Provided by: dh-python_5.20220403_all 
NAME
dh_python2 - calculates Python dependencies, adds maintainer scripts to byte compile files, etc.
SYNOPSIS
dh_python2 -p PACKAGE [-V [X.Y][-][A.B]] DIR_OR_FILE [-X REGEXPR]
DESCRIPTION
QUICK GUIDE FOR MAINTAINERS
• if necessary, describe supported Python versions via X-Python-Version field in debian/control,
• build depend on dh-python
• build-depend on python or python-all or python-all-dev (>= 2.6.6-3~),
• build module/application using its standard build system, remember to build extensions for all
supported Python versions (loop over pyversions -vr),
• install files to the standard locations, add --install-layout=deb to setup.py's install command if
your package is using distutils,
• add python2 to dh's --with option, or:
• include /usr/share/cdbs/1/class/python-distutils.mk in debian/rules and depend on cdbs (>= 0.4.90),
or:
• call dh_python2 in the binary-* target,
• add ${python:Depends} to Depends
NOTES
In order to support more than one Python version in the same binary package, dh_python2 (unlike
dh_pycentral and dh_pysupport) creates symlinks to all supported Python versions at build time. It means
binNMU (or sourceful upload in case of architecture independent packages) is required once a list of
supported Python version is changed. It's faster and more robust than its competitors, though.
dependencies
dh_python2 tries to translate Python dependencies from the requires.txt file to Debian dependencies. In
many cases, this works without any additional configuration because dh_python2 comes with a build-in
mapping of Python module names to Debian packages that is periodically regenerated from the Debian
archive. By default, the version information in the Python dependencies is discarded. If you want
dh_python2 to generate more strict dependencies (e.g. to avoid ABI problems), or if the automatic mapping
does not work correctly for your package, you have to provide dh_python2 with additional rules for the
translation of Python module to Debian package dependencies.
For a package python-foo that depends on a package python-bar, there are two files that may provide such
rules:
1. If the python-foo source package ships with a debian/pydist-overrides file, this file is used by
dh_python during the build of python-foo.
2. If the python-bar source package ships with a debian/python-bar.pydist file (and uses dh_python), this
file will be included in the binary package as /usr/share/dh-python/dist/cpython2/python-bar. During
the build of python-foo, dh_python will then find and use the file.
Both files have the same format described in /usr/share/doc/dh-python/README.PyDist. If all you want is
to generate versioned dependencies (and assuming that the python-bar package provides the pybar Python
module), in most cases it will be sufficient to put the line pybar python-bar; PEP386 into either of the
above files.
namespace feature
dh_python2 parses Egg's namespace_packages.txt files (in addition to --namespace command line
argument(s)) and drops empty __init__.py files from binary package. pycompile will regenerate them at
install time and pyclean will remove them at uninstall time (if they're no longer used in installed
packages). It's still a good idea to provide __init__.py file in one of binary packages (even if all
other packages use this feature).
private dirs
/usr/share/foo, /usr/share/games/foo, /usr/lib/foo and /usr/lib/games/foo private directories are scanned
for Python files by default (where foo is binary package name). If your package ships Python files in
some other directory, add another dh_python2 call in debian/rules with directory name as an argument -
you can use different set of options in this call. If you need to change options (f.e. a list of
supported Python versions) for a private directory that is checked by default, invoke dh_python2 with
--skip-private option and add another call with a path to this directory and new options.
debug packages
In binary packages which name ends with -dbg, all files in /usr/lib/python2.X/{site,dist}-packages/
directory that have extensions different than so or h are removed by default. Use --no-dbg-cleaning
option to disable this feature.
pyinstall files
Files listed in debian/pkg.pyinstall file will be installed as public modules (i.e. into
.../dist-packages/ directory) for all requested Python versions (dh_install doesn't know about python's
site- vs. dist-packages issue).
Syntax: path/to/file [NAMESPACE] [VERSION_RANGE]
debian directory is automatically removed from the path, so you can place your files in debian/ directory
and install them from this location (if you want to install them in "debian" namespace, set NAMESPACE to
debian). If NAMESPACE is set, all listed files will be installed in .../dist-packages/NAMESPACE/
directory.
