trunk/maint-guide/maint-guide.en.dbk

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<title>Debian New Maintainers' Guide</title>
<bookinfo>
<authorgroup>
<!-- do not use firstname and surname tags it braks Japanese.  The same with othercredit -->
<author> <personname>Josip Rodin</personname> <email>joy-mg@debian.org</email> <contrib>original contents</contrib> </author>
<author> <personname>Osamu Aoki</personname> <email>osamu@debian.org</email> <contrib>updated contents</contrib> </author>
<!-- translator credits in po4a/translator.*.ent -->
&othercredit;
</authorgroup>
<releaseinfo>version &docversion;</releaseinfo>
<pubdate>&docisodate;</pubdate>
<copyright><year>1998-2002</year> <holder>Josip Rodin</holder></copyright>
<copyright><year>2005-2011</year> <holder>Osamu Aoki</holder></copyright>
<copyright><year>2010</year>      <holder>Craig Small</holder></copyright>
<copyright><year>2010</year>      <holder>Raphaël Hertzog</holder></copyright>
<legalnotice>
<para>
This document may be used under the terms the GNU General Public License
version 2 or higher.
</para>
<para>
This document was made using with these two documents as examples:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Making a Debian Package (AKA the Debmake Manual), copyright © 1997 Jaldhar
Vyas.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
The New-Maintainer's Debian Packaging Howto, copyright © 1997 Will Lowe.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</legalnotice>
<!-- toc -->
</bookinfo>
<chapter id="start"><title>Getting started The Right Way</title>
<para>
This document tries to describe the building of a Debian package to ordinary
Debian users and prospective developers.  It uses fairly non-technical language, and
it's well covered with working examples.  There is an old Latin saying:
<emphasis>Longum iter est per praecepta, breve et efficax per
exempla</emphasis> (It's a long way by the rules, but short and efficient with
examples).
</para>
<para>
This document has been updated for the Debian <literal>&base-release;</literal>
release.
<footnote><para> The document assumes you are using a
<literal>&base-release;</literal> or newer system.  If you need to follow this
text in an older system (including an older Ubuntu system etc.), you must
install backported <systemitem role="package">dpkg</systemitem> and 
<systemitem role="package">debhelper</systemitem> packages, at least.
</para> </footnote>
</para>
<para>
One of the things that makes Debian such a top-notch distribution is its
package system.  While there is a vast quantity of software already in the
Debian format, sometimes you need to install software that isn't.  You may be
wondering how you can make your own packages; and perhaps you think it is a very
difficult task.  Well, if you are a real novice on Linux, it is hard, but if
you were a rookie, you wouldn't be reading this document now&nbsp;:-)
You do need to know a little about Unix programming but you certainly
don't need to be a wizard.
<footnote><para>
You can learn about the basic handling of a Debian system from the
<ulink url="&debref;">Debian Reference</ulink>.  It contains some pointers to
learn about Unix programming, too.
</para></footnote>
</para>
<para>
One thing is certain, though: to properly create and maintain Debian packages
takes many hours.  Make no mistake, for our system to work the maintainers
need to be both technically competent and diligent.
</para>
<para>
If you need some help on packaging, please read <xref linkend="helpme"/>.
</para>
<para>
Newer versions of this document should always be available online at 
<ulink url="&maint-guide;"/> and in the 
<systemitem role="package">maint-guide</systemitem> package.
The translations may be available in packages such as
<systemitem role="package">maint-guide-es</systemitem>.
Please note that this documentation may be slightly outdated.
</para>
<para>
Since this is a tutorial, I choose to explain each detailed step for some
important topics.  Some of them may look irrelevant to you.  Please be patient.
I have also intentionally skipped some corner cases and provided only pointers
to keep this document simple.
</para>
<section id="socialdynamics"><title>Social dynamics of Debian</title>
<para>
Here are some observations of Debian's social dynamics, presented in the hope
that it will prepare you for interactions with Debian.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>We all are volunteers.</para>
    <itemizedlist>
    <listitem><para>You cannot impose on others what to do.</para></listitem>
    <listitem><para>You should be motivated to do things by yourself.</para></listitem>
    </itemizedlist></listitem>
<listitem><para>Friendly cooperation is the driving force.</para>
    <itemizedlist>
    <listitem><para>Your contribution should not overstrain others.</para></listitem>
    <listitem><para>Your contribution is valuable only when others appreciate it.</para></listitem>
    </itemizedlist></listitem>
<listitem><para>Debian is not your school where you get automatic attention of teachers.</para>
    <itemizedlist>
    <listitem><para>You should be able to learn many things by yourself.</para></listitem>
    <listitem><para>Attention from other volunteers is a very scarce resource.</para></listitem>
    </itemizedlist></listitem>
<listitem><para>Debian is constantly improving.</para>
    <itemizedlist>
    <listitem><para>You are expected to make high quality packages.</para></listitem>
    <listitem><para>You should adapt yourself to change.</para></listitem>
    </itemizedlist></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
There are several types of people interacting around Debian with different
roles.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="strong">upstream author</emphasis>: the person who made the
original program.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="strong">upstream maintainer</emphasis>: the person who
currently maintains the program.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="strong">maintainer</emphasis>: the person making the Debian
package of the program.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="strong">sponsor</emphasis>: a person who helps maintainers to
upload packages to the official Debian package archive (after checking their
contents).
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="strong">mentor</emphasis>: a person who helps novice
maintainers with packaging etc.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="strong">Debian Developer</emphasis> (DD): a member of
the Debian project with full upload rights to the official Debian package
archive.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="strong">Debian Maintainer</emphasis> (DM): a person with
limited upload rights to the official Debian package archive.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
Please note that you cannot become an official
<emphasis role="strong">Debian Developer</emphasis> (DD) overnight, because it
takes more than technical skill.  Please do not be discouraged by this.  If it
is useful to others, you can still upload your package either as a 
<emphasis role="strong">maintainer</emphasis> through a 
<emphasis role="strong">sponsor</emphasis> or as a 
<emphasis role="strong">Debian Maintainer</emphasis>.
</para>
<para>
Please note that you do not need to create any new package to become an
official Debian Developer.  Contributing to the existing packages can provide a
path to becoming an official Debian Developer too.  There are many packages
waiting for good maintainers (see <xref linkend="choose"/>).
</para>
<para>
Since we focus only on technical aspects of packaging in this document,
please refer to the following to learn how Debian functions and how you can get involved.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para><ulink url="&logiciellibre;">Debian: 17 years of Free Software, "do-ocracy", and democracy</ulink> (Introductory slides) </para> </listitem>
<listitem><para><ulink url="&debianorghelp;">How can you help Debian?</ulink> (official) </para> </listitem>
<listitem><para><ulink url="&debianfaqhelp;">The Debian GNU/Linux FAQ, Chapter 13 - "Contributing to the Debian Project"</ulink> (semi-official) </para> </listitem>
<listitem><para><ulink url="&debianwikihelp;">Debian Wiki, HelpDebian</ulink> (supplemental) </para> </listitem>
<listitem><para><ulink url="&nm-do;">Debian New Maintainer site</ulink> (official) </para> </listitem>
<listitem><para><ulink url="&debianmentorfaq;">Debian Mentors FAQ</ulink> (supplemental) </para> </listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</section>
<section id="needprogs"><title>Programs needed for development</title>
<para>
Before you start anything, you should make sure that you have properly
installed some additional packages needed for development.  Note that the list
doesn't contain any packages marked <literal>essential</literal> or
<literal>required</literal> - we expect that you have those installed already.
</para>
<para>
The following packages come with the standard Debian installation, so you
probably have them already (along with any additional packages they depend on).
Still, you should check it with <literal>aptitude show
<replaceable>package</replaceable></literal>
or with <literal>dpkg -s <replaceable>package</replaceable></literal>.
</para>
<para>
The most important package to install on your development system is the
<systemitem role="package">build-essential</systemitem> package.  Once you try
to install that, it will <emphasis>pull in</emphasis> other packages required to
have a basic build environment.
