Provided by: dgit_0.21_all 
NAME
dgit - git integration with the Debian archive
SYNOPSIS
dgit [dgit-opts] clone [dgit-opts] package [suite] [./dir|/dir]
dgit [dgit-opts] fetch|pull [dgit-opts] [suite]
dgit [dgit-opts] build|sbuild|build-source [build-opts]
dgit [dgit-opts] push [dgit-opts] [suite]
dgit [dgit-opts] rpush build-host:build-dir [push args...]
dgit [dgit-opts] action ...
DESCRIPTION
dgit treats the Debian archive as a version control system, and bidirectionally gateways between the
archive and git. The git view of the package can contain the usual upstream git history, and will be
augmented by commits representing uploads done by other developers not using dgit. This git history is
stored in a canonical location known as dgit-repos which lives outside the Debian archive (currently, on
Alioth).
The usual workflow is: 1. clone or fetch; 2. make and commit changes in git as desired; 3. run dgit
build, dgit sbuild or dgit build-source, or generate the source and binary packages for upload some other
way; 4. do pre-upload tests of the proposed upload; 5. run dgit push.
dgit clone package [suite] [./dir|/dir]
Consults the archive and dgit-repos to construct the git view of history for package in suite (sid
by default) in a new directory (named ./package by default); also, downloads any necessary orig
tarballs.
The suite's git tip is left on the local branch dgit/suite ready for work, and on the
corresponding dgit remote tracking branch. Also, the origin remote will be set up to point to the
package's dgit-repos tree for the distro to which suite belongs.
dgit fetch [suite]
Consults the archive and git-repos to update the git view of history for a specific suite (and
downloads any necessary orig tarballs), and updates the remote tracking branch
remotes/dgit/dgit/suite. If the current branch is dgit/suite then dgit fetch defaults to suite;
otherwise it parses debian/changelog and uses the suite specified there.
dgit pull [suite]
Does dgit fetch, and then merges the new head of the remote tracking branch
remotes/dgit/dgit/suite into the current branch.
dgit build ...
Runs dpkg-buildpackage with some suitable options. Options and argumments after build will be
passed on to dpkg-buildpackage. It is not necessary to use dgit build when using dgit; it is OK
to use any approach which ensures that the generated source package corresponds to the relevant
git commit.
Tagging, signing and actually uploading should be left to dgit push.
dgit build-source ...
Builds the source package, and a changes file for a prospective source-only upload, using dpkg-
source. The output is left in package_version.dsc and package_version_source.changes.
Tagging, signing and actually uploading should be left to dgit push.
dgit help
Print a usage summary.
dgit sbuild ...
Constructs the source package, uses sbuild to do a binary build, and uses mergechanges to merge
the source and binary changes files. Options and argumments after sbuild will be passed on to
sbuild. Changes files matching package_version_*.changes in the parent directory will be removed;
the output is left in package_version_multi.changes.
Tagging, signing and actually uploading should be left to dgit push.
dgit git-build ...
Runs git-buildpackage with some suitable options. Options and argumments after git-build will be
passed on to git-buildpackage.
Tagging, signing and actually uploading should be left to dgit push.
dgit push [suite]
Does an `upload', pushing the current HEAD to the archive (as a source package) and to dgit-repos
(as git commits). The package must already have been built ready for upload, with the .dsc and
.changes left in the parent directory.
In more detail: dgit push checks that the current HEAD corresponds to the .dsc. It then pushes
the HEAD to the suite's dgit-repos branch, makes a signed git tag, edits the .dsc to contain the
dgit metadata field, runs debsign to sign the upload (.dsc and .changes), pushes the signed tag,
and finally uses dput to upload the .changes to the archive.
dgit push always uses the package, suite and version specified in the debian/changelog and the
.dsc, which must agree. If the command line specifies a suite then that must match too.
If dgit push fails while uploading, it is fine to simply retry the dput on the .changes file at
your leisure.
dgit rpush build-host:build-dir [push args...]
Pushes the contents of the specified directory on a remote machine. This is like running dgit
push on build-host with build-dir as the current directory; however, signing operations are done
on the invoking host. This allows you to do a push when the system which has the source code and
the build outputs has no access to the key.
However, the build-host must be able to ssh to the dgit repos. If this is not already the case,
you must organise it separately, for example by the use of ssh agent forwarding.
