major
changes from breaking existing packages, the concept of debhelper
compatibility levels was introduced. You must tell debhelper which
compatibility level it should use, and it modifies its behavior in
various ways.
In current debhelper, you can specify the compatibility level in
debian/control by adding a Build-Depends on the debhelper-compat
package. For example, to use v13 mode, ensure debian/control has:
Build-Depends: debhelper-compat (= 13)
This also serves as an appropriate versioned build dependency on a
sufficient version of the debhelper package, so you do not need to
specify a separate versioned build dependency on the debhelper
package unless you need a specific point release of debhelper
(such as for the introduction of a new feature or bugfix within a
compatibility level).
Note that debhelper does not provide debhelper-compat for
experimental or beta compatibility levels; packages experimenting
with those compatibility levels should put the compat level in the
X-DH-Compat field of the Source stanza of the debian/control file
(or, if only for selected commands, the DH_COMPAT environment
variable).
Historically, debhelper required specifying the compatibility
level in the file debian/compat, and debhelper up to version 14
supports this for backward compatibility. To use this method, the
debian/compat file should contain the compatibility level as a
single number, and no other content. If you specify the
compatibility level by this method, your package will also need a
versioned build dependency on a version of the debhelper package
equal to (or greater than) the compatibility level your package
uses. So, if you specify compatibility level 13 in debian/compat,
ensure debian/control has:
Build-Depends: debhelper (>= 13~)
Note that you must use exactly one method for specifying the
default debhelper compat level of the package. Whenever possible,
the debhelper-compat build-dependency is recommended.
If needed be, the DH_COMPAT environment variable can be used to
override the compat level for a given command. The feature is
mostly useful for either temporarily upgrading a few commands to a
new compat level or keeping a few commands on a lower compat
level. The feature is best used sparingly as it effectively
introduces special-cases into the debian/rules file that may be
surprising to maintainers or reviewers (or, in the long term, to
yourself).
Unless otherwise indicated, all debhelper documentation assumes
that you are using the most recent compatibility level, and in
most cases does not indicate if the behavior is different in an
earlier compatibility level, so if you are not using the most
recent compatibility level, you're advised to read below for notes
about what is different in earlier compatibility levels.
Supported compatibility levels
The list of supported compatibility levels and the related upgrade
check list has moved to debhelper-compat-upgrade-checklist(7).
Multiple binary package support
If your source package generates more than one binary package,
debhelper programs will default to acting on all binary packages
when run. If your source package happens to generate one
architecture dependent package, and another architecture
independent package, this is not the correct behavior, because you
need to generate the architecture dependent packages in the
binary-arch debian/rules target, and the architecture independent
packages in the binary-indep debian/rules target.
To facilitate this, as well as give you more control over which
packages are acted on by debhelper programs, all debhelper
programs accept the -a, -i, -p, and -s parameters. These
parameters are cumulative. If none are given, debhelper programs
default to acting on all packages listed in the control file, with
the exceptions below.
First, any package whose Architecture field in debian/control does
not match the DEB_HOST_ARCH architecture will be excluded ("Debian
Policy, section 5.6.8").
Also, some additional packages may be excluded based on the
contents of the DEB_BUILD_PROFILES environment variable and
Build-Profiles fields in binary package stanzas in debian/control,
according to the draft policy at
<https://wiki.debian.org/BuildProfileSpec>.
Interaction between package selections and Build-Profiles
Build-Profiles affect which packages are included in the package
selections mechanisms in debhelper. Generally, the package
selections are described from the assumption that all packages are
enabled. This section describes how the selections react when a
package is disabled due to the active Build-Profiles (or lack of
active Build-Profiles).
-a/--arch, -i/--indep OR no selection options (a raw "dh_X" call)
The package disabled by Build-Profiles is silently excluded
from the selection.
Note you will receive a warning if all packages related to
these selections are disabled. In that case, it generally
does not make sense to do the build in the first place.
-N package / --no-package package
The option is accepted and effectively does nothing.
-p package / --package package
The option is accepted, but debhelper will not act on the
package.
Note that it does not matter whether a package is enabled or
disabled by default.