</para>
<para>
For some types of packages, that is all you will require; however, there is
another set of packages that while not essential for all package builds are
useful to have installed or may be required by your package:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<systemitem role="package">autoconf</systemitem>, <systemitem
role="package">automake</systemitem>, and <systemitem
role="package">autotools-dev</systemitem> - many newer programs use configure
scripts and <filename>Makefile</filename> files preprocessed with the help of
programs like these (see <literal>info autoconf</literal>, <literal>info
automake</literal>).  <systemitem role="package">autotools-dev</systemitem>
keeps up-to-date versions of certain auto files and has documentation about the
best way to use those files.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<systemitem role="package">debhelper</systemitem> and
<systemitem role="package">dh-make</systemitem> -
<systemitem role="package">dh-make</systemitem> is necessary to create
the skeleton of our example package, and it will use some of the
<systemitem role="package">debhelper</systemitem> tools for creating
packages.  They are not essential for this purpose, but are
<emphasis>highly</emphasis> recommended for new maintainers.  It makes
the whole process very much easier to start, and to control afterwards.
(See <citerefentry> <refentrytitle>dh_make</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>1</manvolnum> </citerefentry>, <citerefentry>
<refentrytitle>debhelper</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
</citerefentry>.) <footnote><para> There are also some more specialized
but similar packages such as
<systemitem role="package">dh-make-perl</systemitem>,
<systemitem role="package">dh-make-php</systemitem>, etc.  </para>
</footnote>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<systemitem role="package">devscripts</systemitem> - this package contains some
useful scripts that can be helpful for maintainers, but they are also
not necessary for building packages.  Packages recommended and suggested
by this package are worth looking into.  (See <ulink url="&devscripts-readme;"/>.)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<systemitem role="package">fakeroot</systemitem> - this utility lets you
emulate being root which is necessary for some parts of the build process.
(See <citerefentry> <refentrytitle>fakeroot</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>1</manvolnum> </citerefentry>.)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<systemitem role="package">file</systemitem> - this handy program can determine
what type a file is.  (See <citerefentry> <refentrytitle>file</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>1</manvolnum> </citerefentry>.)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<systemitem role="package">gfortran</systemitem> - the GNU Fortran 95 compiler,
necessary if your program is written in Fortran.  (See <citerefentry>
<refentrytitle>gfortran</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
</citerefentry>.)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<systemitem role="package">git</systemitem> - this package provides a popular
version control system designed to handle very large projects with speed and
efficiency; it is used for many high profile open source projects, most notably
the Linux kernel.  (See <citerefentry> <refentrytitle>git</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>1</manvolnum> </citerefentry>,
<ulink url="&git-doc;">git Manual</ulink>.)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<systemitem role="package">gnupg</systemitem> - a tool that enables you to
digitally <emphasis>sign</emphasis> packages.  This is especially important if
you want to distribute it to other people, and you will certainly be doing that
when your work gets included in the Debian distribution.  (See <citerefentry>
<refentrytitle>gpg</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>1</manvolnum> </citerefentry>.)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<systemitem role="package">gpc</systemitem> - the GNU Pascal compiler,
necessary if your program is written in Pascal.  Worthy of note here is
<systemitem role="package">fp-compiler</systemitem>, the Free Pascal Compiler,
which is also good at this task.  (See <citerefentry>
<refentrytitle>gpc</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>1</manvolnum> </citerefentry>,
<citerefentry> <refentrytitle>ppc386</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>1</manvolnum> </citerefentry>.)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<systemitem role="package">lintian</systemitem> - this is the Debian package
checker, which can let you know of any common mistakes after you build the
package, and explains the errors found.  (See <citerefentry>
<refentrytitle>lintian</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
</citerefentry>,
<ulink url="&lintian-doc;">Lintian User's Manual</ulink>.)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<systemitem role="package">patch</systemitem> - this very useful utility will
take a file containing a difference listing (produced by the
<command>diff</command> program) and apply it to the original file, producing a
patched version.  (See <citerefentry> <refentrytitle>patch</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>1</manvolnum> </citerefentry>.)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<systemitem role="package">patchutils</systemitem> - this package contains some
utilities to work with patches such as the <command>lsdiff</command>,
<command>interdiff</command> and <command>filterdiff</command> commands.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<systemitem role="package">pbuilder</systemitem> - this package contains
programs which are used for creating and maintaining <command>chroot</command>
environment.  Building Debian package in this <command>chroot</command>
environment verifies the proper build dependency and avoid FTBFS (Fails To
Build From Source) bugs.  (see <citerefentry>
<refentrytitle>pbuilder</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
</citerefentry> and <citerefentry> <refentrytitle>pdebuild</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>1</manvolnum> </citerefentry>)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<systemitem role="package">perl</systemitem> - Perl is one of the most used
interpreted scripting languages on today's Unix-like systems, often referred to
as Unix's Swiss Army Chainsaw. (See <citerefentry>
<refentrytitle>perl</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>1</manvolnum> </citerefentry>.)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<systemitem role="package">python</systemitem> - Python is another of the most
used interpreted scripting languages on the Debian system, combining
remarkable power with very clear syntax. (See <citerefentry>
<refentrytitle>python</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>1</manvolnum> </citerefentry>.)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<systemitem role="package">quilt</systemitem> - this package helps you to
manage large numbers of patches by keeping track of the changes each patch
makes. Patches can be applied, un-applied, refreshed, and more.  (See
<citerefentry> <refentrytitle>quilt</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>, 
<ulink url="&quilt-pdf;">quilt.pdf</ulink>.)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<systemitem role="package">xutils-dev</systemitem> - some programs, usually
those made for X11, also use these programs to generate
<filename>Makefile</filename> files from sets of macro functions.  (See
<citerefentry> <refentrytitle>imake</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
</citerefentry>, <citerefentry> <refentrytitle>xmkmf</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>1</manvolnum> </citerefentry>.)
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
The short descriptions that are given above only serve to introduce you to what
each package does.  Before continuing please read the documentation
of each relevant program including ones installed through the package dependency such as 
<command>make</command>, at least, for the standard usage.  It may seem like heavy
going now, but later on you'll be <emphasis>very</emphasis> glad you read it.
If you have specific questions later, I would suggest re-reading the documents
mentioned above.
</para>
</section>
<section id="needdocs"><title>Documentation needed for development</title>
<para>
The following is the <emphasis>very important</emphasis> documentation which
you should read along with this document:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<systemitem role="package">debian-policy</systemitem> - the <ulink url="&debian-policy;">Debian Policy
Manual</ulink> includes explanations of the structure and contents of the
Debian archive, several OS design issues, the <ulink url="&fhs;">Filesystem Hierarchy Standard</ulink>
(FHS, which says where each file and directory should be), etc.  For you, the most
important thing is that it describes requirements that each package must
satisfy to be included in the distribution. (See the local copies of
<ulink url="&policy-pdf;">policy.pdf</ulink> and <ulink url="&fhs-pdf;">fhs-2.3.pdf</ulink>.)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<systemitem role="package">developers-reference</systemitem> 
- the <ulink url="&developers-reference;">Debian Developer's Reference</ulink> 
describes all matters not specifically about the technical
details of packaging, like the structure of the archive, how to rename, orphan,
or adopt packages, how to do NMUs, how to manage bugs, best packaging practices,
when and where to upload etc.  (See the local copy of
<ulink url="&developers-refpdf;">developers-reference.pdf</ulink>.)
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
The following is the <emphasis>important</emphasis> documentation which
you should read along with this document:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<ulink url="&autotools-tutorial;">Autotools
Tutorial</ulink> provides a very good tutorial for <ulink url="&gnu-build-system;">the GNU Build System known
as the GNU Autotools</ulink> whose most important components are Autoconf,
Automake, Libtool, and gettext.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<systemitem role="package">gnu-standards</systemitem> - this package contains
two pieces of documentation from the GNU project: 
<ulink url="&gnu-standard;">GNU Coding Standards</ulink>, and 
<ulink url="&gnu-maintainer;">Information for Maintainers of GNU Software</ulink>.
Although Debian does not require these to
be followed, these are still helpful as guidelines and common sense.
(See the local copies of
<ulink url="&gnu-standard-pdf;">standards.pdf</ulink> and
<ulink url="&gnu-maintainer-pdf;">maintain.pdf</ulink>.)
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
If this document contradicts any of the documents mentioned above, they
are correct.  Please file a bug report on the
<systemitem role="package">maint-guide</systemitem> package using
<command>reportbug</command>.