The remaining arguments are treated just as dgit push would handle them.
build-host and build-dir can be passed as separate arguments; this is assumed to be the case if
the first argument contains no : (except perhaps on in [ ], to support IPv6 address literals).
dgit quilt-fixup
Looks to see if the tree is one which dpkg-source cannot properly represent. If it isn't, dgit
will fix it up for you (in quilt terms, by making a new debian/ patch containing your unquilty
changes) and make a commit of the changes it has made.
This is normally done automatically by dgit build and dgit push.
dgit version
Prints version information and exits.
OPTIONS
--dry-run|-n
Go through the motions, fetching all information needed, but do not actually update the output(s).
For push, dgit does the required checks and leaves the new .dsc in a temporary file, but does not
sign, tag, push or upload.
--damp-run|-L
Go through many more of the motions: do everything that doesn't involve either signing things, or
making changes on the public servers.
-kkeyid
Use keyid for signing the tag and the upload.
--no-sign
does not sign tags or uploads (meaningful only with push).
-ppackage
Specifies that we should process source package package rather than looking in debian/control or
debian/changelog. Valid with dgit fetch and dgit pull, only.
--clean=git|-wg
The source tree should be cleaned, before building a source package with one of the build options,
using git clean -xdf. This will delete all files which are not tracked by git.
--clean=none|-wn
Do not clean the tree before building a source package. If there are files which are not in git,
a subsequent dgit push will fail.
--clean=dpkg-source|-wd
Use dpkg-buildpackage to do the clean, so that the source package is cleaned by dpkg-source
running the package's clean target. This is the default. It requires the package's build
dependencies.
-N|--new
The package may be new in this suite. Without this, dgit will refuse to push.
--ignore-dirty
Do not complain if the working tree does not match your git HEAD. This can be useful with build,
if you plan to commit later. (dgit push will still ensure that the .dsc you upload and the git
tree you push are identical, so this option won't make broken pushes.)
This option may not work properly on `3.0 (quilt)' packages, as in that case dgit needs to use and
perhaps commit parts of your working tree.
--no-quilt-fixup
Do not fix up source format `3.0 (quilt)' metadata. If you use this option and the package did in
fact need fixing up, dgit push will fail.
-D Prints debugging information to stderr. Repeating the option produces more output (currently, up
to -DD is meaningfully different).
-cname=value
Specifies a git configuration option. dgit itself is also controlled by git configuration
options.
-vversion|_ | --since-version=version|_
Specifies the -vversion option to pass to dpkg-genchanges, during builds. Changes (from
debian/changelog) since this version will be included in the built changes file, and hence in the
upload. If this option is not specified, dgit will query the archive and use the latest version
uploaded to the intended suite.
Specifying _ inhibits this, so that no -v option will be passed to dpkg-genchanges (and as a
result, only the last stanza from debian/changelog will be used for the build and upload).
-mmaintaineraddress
Passed to dpkg-genchanges (eventually).
--ch:option
Specifies a single additional option to pass, eventually, to dpkg-genchanges.
--dget=program|--dput=program|...
Specifies alternative programs to use instead of dget, dput, debsign, dpkg-source, dpkg-
buildpackage, dpkg-genchanges, sbuild, gpg, ssh, dgit, or mergechanges.
For dpkg-buildpackage, dpkg-genchanges, mergechanges and sbuild, this applies only when the
program is invoked directly by dgit.
For dgit, specifies the command to run on the remote host when dgit rpush needs to invoke a remote
copy of itself. (dgit also reinvokes itself as the EDITOR for dpkg-source --commit; this is done
using argv[0], and is not affected by --dget=).
For ssh, the default value is taken from the DGIT_SSH or GIT_SSH environment variables, if set
(see below). And, for ssh, when accessing the archive and dgit-repos, this command line setting
is overridden by the git config variables dgit-distro.distro.ssh and .dgit.default.ssh (which can
in turn be overridden with -c). Also, when dgit is using git to access dgit-repos, only git's
idea of what ssh to use (eg, GIT_SSH) is relevant.
--dget:option|--dput:option|...
Specifies a single additional option to pass to dget, dput, debsign, dpkg-source, dpkg-
buildpackage, dpkg-genchanges, sbuild, ssh, dgit, or mergechanges. Can be repeated as necessary.
For dpkg-buildpackage, dpkg-genchanges, mergechanges and sbuild, this applies only when the
program is invoked directly by dgit. Usually, for passing options to dpkg-genchanges, you should
use --ch:option.
