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NAME

       dh - debhelper command sequencer

SYNOPSIS

       dh sequence [--with addon[,addon,...]] [--list] [--until cmd] [--before
       cmd] [--after cmd] [--remaining] [debhelperoptions]

DESCRIPTION

       dh runs a sequence of debhelper commands. The supported sequences
       correspond to the targets of a debian/rules file: "build", "clean",
       "install", "binary-arch", "binary-indep", and "binary".

       Commands in the binary-indep sequence are passed the "-i" option to
       ensure they only work on binary independent packages, and commands in
       the binary-arch sequences are passed the "-a" option to ensure they
       only work on architecture dependent packages.

       If debian/rules contains a target with a name like
       "override_dh_command", then 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. (Note that to use this feature, you should
       Build-Depend on debhelper 7.0.50 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.

       --list, -l
           List all available addons.

       --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.

       --no-act
           Prints commands that would run for a given sequence, but does not
           run them.

       All 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.

       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.

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_installdocs:
                       dh_installdocs README TODO

       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

       If your package is a python package, dh will use dh_pysupport by
       default. This is how to use dh_pycentral instead.

               #!/usr/bin/make -f
               %:
                       dh $@ --with python-central

       If your package uses autotools and you want to freshen config.sub and
       config.guess with newer versions from the autotools-dev package at
       build time, you can use some commands provided in autotools-dev that
       automate it, like this.

               #!/usr/bin/make -f
               %:
                       dh $@ --with autotools_dev

       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

       To patch your package using quilt, you can tell dh to use quilt's dh
       sequence addons like this:

               #!/usr/bin/make -f
               %:
                       dh $@ --with quilt

       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, you can support parallel
       building as follows. Then dpkg-buildpackage -j will work.

               #!/usr/bin/make -f
               %:
                       dh $@ --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:

       Sometimes, you may need to make an override target only run commands
       when a particular package is being built. This can be accomplished
       using dh_listpackages(1) to test what is being built. For example:

               #!/usr/bin/make -f
               %:
                       dh $@

               override_dh_fixperms:
                       dh_fixperms
               ifneq (,$(findstring foo, $(shell dh_listpackages)))
                       chmod 4755 debian/foo/usr/bin/foo
               endif

       Finally, remember that you are not limited to using override targets in
       the rules file when using dh. You can also explicitly define any of the
       regular rules file targets when it makes sense to do so. A common
       reason to do this is if your package needs different build-arch and
       build-indep targets. For example, a package with a long document build
       process can put it in build-indep to avoid build daemons redundantly
       building the documentation.

               #!/usr/bin/make -f
               %:
                       dh $@

               build: build-arch build-indep ;
               build-indep:
                       $(MAKE) docs
               build-arch:
                       $(MAKE) bins

INTERNALS

       If you're curious about dh's internals, here's how it works under the
       hood.

       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, 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.

       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.

SEE ALSO

       debhelper(7)

       This program is a part of debhelper.

AUTHOR

       Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>