</para>
</section>
<section id="helpme"><title>Where to ask for help</title>
<para>
Before you decide to ask your question in some public place, please read the fine documentation.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
files in <filename>/usr/share/doc/<replaceable>package</replaceable></filename> for all pertinent packages
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
contents of <literal><command>man</command> <replaceable>command</replaceable></literal> for all pertinent commands
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
contents of <literal><command>info</command> <replaceable>command</replaceable></literal> for all pertinent commands
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
contents of <ulink url="&debian-mentors-ldo;">debian-mentors@lists.debian.org mailing list archive</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
contents of <ulink url="&debian-devel-ldo;">debian-devel@lists.debian.org mailing list archive</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
You can use web search engines more effectively by including search strings
such as <literal>site:lists.debian.org</literal> to limit the domain.
</para>
<para>
Making a small test package is a good way to learn details of packaging.
Inspecting existing well maintained packages is the best way to learn how other
people make packages.
</para>
<para>
If you still have questions about packaging that you couldn't find answers to
in the available documentation and web resources, you can ask them interactively.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<ulink url="&debian-mentors-ldo;">debian-mentors@lists.debian.org mailing list</ulink>. (This mailing list is for the novice.)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<ulink url="&debian-devel-ldo;">debian-devel@lists.debian.org mailing list</ulink>. (This mailing list is for the expert.)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<ulink url="&irc-debian;">IRC</ulink> such as <literal>#debian-mentors</literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
The more experienced Debian developers will gladly help you, if you ask
properly after making your required efforts.
</para>
<para>
When you receive a bug report (yes, actual bug reports!), you will know that it
is time for you to dig into the 
<ulink url="&bts;">Debian Bug Tracking System</ulink> 
and read the documentation there, to be able to
deal with the reports efficiently.  I highly recommend reading the 
<ulink url="&devref-bug-handling;">Debian Developer's Reference, 5.8.
"Handling bugs"</ulink>.
</para>
<para>
Even if it all worked well, it's time to start praying.  Why?  Because in just
a few hours (or days) users from all around the world will start to use your
package, and if you made some critical error you'll get mailbombed by numerous
angry Debian users...  Just kidding.  :-)
</para>
<para>
Relax and be ready for bug reports, because there is a lot more work to be done
before your package will be fully in line with Debian policies and its best
practice guidelines (once again, read the <emphasis>real
documentation</emphasis> for details).  Good luck!
</para>
</section>
</chapter>
<chapter id="first"><title>First steps</title>
<para>
Let's start by creating a package of your own (or, even better,
adopting an existing one).
</para>
<section id="workflow"><title>Debian package building workflow</title>
<para>
If you are making a Debian package with an upstream program, the
typical workflow of Debian package building involves generating several
specifically named files for each step as follows.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Get a copy of the upstream software, usually in a compressed tar format.</para>
  <itemizedlist>
  <listitem><literal><replaceable>package</replaceable>-<replaceable>version</replaceable>.tar.gz</literal></listitem>
  </itemizedlist>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Add Debian-specific packaging modifications to the upstream program under the
<filename>debian</filename> directory, and create a non-native source package
(that is, the set of input files used for Debian package building) in
<literal>3.0 (quilt)</literal> format.
</para>
  <itemizedlist>
  <listitem><literal><replaceable>package</replaceable>_<replaceable>version</replaceable>.orig.tar.gz</literal></listitem>
  <listitem><literal><replaceable>package</replaceable>_<replaceable>version</replaceable>-<replaceable>revision</replaceable>.debian.tar.gz</literal>
    <footnote><para>For the older style of non-native Debian source packages in <literal>1.0</literal> format,
    <literal><replaceable>package</replaceable>_<replaceable>version</replaceable>-<replaceable>revision</replaceable>.diff.gz</literal>
    is used instead. </para></footnote></listitem>
  <listitem><literal><replaceable>package</replaceable>_<replaceable>version</replaceable>-<replaceable>revision</replaceable>.dsc</literal></listitem>
  </itemizedlist>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Build Debian binary packages, which are ordinary installable package files in <literal>.deb</literal> format (or <literal>.udeb</literal> format, used by the Debian Installer) from the Debian source package.
</para>
  <itemizedlist>
  <listitem><literal><replaceable>package</replaceable>_<replaceable>version</replaceable>-<replaceable>revision</replaceable>_<replaceable>arch</replaceable>.deb</literal></listitem>
  </itemizedlist>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
Please note that the character separating
<literal><replaceable>package</replaceable></literal> and
<literal><replaceable>version</replaceable></literal> was changed from
<literal>-</literal> (hyphen) in the tarball name to
<literal>_</literal> (underscore) in the Debian package filenames.
</para>
<para>
In the file names above, replace
the <literal><replaceable>package</replaceable></literal> part with the <emphasis role="strong">package name</emphasis>,
the <literal><replaceable>version</replaceable></literal> part with the <emphasis role="strong">upstream version</emphasis>,
the <literal><replaceable>revision</replaceable></literal> part with the <emphasis role="strong">Debian revision</emphasis>,
and the <literal><replaceable>arch</replaceable></literal> part with the <emphasis role="strong">package architecture</emphasis>,
as defined in the Debian Policy Manual.
<footnote> <para> See
<ulink url="&policy-source;">5.6.1 Source</ulink>, 
<ulink url="&policy-package;">5.6.7 Package</ulink>, and
<ulink url="&policy-version;">5.6.12 Version</ulink>.  
The <emphasis role="strong">package architecture</emphasis> follows the
Debian Policy Manual: <ulink url="&policy-architecture;">5.6.8 Architecture</ulink> 
and is automatically assigned by the package build process.</para></footnote>
</para>
<para>
If instead you are making a Debian-specific package with no upstream, the
typical workflow of Debian package building is simpler.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Create a native Debian source package in the <literal>3.0 (native)</literal>
format using a single compressed tar file in which all files are included.
</para>
  <itemizedlist>
  <listitem><literal><replaceable>package</replaceable>_<replaceable>version</replaceable>.tar.gz</literal></listitem>
  <listitem><literal><replaceable>package</replaceable>_<replaceable>version</replaceable>.dsc</literal></listitem>
  </itemizedlist>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Build Debian binary packages from the native Debian source package.
</para>
  <itemizedlist>
  <listitem><literal><replaceable>package</replaceable>_<replaceable>version</replaceable>_<replaceable>arch</replaceable>.deb</literal></listitem>
  </itemizedlist>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
Each step of this outline is explained with detailed examples in later sections.
</para>
</section>
<section id="choose"><title>Choose your program</title>
<para>
You have probably chosen the package you want to create.  The first thing you
need to do is check if the package is in the distribution archive already by
using the following.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>the <command>aptitude</command> command</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>the <ulink url="&packages-do;">Debian packages</ulink> web page</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>the <ulink url="&packages-qa-do;">Debian Package Tracking System</ulink> web page</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
If the package already exists, well, install it!  :-) If it happens to be
<emphasis role="strong">orphaned</emphasis> (that is, if its
maintainer is set to <ulink url="&qa-do;">Debian QA Group</ulink>),
you may be able to pick it up if it's still available.  You may also
adopt a package whose maintainer has filed a Request for Adoption
(<emphasis role="strong">RFA</emphasis>).<footnote> <para>See
<ulink url="&devref-adopt;">Debian Developer's Reference 5.9.5.
"Adopting a package"</ulink>.</para> </footnote>
</para>
<para>
There are several package ownership status resources.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para> <ulink url="&wnpp-do;">Work-Needing and Prospective Packages</ulink> </para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para> <ulink url="&wnpp-bts;">Debian Bug report logs: Bugs in pseudo-package <systemitem role="package">wnpp</systemitem> in <literal>unstable</literal></ulink> </para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para> <ulink url="&wnpp-dn;">Debian Packages that Need Lovin'</ulink> </para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para> <ulink url="&wnpp-debtags;">Browse <systemitem role="package">wnpp</systemitem> bugs based on debtags</ulink> </para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
As a side note, it's important to point out that Debian already has packages
for most kinds of programs, and the number of packages already in the Debian
archive is much larger than that of contributors with upload rights.  Thus,
contributions to packages already in the archive are far more appreciated (and
more likely to receive sponsorship) by other developers <footnote><para> Having
said that, there will of course always be new programs that are worth
packaging.  </para> </footnote>.  You can contribute in various ways.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
taking over orphaned, yet actively used, packages
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
joining <ulink url="&teams;">packaging teams</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
triaging bugs of very popular packages
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
preparing <ulink url="&devref-nmu;">QA or NMU uploads</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
If you are able to adopt the package, get the sources (with something like
<literal>apt-get source <replaceable>packagename</replaceable></literal>) and
examine them.  This document unfortunately doesn't include comprehensive
information about adopting packages.  Thankfully you shouldn't have a hard time
figuring out how the package works since someone has already done the initial
setup for you.  Keep reading, though; a lot of the advice below will still be
applicable for your case.
