NAME

       dh_installdocs - install documentation into package build directories

SYNOPSIS

       dh_installdocs [debhelper options] [-A] [-Xitem] [file ...]

DESCRIPTION

       dh_installdocs is a debhelper program that is responsible for installing documentation
       into usr/share/doc/package in package build directories.

       In compat 10 and earlier, dh_install(1) may be a better tool for handling the upstream
       documentation, when upstream's own build system installs all the desired documentation
       correctly.  In this case, dh_installdocs is still useful for installing packaging related
       documentation (e.g. the debian/copyright file).

       From debhelper compatibility level 11 on, dh_install will fall back to looking in
       debian/tmp for files, if it does not find them in the current directory (or wherever
       you've told it to look using --sourcedir).

       In compat 11 and later, dh_installdocs offers many of the features that dh_install(1) also
       has.  Furthermore, dh_installdocs also supports the nodoc build profile to exclude
       documentation (regardless of compat level).

FILES

       debian/package.docs
           List documentation files to be installed into package.

           Supports substitution variables in compat 13 and later as documented in debhelper(7).

       debian/copyright
           The copyright file is installed into all packages, unless a more specific copyright
           file is available.

       debian/package.copyright
       debian/package.README.Debian
       debian/package.TODO
           Each of these files is automatically installed if present for a package.

       debian/README.Debian
       debian/TODO
           These files are installed into the first binary package listed in debian/control.

           Note that README.debian files are also installed as README.Debian, and TODO files will
           be installed as TODO.Debian in non-native packages.

       debian/package.doc-base
           Installed as doc-base control files. Note that the doc-id will be determined from the
           Document: entry in the doc-base control file in question. In the event that multiple
           doc-base files in a single source package share the same doc-id, they will be
           installed to usr/share/doc-base/package instead of usr/share/doc-base/doc-id.

       debian/package.doc-base.*
           If your package needs to register more than one document, you need multiple doc-base
           files, and can name them like this. In the event that multiple doc-base files of this
           style in a single source package share the same doc-id, they will be installed to
           usr/share/doc-base/package-* instead of usr/share/doc-base/doc-id.

           Please be aware that this deduplication is currently done in memory only, so for now
           it requires dh_installdocs to be called no more than once during the package build.
           Calling dh_installdocs -ppackage in combination with using debian/package.doc-base.*
           files can lead to uninstallable packages. See <https://bugs.debian.org/980903> for
           details.

OPTIONS

       -A, --all
           Install all files specified by command line parameters in ALL packages acted on.

       -Xitem, --exclude=item
           Exclude files that contain item anywhere in their filename from being installed. Note
           that this includes doc-base files.

       --sourcedir=dir
           Look in the specified directory for files to be installed.  This option requires
           compat 11 or later (it is silently ignored in compat 10 or earlier).

           Note that this is not the same as the --sourcedirectory option used by the dh_auto_*
           commands. You rarely need to use this option, since dh_installman automatically looks
           for files in debian/tmp in debhelper compatibility level 11 and above.

       --doc-main-package=main-package
           Set the main package for a documentation package.  This is used to install the
           documentation of the documentation package in /usr/share/doc/main-package as
           recommended by the Debian policy manual 3.9.7 in §12.3.

           In compat 11 (or later), this option is only useful if debhelper's auto-detection of
           the main package is wrong.  The option can also be used to silence a warning from
           debhelper when the auto-detection fails but the default happens to be correct.

           This option cannot be used when dh_installdocs is instructed to act on multiple
           packages.  If you need this option, you will generally need to combine it with -p to
           ensure exactly one package is acted on.

           Please keep in mind that some documentation (the copyright file, README.Debian, etc.)
           will be unaffected by this option.

       --link-doc=package
           Make the documentation directory of all packages acted on be a symlink to the
           documentation directory of package. This has no effect when acting on package itself,
           or if the documentation directory to be created already exists when dh_installdocs is
           run. To comply with policy, package must be a binary package that comes from the same
           source package.

           debhelper will try to avoid installing files into linked documentation directories
           that would cause conflicts with the linked package. The -A option will have no effect
           on packages with linked documentation directories, and copyright, changelog,
           README.Debian, and TODO files will not be installed.

           (An older method to accomplish the same thing, which is still supported, is to make
           the documentation directory of a package be a dangling symlink, before calling
           dh_installdocs.)

           Please note that this option only applies to the documentation directory for the
           package itself.  When the package ships documentation for another package (e.g. see
           --doc-main-package), it will not use a symlink for the documentation of the other
           package.

           CAVEAT 1: If a previous version of the package was built without this option and is
           now built with it (or vice-versa), it requires a "dir to symlink" (or "symlink to
           dir") migration.  Since debhelper has no knowledge of previous versions, you have to
           enable this migration itself.

           This can be done by providing a "debian/package.maintscript" file and using
           dh_installdeb(1) to provide the relevant maintainer script snippets.

           CAVEAT 2: The use of --link-doc should only be done when the packages have same
           "architecture" type.  A link from an architecture independent package to an
           architecture dependent package (or vice versa) will not work.  Since compat 10,
           debhelper will actively reject unsupported combinations.

       file ...
           Install these files as documentation into the first package acted on. (Or in all
           packages if -A is specified).

EXAMPLES

       This is an example of a debian/package.docs file:

         README
         TODO
         debian/notes-for-maintainers.txt
         docs/manual.txt
         docs/manual.pdf
         docs/manual-html/

NOTES

       Note that dh_installdocs will happily copy entire directory hierarchies if you ask it to
       (similar to cp -a). If it is asked to install a directory, it will install the complete
       contents of the directory.

SEE ALSO

       debhelper(7)

       This program is a part of debhelper.

AUTHOR

       Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>