See notes above regarding ssh and dgit.
NB that --gpg:option is not supported (because debsign does not have that facility). But see -k.
-ddistro | --distro=distro
Specifies that the suite to be operated on is part of distro distro. This overrides the default
value found from the git config option dgit-suite.suite.distro. The only effect is that other
configuration variables (used for accessing the archive and dgit-repos) used are dgit-
distro.distro.*.
If your suite is part of a distro that dgit already knows about, you can use this option to make
dgit work even if your dgit doesn't know about the suite. For example, specifying -ddebian will
work when the suite is an unknown suite in the Debian archive.
To define a new distro it is necessary to define methods and URLs for fetching (and, for dgit
push, altering) a variety of information both in the archive and in dgit-repos. How to do this is
not yet documented, and currently the arrangements are unpleasant. See BUGS.
-Cchangesfile
Specifies the .changes file which is to be uploaded. By default dgit push looks for single
.changes file in the parent directory whose filename suggests it is for the right package and
version - or, if there is a _multi.changes file, dgit uses that.
If the specified changesfile pathname contains slashes, the directory part is also used as the
value for --build-products-dir; otherwise, the changes file is expected in that directory (by
default, in ..).
--build-products-dir=directory
Specifies where to find the built files to be uploaded. By default, dgit looks in the parent
directory ..).
--existing-package=package
dgit push needs to canonicalise the suite name. Sometimes, dgit lacks a way to ask the archive to
do this without knowing the name of an existing package. Without --new we can just use the
package we are trying to push. But with --new that will not work, so we guess dpkg or use the
value of this option. This option is not needed with the default mechanisms for accessing the
archive.
-h|--help
Print a usage summary.
--initiator-tempdir=directory
dgit rpush uses a temporary directory on the invoking (signing) host. This option causes dgit to
use directory instead. Furthermore, the specified directory will be emptied, removed and
recreated before dgit starts, rather than removed after dgit finishes. The directory specified
must be an absolute pathname.
WORKFLOW - SIMPLE
It is always possible with dgit to clone or fetch a package, make changes in git (using git-commit) on
the suite branch (git checkout dgit/suite) and then dgit push. You can use whatever gitish techniques
you like to construct the commit to push; the only requirement is that it is a descendant of the state of
the archive, as provided by dgit in the remote tracking branch remotes/dgit/dgit/suite.
If you are lucky the other uploaders have also used dgit and integrated the other relevant git history;
if not you can fetch it into your tree and cherry-pick etc. as you wish.
WORKFLOW - INTEGRATING BETWEEN DGIT AND OTHER GIT HISTORY
If you are the maintainer of a package dealing with uploads made without dgit, you will probably want to
merge the synthetic commits (made by dgit to represent the uploads) into your git history. Normally you
can just merge the dgit branch into your own master, or indeed if you do your work on the dgit local
suite branch dgit/suite you can just use dgit pull.
However the first time dgit is used it will generate a new origin commit from the archive which won't be
linked into the rest of your git history. You will need to merge this.
If last upload was in fact made with git, you should usually proceed as follows: identify the commit
which was actually used to build the package. (Hopefully you have a tag for this.) Check out the dgit
branch (git checkout dgit/suite) and merge that other commit (git merge debian/version). Hopefully this
merge will be trivial because the two trees should be the same. The resulting branch head can be merged
into your working branches (git checkout master && git merge dgit/suite).
If last upload was not made with git, a different approach is required to start using dgit. First, do
dgit fetch (or clone) to obtain a git history representation of what's in the archive and record it in
the remotes/dgit/dgit/suite tracking branch. Then somehow, using your other git history plus appropriate
diffs and cherry picks from the dgit remote tracking branch, construct a git commit whose tree
corresponds to the tree to use for the next upload. If that commit-to-be-uploaded is not a descendant of
the dig remote tracking branch, check it out and say git merge -s ours remotes/dgit/dgit/suite; that
tells git that we are deliberately throwing away any differences between what's in the archive and what
you intend to upload. Then run dgit push to actually upload the result.
MODEL
You may use any suitable git workflow with dgit, provided you satisfy dgit's requirements:
dgit maintains a pseudo-remote called dgit, with one branch per suite. This remote cannot be used with
plain git.