</para>
<para>
If the package is new, and you decide you'd like to see it in Debian, proceed
as follows:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
First, you must know that the program works, and have tried it for some time to
confirm its usefulness.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
You must check that no one else is already working on the package on the
<ulink url="&wnpp-do;">Work-Needing and Prospective Packages</ulink> site.  
If no one else is working on it, file an ITP (Intent
To Package) bug report to the <systemitem role="package">wnpp</systemitem>
pseudo-package using <command>reportbug</command>.  If someone's already on it,
contact them if you feel you need to.  If not - find another interesting
program that nobody is maintaining.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
The software <emphasis role="strong">must have a license</emphasis>.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
For the <literal>main</literal> section, Debian Policy requires it
<emphasis role="strong">to be fully compliant with the Debian Free Software
Guidelines</emphasis> (<ulink url="&dfsg;">DFSG</ulink>)
and <emphasis role="strong">not to require a package outside of
<literal>main</literal></emphasis> for compilation or execution.  This
is the desired case.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
For the <literal>contrib</literal> section, it must comply with the
DFSG but it may require a package outside of <literal>main</literal> for
compilation or execution.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
For the <literal>non-free</literal> section, it may be non-compliant
with the DFSG but it <emphasis role="strong">must be distributable</emphasis>.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
If you are unsure about where it should go, post the license text on 
<ulink url="&debian-legal-ldo;">debian-legal@lists.debian.org</ulink>
and ask for advice.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
The program should <emphasis role="strong">not</emphasis> introduce security
and maintenance concerns to the Debian system.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
The program should be well documented and its code needs to be understandable
(i.e.  not obfuscated).
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
You should contact the program's author(s) to check if they agree with packaging it
and are amicable to Debian.  It is important to be able to consult with the author(s)
in case of any problems with the program, so don't try to package
unmaintained software.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
The program certainly should <emphasis role="strong">not</emphasis> run setuid
root, or even better, it shouldn't need to be setuid or setgid to anything.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
The program should not be a daemon, or go in an
<filename>*/sbin</filename> directory, or open a port as root.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
Of course, the last one is just a safety measures, and intended to save you from
enraging users if you do something wrong in some setuid daemon...  When you gain
more experience in packaging, you'll be able to package such software.
</para>
<para>
As a new maintainer, you are encouraged to get some experience in packaging
with easier packages and discouraged from creating complicated packages.  
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>Simple packages</para>
<itemizedlist>
  <listitem><para>single binary package, arch = all (collection of data such as wallpaper graphics)</para></listitem>
  <listitem><para>single binary package, arch = all (executables written in an interpreted language such as POSIX shell)</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>Intermediate complexity packages</para>
<itemizedlist>
  <listitem><para>single binary package, arch = any (executables written in compiled languages such as C and C++)</para></listitem>
  <listitem><para>multiple binary packages, arch = any + all (packages for executables + documentation)</para></listitem>
  <listitem><para>upstream source in a format other than <filename>tar.gz</filename> or <filename>tar.bz2</filename></para></listitem>
  <listitem><para>upstream source containing undistributable contents</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>High complexity packages</para>
<itemizedlist>
  <listitem><para>interpreter module package used by other packages</para></listitem>
  <listitem><para>generic library package used by other packages</para></listitem>
  <listitem><para>multiple binary packages including a library package</para></listitem>
  <listitem><para>source package with multiple upstream sources</para></listitem>
  <listitem><para>kernel module packages</para></listitem>
  <listitem><para>kernel patch packages</para></listitem>
  <listitem><para>any package with non-trivial maintainer scripts</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
Packaging high complexity packages is not too hard, but it requires a bit more
knowledge. You should seek specific guidance for every complex feature. For
example, some languages have their own sub-policy documents:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para><ulink url="&policy-perl;">Perl policy</ulink></para></listitem>
<listitem><para><ulink url="&policy-python;">Python policy</ulink></para></listitem>
<listitem><para><ulink url="&policy-java;">Java policy</ulink></para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
There is another old Latin saying: <emphasis>fabricando fit faber</emphasis>
(practice makes perfect).  It is <emphasis>highly</emphasis> recommended to
practice and experiment with all the steps of Debian packaging with simple packages
while reading this tutorial.  A trivial upstream tarball
<filename>hello-sh-1.0.tar.gz</filename> created as followings may offer
a good starting point.<footnote><para>Do not worry about the missing
<filename>Makefile</filename>.  You can install the <command>hello</command>
command by simply using <command>debhelper</command> as in
<xref linkend="install"/>, or by modifying the upstream source to add a new
<filename>Makefile</filename> with the <literal>install</literal> target as in
<xref linkend="modify"/>.</para></footnote>
</para>
<screen>
$ mkdir -p hello-sh/hello-sh-1.0; cd hello-sh/hello-sh-1.0
$ cat &gt; hello &lt;&lt;EOF
#!/bin/sh
# (C) 2011 Foo Bar, GPL2+
echo "Hello!"
EOF
$ chmod 755 hello
$ cd ..
$ tar -cvzf hello-sh-1.0.tar.gz hello-sh-1.0
</screen>
</section>
<section id="getit"><title>Get the program, and try it out</title>
<para>
So the first thing to do is to find and download the original source code.
Presumably you already have the source file that you picked up at the
author's homepage.  Sources for free Unix programs usually come in
<command>tar</command>+<command>gzip</command> format with the extension
<filename>.tar.gz</filename>,
<command>tar</command>+<command>bzip2</command> format with the extension
<filename>.tar.bz2</filename>, or
<command>tar</command>+<command>xz</command> format with the extension
<filename>.tar.xz</filename>.  These usually contain a directory called
<filename><replaceable>package</replaceable>-<replaceable>version</replaceable></filename>
with all the sources inside.
</para>
<para>
If the latest version of the source is available through a VCS such as Git,
Subversion, or CVS, you need to get it with <literal>git
clone</literal>, <literal>svn co</literal>, or <literal>cvs co</literal> and
repack it into <command>tar</command>+<command>gzip</command> format yourself
by using the <literal>--exclude-vcs</literal> option.
</para>
<para>
If your program's source comes as some other sort of archive (for instance, the
filename ends in <filename>.Z</filename> or
<filename>.zip</filename><footnote><para> You can identify the archive format
using the <command>file</command> command when the file extension is not
enough.  </para> </footnote>), you should also unpack it with the
appropriate tools and repack it.
</para>
<para>
If your program's source comes with some contents which do not comply with
DFSG, you should also unpack it to remove such contents and repack it with a
modified upstream version containg <literal>dfsg</literal>.
</para>
<para>
As an example, I'll use a program called <command>gentoo</command>, a GTK+
file manager.
<footnote><para> This program is already packaged. The
<ulink url="&gentoo-package;">current version</ulink> uses Autotools as its
build structure and is substantially different from the following examples,
which were based on version 0.9.12.</para>
</footnote>
</para>
<para>
Create a subdirectory under your home directory named
<filename>debian</filename> or <filename>deb</filename> or anything you find
appropriate (e.g.  just <filename>~/gentoo</filename> would do fine in this
case).  Place the downloaded archive in it, and extract it (with <literal>tar
xzf gentoo-0.9.12.tar.gz</literal>).  Make sure there are no warning
messages, even <emphasis>irrelevant</emphasis> ones, because other
people's unpacking tools may or may not ignore these anomalies, so they
may have problems unpacking them.  Your shell command line may look
something like this:
</para>
<screen>
$ mkdir ~/gentoo ; cd ~/gentoo
$ wget http://<replaceable>www.example.org</replaceable>/gentoo-0.9.12.tar.gz
$ tar xvzf gentoo-0.9.12.tar.gz
$ ls -F
gentoo-0.9.12/
gentoo-0.9.12.tar.gz
</screen>
<para>
Now you have another subdirectory, called <filename>gentoo-0.9.12</filename>.
