NAME

       dh - debhelper command sequencer

SYNOPSIS

       dh sequence [--with addon[,addon ...]] [--list] [debhelper options]

DESCRIPTION

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

OVERRIDE TARGETS

       A debian/rules file using dh can override the command that is run at any step in a
       sequence, by defining an override target.

       To override dh_command, add a target named override_dh_command to the rules file. 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.

       Override targets can also be defined to run only when building architecture dependent or
       architecture independent packages.  Use targets with names like override_dh_command-arch
       and override_dh_command-indep.  (Note that to use this feature, you should Build-Depend on
       debhelper 8.9.7 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. This option can be repeated
           more than once, or multiple addons to disable can be listed, separated by commas.

       --list, -l
           List all available addons.

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

           Note that dh normally skips running commands that it knows will do nothing.  With
           --no-act, the full list of commands in a sequence is printed.

       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.

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_auto_configure:
                       dh_auto_configure -- --with-foo --disable-bar

       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 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

       Python tools are not run by dh by default, due to the continual change in that area.
       (Before compatibility level v9, dh does run dh_pysupport.)  Here is how to use dh_python2.

               #!/usr/bin/make -f
               %:
                       dh $@ --with python2

       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

       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, please either use compat 10 or pass --parallel
       to dh. Then dpkg-buildpackage -j will work.

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

       If your package cannot be built reliably while using multiple threads, please pass
       --no-parallel to dh (or the relevant dh_auto_* command):

               #!/usr/bin/make -f
               %:
                       dh $@ --no-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:

       A long build process for a separate documentation package can be separated out using
       architecture independent overrides.  These will be skipped when running build-arch and
       binary-arch sequences.

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

               override_dh_auto_build-indep:
                       $(MAKE) -C docs

               # No tests needed for docs
               override_dh_auto_test-indep:

               override_dh_auto_install-indep:
                       $(MAKE) -C docs install

       Adding to the example above, suppose you need to chmod a file, but only when building the
       architecture dependent package, as it's not present when building only documentation.

               override_dh_fixperms-arch:
                       dh_fixperms
                       chmod 4755 debian/foo/usr/bin/foo

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.

       A sequence can also run dependent targets in debian/rules.  For example, the "binary"
       sequence runs the "install" target.

       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.

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

DEPRECATED OPTIONS

       The following options are deprecated. It's much better to use override targets instead.
       They are not available in compat 10.

       --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.

       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.

SEE ALSO

       debhelper(7)

       This program is a part of debhelper.

AUTHOR

       Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>