Examples:
• foo.py installs .../dist-packages/foo.py for all supported Python versions
• foo/bar.py 2.6- installs .../dist-packages/foo/bar.py for versions >= 2.6
• foo/bar.py spam installs .../dist-packages/spam/bar.py
• debian/*.py spam.egg 2.5 installs .../python2.5/site-packages/spam/egg/*.py files
pyremove files
If you want to remove some public modules (i.e. files in .../dist-packages/ directory) installed by build
system (from all supported Python versions or only from a subset of these versions), add them to
debian/pkg.pyremove file.
Examples:
• *.pth removes .pth files from .../dist-packages/
• bar/baz.py 2.5 removes .../python2.5/site-packages/bar/baz.py
overriding supported / default Python versions
If you want to override system's list of supported Python versions or the default one (f.e. to build a
package that includes symlinks for older version of Python or compile .py files only for given
interpreter version), you can do that via DEBPYTHON_SUPPORTED and/or DEBPYTHON_DEFAULT env. variables.
Example: 2.5,2.7 limits the list of supported Python versions to Python 2.5 and Python 2.7.
OPTIONS
--version
show program's version number and exit
-h, --help
show help message and exit
--no-guessing-versions
disable guessing other supported Python versions
--no-guessing-deps
disable guessing dependencies
--no-dbg-cleaning
do not remove any files from debug packages
--no-ext-rename do not add magic tags nor multiarch tuples to extension file names
--no-shebang-rewrite
do not rewrite shebangs
--skip-private
don't check private directories
-v, --verbose
turn verbose mode on
-i, --indep
act on architecture independent packages
-a, --arch
act on architecture dependent packages
-q, --quiet
be quiet
-p PACKAGE, --package=PACKAGE
act on the package named PACKAGE
-N NO_PACKAGE, --no-package=NO_PACKAGE
do not act on the specified package
-V VRANGE
specify list of supported Python versions. See pycompile(1) for examples
-X REGEXPR, --exclude=REGEXPR
exclude items that match given REGEXPR. You may use this option multiple times to build up a list
of things to exclude.
--compile-all
compile all files from given private directory in postinst/rtupdate not just the ones provided by
the package (i.e. do not pass the --package parameter to pycompile/pyclean)
--accept-upstream-versions
accept upstream versions while translating Python dependencies into Debian ones
--depends=DEPENDS
translate given requirements into Debian dependencies and add them to ${python:Depends}. Use it
for missing items in requires.txt
--depends-section=SECTION
translate requirements from given sections of requres.txt file into Debian dependencies and add
them to ${python:Depends}.
--recommends=RECOMMENDS
translate given requirements into Debian dependencies and add them to ${python:Recommends}
--recommends-section=SECTION
translate requirements from given sections of requres.txt file into Debian dependencies and add
them to ${python:Recommends}.
--suggests=SUGGESTS
translate given requirements into Debian dependencies and add them to ${python:Suggests}
--suggests-section=SECTION
translate requirements from given sections of requres.txt file into Debian dependencies and add
them to ${python:Suggests}.
--requires=FILENAME
translate requirements from given file(s) into Debian dependencies and add them to
${python:Depends}
--namespace=NAME
use this option (multiple time if necessary) if namespace_packages.txt is not complete
--ignore-namespace
ignore Egg's namespace declaration and --namespace option. This option will disable removing (and
recreating at install time) empty __init__.py files. Removing namespace_packages.txt from egg-info
directory has the same effect.
--clean-pycentral
generate maintainer script that will remove byte code generated by python-central helper
--shebang=COMMAND
use given command as shebang in scripts
--ignore-shebangs
do not translate shebangs into Debian dependencies
SEE ALSO
• /usr/share/doc/python/python-policy.txt.gz
• /usr/share/doc/dh-python/README.PyDist
• pybuild(1)
• pycompile(1), pyclean(1)
• dh_python3(1), py3compile(1), py3clean(1)
• Wiki page about converting package to dh_python2: http://wiki.debian.org/Python/TransitionToDHPython2
• http://deb.li/dhp2 - most recent version of this document
AUTHOR
Piotr Ożarowski, 2012-2013
DH_PYTHON2(1)