Change to that directory and <emphasis>thoroughly</emphasis> read the provided
documentation.  Usually there are files named <filename>README*</filename>,
<filename>INSTALL*</filename>, <filename>*.lsm</filename> or
<filename>*.html</filename>.  You must find instructions on how to
compile and install the program (most probably they'll assume you want to
install to the <filename>/usr/local/bin</filename> directory; you won't be doing
that, but more on that later in <xref linkend="destdir"/>).
</para>
<para>
You should start packaging with a completely clean (pristine) source directory,
or simply with freshly unpacked sources.
</para>
</section>
<section id="simplemake"><title>Simple build systems</title>
<para>
Simple programs usually come with a <filename>Makefile</filename> and can
be compiled just by invoking <literal>make</literal>.<footnote><para>
Many modern programs come with a script <filename>configure</filename> which
when executed creates a <filename>Makefile</filename> customized for
your system.</para></footnote> Some of them support
<literal>make check</literal>, which runs included self-tests.  Installation
to the destination directories is usually done with <literal>make
install</literal>.
</para>
<para>
Now try to compile and run your program, to make sure it works properly and
doesn't break something else while it's installing or running.
</para>
<para>
Also, you can usually run <literal>make clean</literal> (or better
<literal>make distclean</literal>) to clean up the build directory.  Sometimes
there's even a <literal>make uninstall</literal> which can be used to remove
all the installed files.
</para>
</section>
<section id="portable"><title>Popular portable build systems</title>
<para>
A lot of free software programs are written in the <ulink url="&c-program;">C</ulink> and
<ulink url="&cxx;">C++</ulink> languages.  Many of these use Autotools or 
CMake to make them portable across different platforms.  These build tools need 
to be used to generate the <filename>Makefile</filename> and other
required source files first.  Then, such programs are built using the usual
<literal>make; make install</literal>.
</para>
<para>
<ulink url="&gnu-build-system;">Autotools</ulink> is the GNU build
system comprising <ulink url="&autoconf;">Autoconf</ulink>,
<ulink url="&automake;">Automake</ulink>,
<ulink url="&libtool;">Libtool</ulink>, and
<ulink url="&gettext;">gettext</ulink>.  You can recognize
such sources by the <filename>configure.ac</filename>,
<filename>Makefile.am</filename>, and <filename>Makefile.in</filename> files.
<footnote><para>Autotools is too big to deal in this small tutorial. This
section is meant to provide keywords and references only.  Please make sure to read the 
<ulink url="&autotools-tutorial;">Autotools Tutorial</ulink> and 
<ulink url="&autotools-readme;"/>, if you need to use it.</para></footnote>
</para>
<para>
The first step of the Autotools workflow is usually that upstream runs
<literal>autoreconf -i -f</literal> in the source directory and
distributes the generated files along with the source.
</para>
<screen>
configure.ac-----+-&gt; autoreconf -+-&gt; configure
Makefile.am -----+        |      +-&gt; Makefile.in
src/Makefile.am -+        |      +-&gt; src/Makefile.in
                          |      +-&gt; config.h.in
                      automake
                      aclocal
                      aclocal.m4
                      autoheader
</screen>
<para>
Editing <filename>configure.ac</filename> and <filename>Makefile.am</filename>
files requires some knowledge of <command>autoconf</command> and
<command>automake</command>.  See <literal>info autoconf</literal> and
<literal>info automake</literal>.
</para>
<para>
The second step of the Autotools workflow is usually that the user obtains this
distributed source and runs <literal>./configure &amp;&amp; make</literal> in
the source directory to compile the program into a
<command><replaceable>binary</replaceable></command> executable.
</para>
<screen>
Makefile.in -----+                +-&gt; Makefile -----+-&gt; make -&gt; <replaceable>binary</replaceable>
src/Makefile.in -+-&gt; ./configure -+-&gt; src/Makefile -+
config.h.in -----+                +-&gt; config.h -----+
                          |
           config.status -+
           config.guess --+
</screen>
<para>
You can change many things in the <filename>Makefile</filename>; for
instance you can change the default location for file installation
using the option <command>./configure --prefix=/usr</command>.
</para>
<para>
Although it is not required, updating the <filename>configure</filename> and
other files with <literal>autoreconf -i -f</literal> may improve
the compatibility of the source.
<footnote><para>You can automate this by using 
<systemitem role="package">dh-autoreconf</systemitem> package.  
See <xref linkend="customrules"/>.</para></footnote>
</para>
<para>
<ulink url="&cmake;">CMake</ulink> is an alternative
build system.  You can recognize such sources by the
<filename>CMakeLists.txt</filename> file.
</para>
</section>
<section id="namever"><title>Package name and version</title>
<para>
If the upstream source comes as <filename>gentoo-0.9.12.tar.gz</filename>, you can
take <literal>gentoo</literal> as the (source) <emphasis role="strong">package name</emphasis>
and <literal>0.9.12</literal> as the <emphasis role="strong">upstream version</emphasis>.
These are used in the <filename>debian/changelog</filename> file described later in
<xref linkend="changelog"/>, too.
</para>
<para>
Although this simple approach works most of the times, you may need to adjust
<emphasis role="strong">package name</emphasis> and 
<emphasis role="strong">upstream version</emphasis> by renaming the upstream
source to follow Debian Policy and existing convention.
</para>
<para>
You must choose the <emphasis role="strong">package name</emphasis> 
to consist only of lower case letters (<literal>a-z</literal>), digits
(<literal>0-9</literal>), plus (<literal>+</literal>) and minus
(<literal>-</literal>) signs, and periods (<literal>.</literal>). It must be
at least two characters long, must start with an alphanumeric character, and
must not be the same as existing ones.
It is a good idea to keep its length within 30 characters.
<footnote><para>The default package name field length of <command>aptitude</command> is 30.  For more than 90% of packages, the package name is less than 24 characters.</para></footnote>
</para>
<!--
Osamu's archive stat (2011-04-23, sid, kfreebsd-amd64):
=== stat for package name string length ===
11 1947 36.9%   mode
14 1717 54.7%  50% median
23 611 91.0%   90%
32 89 99.0%    99%
41 12 99.9%    99.9%
52 1 100.0%
Previous 20 chars is becoming too short for 17% of packages
Default aptitude setting display up to 30 chars (98.3%).
-->
<para>
If upstream uses some generic term such as <literal>test-suite</literal> for
its name, it is a good idea to rename it to identify its contents explicitly and avoid namespace pollution.
<footnote><para>If you follow the 
<ulink url="&devref-newpackage;">Debian Developer's Reference 5.1. "New packages"</ulink>, 
the ITP process will usually catch this kind of issues.</para></footnote>
</para>
<para>
You should choose the <emphasis role="strong">upstream version</emphasis> 
to consist only of
alphanumerics (<literal>0-9A-Za-z</literal>), plus (<literal>+</literal>),
tildes (<literal>~</literal>), and periods (<literal>.</literal>). It must
start with a digit (<literal>0-9</literal>).  <footnote><para>This stricter
rule should help you avoid confusing file names.</para></footnote>
It is good idea to keep its length within 8 characters if possible.
<footnote><para>The default version field length of <command>aptitude</command> is 10.  The Debian revision with preceding hyphen usually consumes 2.  For more than 80% of packages, the upstream version is less than 8 characters and the Debian revision is less than 2 characters.  For more than 90% of packages, the upstream version is less than 10 characters and the Debian revision is less than 3 characters.</para></footnote>
</para>
<!--
Osamu's archive stat (2011-04-23, sid, kfreebsd-amd64):
=== stat for upstream version string length ===
5 9765 60.2%  50% median and mode
6 3765 73.3%
7 2789 82.9%
8 1158 86.9%
9 501 88.6%
10 773 91.3%  90%
18 55 99.1%   99%
27 11 99.9%    99.9
35 6 100.0%
=== stat for debian revision string length ===
1 22556 83.3%  50% median and mode
2 1106 87.2%
3 1312 91.7%   90%
4 2127 99.1%   99%
7 14 99.9%     99.9%

aptitude display 10 = 8char for up + 1char (for -) + 1char for deb
90chars as max for file name of binary debs (package+up+deb+arch+.deb)
-->
<para>
If upstream does not use a normal versioning scheme such as
<literal>2.30.32</literal> but uses some kind of date such as
<literal>09Oct23</literal>, a random codename string, or a VCS hash value as part
of the version, make sure to remove them from the
<emphasis role="strong">upstream version</emphasis>.  Such information can be
recorded in the <filename>debian/changelog</filename> file.  If you need to
invent a version string, use the <literal>YYYYMMDD</literal> format such as
<literal>20110429</literal> as upstream version.  This ensures that
<command>dpkg</command> interprets later versions correctly as upgrades.