The dgit-repos repository for each package contains one ref per suite named refs/dgit/suite. These
should be pushed to only by dgit. They are fast forwarding. Each push on this branch corresponds to an
upload (or attempted upload).
However, it is perfectly fine to have other branches in dgit-repos; normally the dgit-repos repo for the
package will be accessible via the remote name `origin'.
dgit push will also (by default) make signed tags called debian/version and push them to dgit-repos, but
nothing depends on these tags existing.
dgit push can operate on any commit which is a descendant of the current dgit/suite tip in dgit-repos.
Uploads made by dgit contain an additional field Dgit in the source package .dsc. (This is added by dgit
push.) This specifies a commit (an ancestor of the dgit/suite branch) whose tree is identical to the
unpacked source upload.
Uploads not made by dgit are represented in git by commits which are synthesised by dgit. The tree of
each such commit corresponds to the unpacked source; there is an origin commit with the contents, and a
psuedo-merge from last known upload - that is, from the contents of the dgit/suite branch.
dgit expects repos that it works with to have a dgit remote. This refers to the well-known dgit-repos
location (currently, the dgit-repos project on Alioth). dgit fetch updates the remote tracking branch
for dgit/suite.
dgit does not (currently) represent the orig tarball(s) in git. The orig tarballs are downloaded (by
dgit clone) into the parent directory, as with a traditional (non-gitish) dpkg-source workflow. You need
to retain these tarballs in the parent directory for dgit build and dgit push.
To a user looking at the archive, changes pushed using dgit look like changes made in an NMU: in a `3.0
(quilt)' package the delta from the previous upload is recorded in a new patch constructed by dpkg-
source.
PACKAGE SOURCE FORMATS
If you are not the maintainer, you do not need to worry about the source format of the package. You can
just make changes as you like in git. If the package is a `3.0 (quilt)' package, the patch stack will
usually not be represented in the git history.
If you are the maintainer of a non-native package, you currently have two sensible options:
Firstly, you can regard your git history as primary, and the archive as an export format. For example,
you could maintain topic branches in git and a fast-forwarding release branch; or you could do your work
directly in a merging way on the dgit/suite branches. If you do this you should probably use a `1.0'
format source package if you can. In the archive, the delta between upstream will be represented in the
single Debian patch.
Secondly, you can use `3.0 (quilt)', and regard your quiltish patch stack in the archive as primary. You
will have to use other tools besides dgit to import and export this patch stack. But see below:
FORMAT 3.0 (QUILT)
For a format `3.0 (quilt)' source package, dgit may have to make a commit on your current branch to
contain metadata used by quilt and dpkg-source.
This is because (i) the `3.0 (quilt)' source format cannot represent certain trees, and (ii) packing up a
tree in `3.0 (quilt)' and then unpacking it does not always yield the same tree. Instead, dpkg-source
insists on the trees having extra quilty metadata and patch files in the debian/ and .pc/ directories,
which dpkg-source sometimes modifies.
dgit will automatically work around this braindamage for you when building and pushing. The only thing
you need to know is that dgit build, sbuild, etc., may make a new commit on your HEAD. If you're not a
quilt user this commit won't contain any changes to files you care about.
You can explicitly request that dgit do just this fixup, by running dgit quilt-fixup.
We recommend against the use of `3.0 (quilt)'.
FILES IN THE SOURCE PACKAGE BUT NOT IN GIT
This section is mainly of interest to maintainers who want to use dgit with their existing git history
for the Debian package.
Some developers like to have an extra-clean git tree which lacks files which are normally found in source
tarballs and therefore in Debian source packages. For example, it is conventional to ship ./configure in
the source tarball, but some people prefer not to have it present in the git view of their project.
dgit requires that the source package unpacks to exactly the same files as are in the git commit on which
dgit push operates. So if you just try to dgit push directly from one of these extra-clean git branches,
it will fail.
As the maintainer you therefore have the following options:
• Persuade upstream that the source code in their git history and the source they ship as tarballs
should be identical. Of course simply removing the files from the tarball may make the tarball
hard for people to use.
One answer is to commit the (maybe autogenerated) files, perhaps with some simple automation to
deal with conflicts and spurious changes. This has the advantage that someone who clones the git
repository finds the program just as easy to build as someone who uses the tarball.
• Have separate git branches which do contain the extra files, and after regenerating the extra
files (whenever you would have to anyway), commit the result onto those branches.