Automatic generation of Debian install scripts
Some debhelper commands will automatically generate parts of
Debian maintainer scripts. If you want these automatically
generated things included in your existing Debian maintainer
scripts, then you need to add #DEBHELPER# to your scripts, in the
place the code should be added. #DEBHELPER# will be replaced by
any auto-generated code when you run dh_installdeb.
If a script does not exist at all and debhelper needs to add
something to it, then debhelper will create the complete script.
All debhelper commands that automatically generate code in this
way let it be disabled by the -n parameter (see above).
Note that the inserted code will be shell code, so you cannot
directly use it in a Perl script. If you would like to embed it
into a Perl script, here is one way to do that (note that I made
sure that $1, $2, etc are set with the set command):
my $temp="set -e\nset -- @ARGV\n" . << 'EOF';
#DEBHELPER#
EOF
if (system($temp)) {
my $exit_code = ($? >> 8) & 0xff;
my $signal = $? & 0x7f;
if ($exit_code) {
die("The debhelper script failed with error code: ${exit_code}");
} else {
die("The debhelper script was killed by signal: ${signal}");
}
}
Automatic generation of miscellaneous dependencies.
Some debhelper commands may make the generated package need to
depend on some other packages. For example, if you use
dh_installdebconf(1), your package will generally need to depend
on debconf. Or if you use dh_installxfonts(1), your package will
generally need to depend on a particular version of xutils.
Keeping track of these miscellaneous dependencies can be annoying
since they are dependent on how debhelper does things, so
debhelper offers a way to automate it.
As of compat 14, debhelper will automatically inject the relevant
dependencies for you, since the dependency is done via a
"relationship substvar" (see
<https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2024/02/msg00230.html> and
<https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2024/03/msg00030.html> for
details).
In earlier compat levels, you have to manually specify the
relevant substvars in the relevant fields. Typically,
${misc:Depends} for the Depends field and ${misc:Pre-Depends} for
the Pre-Depends fields.
The variables listed here are entirely independent of the standard
${shlibs:Depends} generated by dh_makeshlibs(1), and the
${perl:Depends} generated by dh_perl(1). For compat 13 and earlier
you will also have to add these to the respective fields when
relevant.
Package build directories
By default, all debhelper programs assume that the temporary
directory used for assembling the tree of files in a package is
debian/package.
Sometimes, you might want to use some other temporary directory.
This is supported by the -P flag. For example, "dh_installdocs
-Pdebian/tmp", will use debian/tmp as the temporary directory.
Note that if you use -P, the debhelper programs can only be acting
on a single package at a time. So if you have a package that
builds many binary packages, you will need to also use the -p flag
to specify which binary package the debhelper program will act on.
udebs
Debhelper includes support for udebs. To create a udeb with
debhelper, add "Package-Type: udeb" to the package's stanza in
debian/control. Debhelper will try to create udebs that comply
with debian-installer policy, by making the generated package
files end in .udeb, not installing any documentation into a udeb,
skipping over preinst, postrm, prerm, and config scripts, etc.
This section describes some of the environment variables that
influences the behaviour of debhelper or which debhelper interacts
with.
It is important to note that these must be actual environment
variables in order to affect the behaviour of debhelper (not
simply Makefile variables). To specify them properly in
debian/rules, be sure to "export" them. For example, "export
DH_VERBOSE".
DH_VERBOSE
Set to a non-empty value to enable verbose mode. Please see
the -v / --verbose option for details.
DH_QUIET
Set to a non-empty value to enable quiet mode. Debhelper will
not output commands calling the upstream build system nor will
dh print which subcommands are called and depending on the
upstream build system might make that more quiet, too. This
makes it easier to spot important messages but makes the
output quite useless as buildd log.
Ignored if DH_VERBOSE is also set or -v / --verbose is passed.
DH_COMPAT
Temporarily specifies what compatibility level debhelper
should run at, overriding the default compat level of the
source package.
DH_NO_ACT
Set to 1 to enable no-act mode.
DH_OPTIONS
All debhelper tools will parse command line arguments listed
in this variable before any command option (as if they had
been prepended to the command line arguments). Unfortunately,
some third-party provided tools may not support this variable
and will ignore these command line arguments.
When using dh(1), it can be passed options that will be passed
on to each debhelper command, which is generally better than
using DH_OPTIONS.