</para>
<para>
Version strings <footnote><para>Version strings may be
<emphasis role="strong">upstream version</emphasis> 
(<literal><replaceable>version</replaceable></literal>),
<emphasis role="strong">Debian revision</emphasis> 
(<literal><replaceable>revision</replaceable></literal>), or
<emphasis role="strong">version</emphasis> 
(<literal><replaceable>version</replaceable>-<replaceable>revision</replaceable></literal>).
See <xref linkend="newrevision"/> for how the 
<emphasis role="strong">Debian revision</emphasis> is incremented.
</para></footnote>
can be compared using <citerefentry>
<refentrytitle>dpkg</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>1</manvolnum> </citerefentry> as follows.
</para>
<screen>
 $ dpkg --compare-versions <replaceable>ver1</replaceable> <replaceable>op</replaceable> <replaceable>ver2</replaceable>
</screen>
<para>
The version comparison rule can be summarized as:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>Strings are compared from the head to the tail.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Letters are larger than digits.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Numbers are compared as integers.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Letters are compared in ASCII code order.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>There are special rules for period
(<literal>.</literal>), plus (<literal>+</literal>), and tilde
(<literal>~</literal>) characters, as follows.</para>
  <para>
  <literal>0.0</literal> &lt; 
  <literal>0.5</literal> &lt; 
  <literal>0.10</literal> &lt; 
  <literal>0.99</literal> &lt; 
  <literal>1</literal> &lt;
  <literal>1.0~rc1</literal> &lt;
  <literal>1.0</literal> &lt; 
  <literal>1.0+b1</literal> &lt; 
  <literal>1.0+nmu1</literal> &lt;
  <literal>1.1</literal> &lt; 
  <literal>2.0</literal>
  </para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
One tricky case occurs when upstream releases
<filename>gentoo-0.9.12-ReleaseCandidate-99.tar.gz</filename> as the
pre-release of <filename>gentoo-0.9.12.tar.gz</filename>.  You need to make
sure that the upgrade works properly by renaming the upstream source to
<filename>gentoo-0.9.12~rc99.tar.gz</filename>.
</para>
</section>
<section id="dh-make"><title>Setting up <command>dh_make</command></title>
<para>
Set up the shell environment variables <literal>$DEBEMAIL</literal> and
<literal>$DEBFULLNAME</literal> so that various Debian maintenance
tools recognize your email address and name to use for packages. <footnote><para> The
following text assumes you are using Bash as your login shell.  If you use
some other login shell such as Z shell, use their corresponding
configuration files instead of <filename>~/.bashrc</filename>. </para> </footnote>
</para>
<screen>
$ cat &gt;&gt;~/.bashrc &lt;&lt;EOF
DEBEMAIL=your.email.address@example.org
DEBFULLNAME=Firstname Lastname
export DEBEMAIL DEBFULLNAME
EOF
$ . ~/.bashrc
</screen>
</section>
<section id="non-native-dh-make"><title>Initial non-native Debian package</title>
<para>
Normal Debian packages are non-native Debian packages made from upstream
programs.  If you wish to create a non-native Debian package of an upstream
source <filename>gentoo-0.9.12.tar.gz</filename>, you can create an initial
non-native Debian package for it by issuing the <command>dh_make</command>
command as follows.
</para>
<screen>
$ cd ~/gentoo
$ wget http://example.org/gentoo-0.9.12.tar.gz
$ tar -xvzf gentoo-0.9.12.tar.gz
$ cd gentoo-0.9.12
$ dh_make -f ../gentoo-0.9.12.tar.gz
</screen>
<para>
Of course, replace the filename with the name of your original source archive.
<footnote><para> If the upstream source provides the
<filename>debian</filename> directory and its contents, run the
<command>dh_make</command> command with the extra option
<literal>--addmissing</literal>.  The new source <literal>3.0 (quilt)</literal> format is
robust enough not to break even for these packages.  You may need to update the contents
provided by the upstream for your Debian package.  </para> </footnote> See
<citerefentry> <refentrytitle>dh_make</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
</citerefentry> for details.
</para>
<para>
You should see some output asking you what sort of package you want
to create.  Gentoo is a single binary package - it creates only one binary package, i.e,
one <filename>.deb</filename> file - so we will select the first option
(with the <literal>s</literal> key), check the information on the screen, and
confirm by pressing <literal><replaceable>ENTER</replaceable></literal>.
<footnote><para> There are several choices here: <literal>s</literal> for 
Single binary package, <literal>i</literal> for arch-Independent package, <literal>m</literal> for
Multiple binary packages, <literal>l</literal> for Library package, <literal>k</literal> for
Kernel module package, <literal>n</literal> for kernel patch package, and <literal>b</literal>
for <systemitem role="package">cdbs</systemitem> package.  This document focuses on the
use of the <command>dh</command> command (from the package
<systemitem role="package">debhelper</systemitem>) to create a single binary package,
but also touches on how to use it for arch-independent or
multiple binary packages.  The package
<systemitem role="package">cdbs</systemitem> offers an alternative packaging script
infrastructure to the <command>dh</command> command and is outside the scope of
this document.  </para> </footnote>
</para>
<para>
This execution of <command>dh_make</command> creates a copy of the upstream
tarball as <filename>gentoo_0.9.12.orig.tar.gz</filename> in the
parent directory to accommodate the creation of the non-native Debian source
package with the name <filename>debian.tar.gz</filename> later.
</para>
<screen>
$ cd ~/gentoo ; ls -F
gentoo-0.9.12/
gentoo-0.9.12.tar.gz
gentoo_0.9.12.orig.tar.gz
</screen>
<para>
Please note two key features of this filename
<filename>gentoo_0.9.12.orig.tar.gz</filename>:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Package name and version are separated by the character <literal>_</literal>
(underscore).
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
The string <filename>.orig</filename> is inserted before the
<filename>.tar.gz</filename>.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
You should also notice that many template files are created in the source under
the <filename>debian</filename> directory.  These will be explained in
<xref linkend="dreq"/> and <xref linkend="dother"/>.  You should also understand
that packaging cannot be a fully automated process.  You will need to modify the upstream
source for Debian (see <xref linkend="modify"/>).  After this, you need to
use the proper methods for building Debian packages (<xref linkend="build"/>),
testing them (<xref linkend="checkit"/>), and uploading them (<xref linkend="upload"/>).
All the steps will be explained.
</para>
<para>
If you accidentally erased some template files while working on them, you can
recover them by running <command>dh_make</command> with the
<literal>--addmissing</literal> option again in a Debian package source tree.
</para>
<para>
Updating an existing package may get complicated since it may be using older
techniques.  While learning the basics, please stick to creating a fresh
package; further explanations are given in <xref linkend="update"/>.
</para>
<para>
Please note that the source file does not need to contain any build system
discussed in <xref linkend="simplemake"/> and <xref linkend="portable"/>.  It
could be just a collection of graphical data etc.  Installation of files may be
carried out using only <systemitem role="package">debhelper</systemitem> configuration
files such as <filename>debian/install</filename> (see
<xref linkend="install"/>).
</para>
</section>
<section id="native-dh-make"><title>Initial native Debian package</title>
<para>
If a package contains source files you are only maintaining for Debian,
possibly only for local use, it may be simpler to create it as a Debian
native package. If you have source
files in <filename>~/mypackage-1.0</filename>, you can create an initial native
Debian package for it by issuing the <command>dh_make</command> command as
follows.