• Provide source packages which lack the files you don't want in git, and arrange for your package
build to create them as needed. This may mean not using upstream source tarballs and makes the
Debian source package less useful for people without Debian build infrastructure.
Of course it may also be that the differences are due to build system bugs, which cause unintended files
to end up in the source package. dgit will notice this and complain. You may have to fix these bugs
before you can unify your existing git history with dgit's.
CONFIGURATION
dgit looks at the following git config keys to control its behaviour. You may set them with git-config
(either in system-global or per-tree configuration), or provide -ckey=value on the dgit command line.
dgit-suite.suite.distro
dgit.default.distro
dgit-distro.distro.username
dgit-distro.distro.git-url
dgit-distro.distro.git-user
dgit-distro.distro.git-host
dgit-distro.distro.git-proto
dgit-distro.distro.git-path
dgit-distro.distro.git-check
dgit-distro.distro.git-create
dgit-distro.distro.upload-host
dgit-distro.distro.mirror
dgit-distro.distro.archive-query
dgit-distro.distro.archive-query-default-component
dgit-distro.distro.sshpsql-user
dgit-distro.distro.sshpsql-host
dgit-distro.distro.sshpsql-dbname
dgit-distro.distro.ssh
dgit-distro.distro.keyid
dgit.default.*
for each dgit-distro.distro.*
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
DGIT_SSH, GIT_SSH
specify an alternative default program (and perhaps arguments) to use instead of ssh. DGIT_SSH is
consulted first and may contain arguments; if it contains any whitespace will be passed to the
shell. GIT_SSH specifies just the program; no arguments can be specified, so dgit interprets it
the same way as git does. See also the --ssh= and --ssh: options.
gpg, dpkg-..., debsign, git, dget, dput, LWP::UserAgent
and other subprograms and modules used by dgit are affected by various environment variables.
Consult the documentaton for those programs for details.
BUGS
We should be using some kind of vhost/vpath setup for the git repos on alioth, so that they can be moved
later if and when this turns out to be a good idea.
dgit push should perhaps do `git push origin', or something similar, by default.
Debian does not have a working rmadison server, so to find out what version of a package is in the
archive, or to canonicalise suite names, we ssh directly into the ftpmaster server and run psql there to
access the database.
The mechanism for checking for and creating per-package repos on alioth is a hideous bodge. One
consequence is that dgit currently only works for people with push access.
Debian Maintainers are currently not able to push, as there is not currently any mechanism for
determining and honouring the archive's ideas about access control. Currently only DDs can push.
dgit's representation of format `3.0 (quilt)' source packages does not represent the patch stack.
Currently the patch series representation cannot round trip through the archive. Ideally dgit would
represent a quilty package with an origin commit of some kind followed by the patch stack as a series of
commits followed by a pseudo-merge (to make the branch fast-forwarding). This would also mean a new
`dgit rebase-prep' command or some such to turn such a fast-forwarding branch back into a rebasing patch
stack, and a `force' option to dgit push (perhaps enabled automatically by a note left by rebase-prep)
which will make the required pseudo-merge.
If the dgit push fails halfway through, it should be restartable and idempotent. However this is not
true for the git tag operation. Also, it would be good to check that the proposed signing key is
available before starting work.
dgit's handling of .orig.tar.gz is not very sophisticated. Ideally the .orig.tar.gz could be transported
via the git repo as git tags. Doing this is made more complicated by the possibility of a `3.0 (quilt)'
package with multiple .orig tarballs.
dgit's build functions, and dgit push, should not make any changes to your current HEAD. Sadly this is
necessary for packages in the `3.0 (quilt)' source format. This is ultimately due to design problems in
quilt and dpkg-source.
There should be an option which arranges for the `3.0 (quilt)' autocommit to not appear on your HEAD, but
instead only in the remote tracking suite branch.
The option parser requires values to be cuddled to the option name.
dgit assumes knowledge of the archive database. (The information dgit needs is not currently available
via any public online service with a well-defined interface, let alone a secure one.)
--dry-run does not always work properly, as not doing some of the git fetches may result in subsequent
actions being different. Doing a non-dry-run dgit fetch first will help.
SEE ALSO
dget(1), dput(1), debsign(1), git-config(1), git-buildpackage(1), dpkg-buildpackage(1),
https://wiki.debian.org/Alioth
Debian Project dgit(1)