DH_ALWAYS_EXCLUDE
If set, this adds the value the variable is set to to the -X
options of all commands that support the -X option. Moreover,
dh_builddeb will rm -rf anything that matches the value in
your package build tree.
This can be useful if you are doing a build from a CVS source
tree, in which case setting DH_ALWAYS_EXCLUDE=CVS will prevent
any CVS directories from sneaking into the package you build.
Or, if a package has a source tarball that (unwisely) includes
CVS directories, you might want to export
DH_ALWAYS_EXCLUDE=CVS in debian/rules, to make it take effect
wherever your package is built.
Multiple things to exclude can be separated with colons, as in
DH_ALWAYS_EXCLUDE=CVS:.svn
DH_EXTRA_ADDONS
If set, this adds the specified dh addons to be run in the
appropriate places in the sequence of commands. This is
equivalent to specifying the addon to run with the --with flag
in the debian/rules file. Any --without calls specifying an
addon in this environment variable will not be run.
This is intended to be used by downstreams or specific local
configurations that require a debhelper addon to be run during
multiple builds without having to patch a large number of
rules file. If at all possible, this should be avoided in
favor of a --with flag in the rules file.
DH_COLORS, DPKG_COLORS
These variables can be used to control whether debhelper
commands should use colors in their textual output. Can be
set to "always", "auto" (the default), or "never".
Note that DPKG_COLOR also affects a number of dpkg related
tools and debhelper uses it on the assumption that you want
the same color setting for dpkg and debhelper. In the
off-hand chance you want different color setting for
debhelper, you can use DH_COLORS instead or in addition to
DPKG_COLORS.
NO_COLOR
If no explicit request for color has been given (e.g.
DH_COLORS and DPKG_COLORS are both unset), the presence of
this environment variable cause the default color setting to
be "never".
The variable is defined according to <https://no-color.org/>.
In this project, the environment variables (such as DH_COLORS)
are considered an explicit request for color.
CFLAGS, CPPFLAGS, CXXFLAGS, OBJCFLAGS, OBJCXXFLAGS, GCJFLAGS,
FFLAGS, FCFLAGS, LDFLAGS
By default (in any non-deprecated compat level), debhelper
will automatically set these flags by using
dpkg-buildflags(1), when they are unset. If you need to
change the default flags, please use the features from
dpkg-buildflags(1) to do this (e.g.
DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS=hardening=all or
DEB_CPPFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND=-DCUSTOM_MACRO=true) rather than
setting the concrete variable directly.
HOME, XDG_*
In compat 13 and later, these environment variables are reset
before invoking the upstream build system via the dh_auto_*
helpers. The variables HOME (all dh_auto_* helpers) and
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR (dh_auto_test only) will be set to a writable
directory. All remaining variables and XDG_RUNTIME_DIR (except
for during dh_auto_test) will be cleared.
The HOME directory will be created as an empty directory but
it will be reused between calls to dh_auto_*. Any content
will persist until explicitly deleted or dh_clean.
DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
Please see "Supported flags in DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS" for this
environment variable.
Please note that this variable should not be altered by
package maintainers inside debian/rules to change the
behaviour of debhelper. Instead, where the package maintainer
need these features, they should look disabling the relevant
feature directly (e.g. by overriding the concrete tools).
DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS
This is a dpkg specific environment variable (see e.g.
dpkg-buildflags(1)). The debhelper tool suite silently
ignores it.
It is documented here because it has a similar name to
DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS, which make some people mistakenly assume
that debhelper will also react to this variable.
Supported flags in DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
The debhelper tool suite reacts to the following flags in
DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS.
dherroron=obsolete-compat-levels
This is a debhelper specific value.
When dherroron is present and set to obsolete-compat-levels,
then debhelper tools will promote deprecation warnings for
usage of old soon to be removed compat levels into errors.
This is useful for automated checking for code relying on
deprecated compat levels that is scheduled for removal.
This option is intended for testing purposes; not production
builds.
nostrip
This value will change the content of the debs being built.
The .deb packages built when this is set is therefore not
bit-for-bit reproducible with a regular build in the general
case.
This value will cause the official debhelper tools will skip
actions and helpers that either remove, detach or deduplicate
debugging symbols in ELF binaries.