</para>
<screen>
$ cd ~/mypackage-1.0
$ dh_make --native
</screen>
<para>
Then the <filename>debian</filename> directory and its contents are created
just like <xref linkend="non-native-dh-make"/>.  This does not create a tarball
since this is a native Debian package.  But that is the only difference.
The rest of the packaging activities are practically the same.
</para>
</section>
</chapter>
<chapter id="modify"><title>Modifying the source</title>
<para>
Please note that there isn't space here to go into <emphasis>all</emphasis> the
details of fixing upstream sources, but here are some basic steps and problems
people often run across.
</para>
<section id="quiltrc"><title>Setting up <command>quilt</command></title>
<para>
The program <command>quilt</command> offers a basic method for recording
modifications to the upstream source for Debian packaging.  It's
useful to have a slightly customized default, so let's create an alias
<command>dquilt</command> for Debian packaging by adding the following
line to <filename>~/.bashrc</filename>.
</para>
<screen>
alias dquilt="quilt --quiltrc=~/.quiltrc-dpkg"
</screen>
<para>
Then let's create <filename>~/.quiltrc-dpkg</filename> as follows.
</para>
<screen>
d=. ; while [ ! -d $d/debian -a `readlink -e $d` != / ]; do d=$d/..; done
if [ -d $d/debian ] &amp;&amp; [ -z $QUILT_PATCHES ]; then
    # if in Debian packaging tree with unset $QUILT_PATCHES
    QUILT_PATCHES="debian/patches"
    QUILT_PATCH_OPTS="--reject-format=unified"
    QUILT_DIFF_ARGS="-p ab --no-timestamps --no-index --color=auto"
    QUILT_REFRESH_ARGS="-p ab --no-timestamps --no-index"
    QUILT_COLORS="diff_hdr=1;32:diff_add=1;34:diff_rem=1;31:diff_hunk=1;33:diff_ctx=35:diff_cctx=33"
    if ! [ -d $d/debian/patches ]; then mkdir $d/debian/patches; fi
fi
</screen>
<para>
See <citerefentry> <refentrytitle>quilt</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>1</manvolnum> </citerefentry> and
<ulink url="&quilt-pdf;">quilt.pdf</ulink> on how to use
<command>quilt</command>.
</para>
</section>
<section id="fixupstream"><title>Fixing upstream bugs</title>
<para>
Let's assume you find an error in the upstream <filename>Makefile</filename>
as follows where <literal>install: gentoo</literal> should have been
<literal>install: gentoo-target</literal>.
</para>
<screen>
install: gentoo
        install ./gentoo $(BIN)
        install icons/* $(ICONS)
        install gentoorc-example $(HOME)/.gentoorc
</screen>
<para>
Let's fix this and record it with the <command>dquilt</command> command as
<filename>fix-gentoo-target.patch</filename>.  <footnote><para> The
<filename>debian/patches</filename> directory should exist now if you ran
<command>dh_make</command> as described before.  This example operation creates
it just in case you are updating an existing package.  </para> </footnote>
</para>
<screen>
$ mkdir debian/patches
$ dquilt new fix-gentoo-target.patch
$ dquilt add Makefile
</screen>
<para>
You change the <filename>Makefile</filename> file as follows.
</para>
<screen>
install: gentoo-target
        install ./gentoo $(BIN)
        install icons/* $(ICONS)
        install gentoorc-example $(HOME)/.gentoorc
</screen>
<para>
Ask <command>dquilt</command> to generate the patch to create
<filename>debian/patches/fix-gentoo-target.patch</filename> and add its
description following <ulink url="&dep3;">DEP-3: Patch Tagging Guidelines</ulink>.
</para>
<screen>
$ dquilt refresh
$ dquilt header -e
... describe patch
</screen>
</section>
<section id="destdir"><title>Installation of files to their destination</title>
<para>
Most third-party software installs itself in the <filename>/usr/local</filename>
directory hierarchy.  On Debian this is reserved for private use
by the system administrator, so packages must not use directories such
as <filename>/usr/local/bin</filename> but should instead use system
directories such as <filename>/usr/bin</filename>, obeying the
<ulink url="&fhs;">Filesystem Hierarchy Standard</ulink> (FHS).
</para>
<para>
Normally, <citerefentry> <refentrytitle>make</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>1</manvolnum> </citerefentry> is used to automate building the
program, and executing <literal>make install</literal> installs programs
directly to the desired destination (following the
<literal>install</literal> target in the
<filename>Makefile</filename>).  In order for Debian to provide
pre-built installable packages, it modifies the build system to install
programs into a file tree image created under a temporary directory
instead of the actual destination.
</para>
<para>
These two differences between normal program installation on one hand and the
Debian packaging system on the other can be transparently addressed by the
<systemitem role="package">debhelper</systemitem> package through the
<command>dh_auto_configure</command> and <command>dh_auto_install</command>
commands if the following conditions are met.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
The <filename>Makefile</filename> must follow GNU conventions and
support the <literal>$(DESTDIR)</literal> variable.
<footnote><para> See <ulink url="&gnu-destdir;">GNU Coding Standards: 7.2.4 DESTDIR: Support for Staged Installs</ulink>.</para></footnote>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
The source must follow the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS).
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
Programs that use GNU <command>autoconf</command> follow the GNU conventions
automatically, so they can be trivial to package.  On the basis of
this and other heuristics, it is estimated that the
<systemitem role="package">debhelper</systemitem> package will work for
about 90% of packages without making any intrusive changes to their
build system.  So packaging is not as complicated as it may seem.
</para>
<para>
If you need to make changes in the <filename>Makefile</filename>, you
should be careful to support the <literal>$(DESTDIR)</literal>
variable.  Although it is unset by default, the <literal>$(DESTDIR)</literal> 
variable is prepended to each file path used for the program
installation.  The packaging script will set
<literal>$(DESTDIR)</literal> to the temporary directory. 
</para>
<para>
For packages of the single binary type, the temporary directory used
by the <command>dh_auto_install</command> command will be set to
<filename>debian/<replaceable>package</replaceable></filename>.
<footnote><para> For packages of the multiple binary type, the
<command>dh_auto_install</command> command uses <filename>debian/tmp</filename>
as the temporary directory while the <command>dh_install</command> command with
the help of
<filename>debian/<replaceable>package-1</replaceable>.install</filename> and
<filename>debian/<replaceable>package-2</replaceable>.install</filename> files
will split the contents of <filename>debian/tmp</filename> into
<filename>debian/<replaceable>package-1</replaceable></filename> and
<filename>debian/<replaceable>package-2</replaceable></filename> temporary
directories, to create 
<filename><replaceable>package-1</replaceable>_*.deb</filename> and
<filename><replaceable>package-2</replaceable>_*.deb</filename> binary
packages.
</para> </footnote> Everything that is contained in the temporary directory
will be installed on users' systems when they install your package; the only
difference is that <command>dpkg</command> will be installing the
files to paths relative to the root directory rather than your working
directory.
</para>
<para>
Bear in mind that even though your program installs in
<filename>debian/<replaceable>package</replaceable></filename>, it still needs
to behave correctly when installed from the <filename>.deb</filename>
package under the root directory.  So you must not allow the build
system to hardcode strings like
<literal>/home/me/deb/<replaceable>package</replaceable>-<replaceable>version</replaceable>/usr/share/<replaceable>package</replaceable></literal>
into files in the package.
</para>
<para>
Here's the relevant part of <systemitem role="package">gentoo</systemitem>'s
<filename>Makefile</filename><footnote><para> This is just an example to
show what a <filename>Makefile</filename> should look like.  If the
<filename>Makefile</filename> is created by the
<command>./configure</command> command, the correct way to fix this kind of
<filename>Makefile</filename> is to execute <command>./configure</command>
from the <command>dh_auto_configure</command> command with default
options including <literal>--prefix=/usr</literal>.  </para> </footnote>:
</para>
<screen>
# Where to put binary executables on 'make install'?
BIN     = /usr/local/bin
# Where to put icons on 'make install'?
ICONS   = /usr/local/share/gentoo
</screen>
<para>
We see that the files are set to install under <filename>/usr/local</filename>.
As explained above, that directory hierarchy is reserved for local use on
Debian, so change those paths to:
</para>
<screen>
# Where to put binary executables on 'make install'?
BIN     = $(DESTDIR)/usr/bin
# Where to put icons on 'make install'?
ICONS   = $(DESTDIR)/usr/share/gentoo
</screen>
<para>
The exact locations that should be used for binaries, icons,
documentation, etc. are specified in the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard
(FHS).  You should browse through it and read the sections relevant to
your package.