This value affects dh_dwz(1) and dh_strip(1).
nocheck
This value will cause the official debhelper build systems to
skip runs of upstream test suites.
Package maintainers looking to avoid running the upstream
tests should not rely on this. Instead, they can add an empty
override target to skip dh_auto_test.
This value affects dh_auto_test(1).
nodoc
This value will change the content of the debs being built.
The .deb packages built when this is set is therefore not
bit-for-bit reproducible with a regular build in the general
case.
This value will cause several debhelper tools to skip
installation of documentation such as manpages or upstream
provided documentation. Additionally, the tools will also
ignore if declared documentation is "missing" on the
assumption that the documentation has not been built.
This value effects tools like dh_installdocs(1), which knows
it is working with documentation.
notrimdch
This value will change the content of the debs being built.
The .deb packages built when this is set is therefore not
bit-for-bit reproducible with a regular build in the general
case.
This value will cause dh_installchangelogs(1) to act as if it
had been passed the --no-trim option, forcing it to forgo
removing older entries from changelogs.
noautodbgsym, noddebs
The official name is noautodbgsym. The noddebs variant is
accepted for historical reasons.
This value causes debhelper to skip the generation of
automatically generated debug symbol packages.
This value affects dh_strip(1).
parallel=N
This value enables debhelper to use up to N threads or
processes (subject to parameters like --no-parallel and
--max-parallel=M). Not all debhelper tools work with parallel
tasks and may silently ignore the request.
This value affects many debhelper tools. Most notably
dh_auto_*, which will attempt to run the underlying upstream
build system with that number of threads.
terse
This value will cause the official debhelper build systems to
configure upstream builds to be terse (i.e. reduce verbosity
in their output). This is subject to the upstream and the
debhelper build system supporting such features.
This value affects most dh_auto_* tools directly. For commands
provided by the debhelper package, it also causes the tools to
act like the DH_QUIET environment variable was non-empty.
Unknown flags are silently ignored.
Note third-party debhelper-like tools or third-party provided
build systems may or may not react to the above flags. This tends
to depend on implementation details of the tool.
debhelper-compat-upgrade-checklist(7)
List of supported compat levels and an upgrade checklist for
each of them.
/usr/share/doc/debhelper/examples/
A set of example debian/rules files that use debhelper.
<http://joeyh.name/code/debhelper/>
Debhelper web site.
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
13.25~1.gbp3d6378 2025-08-08 debhelper(7)
Pages that refer to this page: dh(1), dh_assistant(1), dh_auto_build(1), dh_auto_clean(1), dh_auto_configure(1), dh_auto_install(1), dh_auto_test(1), dh_builddeb(1), dh_clean(1), dh_compress(1), dh_computeautosubstvars(1), dh_dwz(1), dh_fixperms(1), dh_gencontrol(1), dh_install(1), dh_installalternatives(1), dh_installcatalogs(1), dh_installchangelogs(1), dh_installcron(1), dh_installdeb(1), dh_installdebconf(1), dh_installdirs(1), dh_installdocs(1), dh_installemacsen(1), dh_installexamples(1), dh_installgsettings(1), dh_installifupdown(1), dh_installinfo(1), dh_installinit(1), dh_installinitramfs(1), dh_installlogcheck(1), dh_installlogrotate(1), dh_installman(1), dh_installmanpages(1), dh_installmenu(1), dh_installmime(1), dh_installmodules(1), dh_installpam(1), dh_installppp(1), dh_installsystemd(1), dh_installsystemduser(1), dh_installsysusers(1), dh_installtmpfiles(1), dh_installudev(1), dh_installwm(1), dh_installxfonts(1), dh_link(1), dh_listpackages(1), dh_makeshlibs(1), dh_md5sums(1), dh_missing(1), dh_movefiles(1), dh_movetousr(1), dh_perl(1), dh_prep(1), dh_shlibdeps(1), dh_strip(1), dh_systemd_enable(1), dh_systemd_start(1), dh_testdir(1), dh_testroot(1), dh_ucf(1), dh_update_autotools_config(1), dh_usrlocal(1), debhelper-compat-upgrade-checklist(7), debhelper-obsolete-compat(7)
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