</para>
<para>
So, we should install binary executables in <filename>/usr/bin</filename> instead of
<filename>/usr/local/bin</filename>, the manual page in
<filename>/usr/share/man/man1</filename> instead of
<filename>/usr/local/man/man1</filename>, and so on.  Notice how there's no manual
page mentioned in <systemitem role="package">gentoo</systemitem>'s
<filename>Makefile</filename>, but since Debian Policy requires that every
program has one, we'll make one later and install it in
<filename>/usr/share/man/man1</filename>.
</para>
<para>
Some programs don't use <filename>Makefile</filename> variables to define paths
such as these.  This means you might have to edit some real C sources in order
to fix them to use the right locations.  But where to search, and exactly what
for?  You can find this out by issuing:
</para>
<screen>
$ grep -nr --include='*.[c|h]' -e 'usr/local/lib' .
</screen>
<para>
<command>grep</command> will run recursively through the source tree and tell
you the filename and the line number for all matches.
</para>
<para>
Edit those files and in those lines replace <literal>usr/local/lib</literal>
with <literal>usr/lib</literal>.  This can be done automatically as follows:
</para>
<screen>
$ sed -i -e 's#usr/local/lib#usr/lib#g' \
      $(find . -type f -name '*.[c|h]')
</screen>
<para>
If you want to confirm each substitution instead, this can be done interactively as follows:
</para>
<screen>
$ vim '+argdo %s#usr/local/lib#usr/lib#gce|update' +q \
      $(find . -type f -name '*.[c|h]')
</screen>

<para>
Next you should find the <literal>install</literal> target (searching
for the line that starts with <literal>install:</literal> will usually
work) and rename all references to directories other than ones defined
at the top of the <filename>Makefile</filename>.
</para>
<para>
Originally, <systemitem role="package">gentoo</systemitem>'s
install target said:
</para>
<screen>
install: gentoo-target
        install ./gentoo $(BIN)
        install icons/* $(ICONS)
        install gentoorc-example $(HOME)/.gentoorc
</screen>
<para>
Let's fix this upstream bug and record it with the <command>dquilt</command> command as
<filename>debian/patches/install.patch</filename>.
</para>
<screen>
$ dquilt new install.patch
$ dquilt add Makefile
</screen>
<para>
In your editor, change this for the Debian package as follows:
</para>
<screen>
install: gentoo-target
        install -d $(BIN) $(ICONS) $(DESTDIR)/etc
        install ./gentoo $(BIN)
        install -m644 icons/* $(ICONS)
        install -m644 gentoorc-example $(DESTDIR)/etc/gentoorc
</screen>
<para>
You'll have noticed that there's now an <literal>install -d</literal> command
before the other commands in the rule.  The original
<filename>Makefile</filename> didn't have it because usually
<literal>/usr/local/bin</literal> and other directories already exist on the
system where you are running <literal>make install</literal>.  However, since we will
be installing into a newly created private directory tree, we will have to
create each and every one of those directories.
</para>
<para>
We can also add in other things at the end of the rule, like the installation
of additional documentation that the upstream authors sometimes omit:
</para>
<screen>
        install -d $(DESTDIR)/usr/share/doc/gentoo/html
        cp -a docs/* $(DESTDIR)/usr/share/doc/gentoo/html
</screen>
<para>
Check carefully, and if everything is okay, ask <command>dquilt</command> to
generate the patch to create <filename>debian/patches/install.patch</filename>
and add its description.
</para>
<screen>
$ dquilt refresh
$ dquilt header -e
... describe patch
</screen>
<para>
Now you have a series of patches.
</para>
<orderedlist numeration="arabic">
<listitem>
<para>
Upstream bug fix: <filename>debian/patches/fix-gentoo-target.patch</filename>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Debian specific packaging modification:
<filename>debian/patches/install.patch</filename>
</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
<para>
Whenever you make changes that are not specifically related to Debian package
such as <filename>debian/patches/fix-gentoo-target.patch</filename>, be sure to
send them to the upstream maintainer so they can be included in the next
revision of the program and be useful to everyone else.  Also remember
to avoid making your fixes specific to Debian or Linux - or even Unix!
Make them portable.  This will make your fixes much easier to apply.
</para>
<para>
Note that you don't have to send the <filename>debian/*</filename> files
upstream.
</para>
</section>
<section id="difflibs"><title>Differing libraries</title>
<para>
There is one other common problem: libraries are often different from platform
to platform.  For example, a <filename>Makefile</filename> can contain a
reference to a library which doesn't exist on the Debian system.  In that case, we
need to change it to a library which does exist in Debian, and serves the same
purpose.
</para>
<para>
Let's assume a line in your program's <filename>Makefile</filename> (or
<filename>Makefile.in</filename>) as the following.
</para>
<screen>
LIBS = -lfoo -lbar
</screen>
<para>
If your program doesn't compile since the <literal>foo</literal> library
doesn't exist and its equivalent is provided by the <literal>foo2</literal>
library on the Debian system, you can fix this build problem as
<filename>debian/patches/foo2.patch</filename> by changing
<literal>foo</literal> into <literal>foo2</literal>.<footnote><para>If there
are API changes from the <literal>foo</literal> library to the
<literal>foo2</literal> library, required changes to the source code need to be
made to match the new API.</para> </footnote>
</para>
<screen>
$ dquilt new foo2.patch
$ dquilt add Makefile
$ sed -i -e 's/-lfoo/-lfoo2/g' Makefile
$ dquilt refresh
$ dquilt header -e
... describe patch
</screen>
</section>
</chapter>
<chapter id="dreq"><title>Required files under the <filename>debian</filename> directory</title>
<para>
There is a new subdirectory under the program's source directory, called
<filename>debian</filename>.  There are a number of files in this directory
that we should edit in order to customize the behavior of the package.  The
most important of them are <filename>control</filename>,
<filename>changelog</filename>, <filename>copyright</filename>, and
<filename>rules</filename>, which are required for all packages.
<footnote><para>
In this chapter, files in the <filename>debian</filename> directory are
referred to without the leading <filename>debian/</filename> for simplicity whenever
the meaning is obvious.
</para></footnote>
</para>
<section id="control"><title><filename>control</filename></title>
<para>
This file contains various values which <command>dpkg</command>,
<command>dselect</command>, <command>apt-get</command>,
<command>apt-cache</command>, <command>aptitude</command>, and other package
management tools will use to manage the package.  It is defined by the
<ulink url="&policy-control;">Debian Policy Manual, 5 "Control files and their fields"</ulink>.
</para>
<para>
Here is the <filename>control</filename> file <command>dh_make</command>
created for us:
</para>
<screen>
 1 Source: gentoo
 2 Section: unknown
 3 Priority: extra
 4 Maintainer: Josip Rodin &lt;joy-mg@debian.org&gt;
 5 Build-Depends: debhelper (&gt;= 7.0.50~)
 6 Standards-Version: 3.8.4
 7 Homepage: &lt;insert the upstream URL, if relevant&gt;
 8
 9 Package: gentoo
10 Architecture: any
11 Depends: ${shlibs:Depends}, ${misc:Depends}
12 Description: &lt;insert up to 60 chars description&gt;
13  &lt;insert long description, indented with spaces&gt;
</screen>
<para>
(I've added the line numbers.)
</para>
<para>
Lines 1-7 are the control information for the source package.
Lines 9-13 are the control information for the binary package.
</para>
<para>
Line 1 is the name of the source package.
</para>
<para>
Line 2 is the section of the distribution the source package goes into.
</para>
<para>
As you may have noticed, the Debian archive is divided into multiple areas:
<literal>main</literal> (the free software), <literal>non-free</literal> (the
not really free software) and <literal>contrib</literal> (free software that
depends on non-free software).  Each of these is divided into sections that
classify packages into rough categories.  So we have <literal>admin</literal>
for administrator-only programs,
<literal>devel</literal> for programmer tools, <literal>doc</literal> for
documentation, <literal>libs</literal> for libraries, <literal>mail</literal>
for email readers and daemons, <literal>net</literal> for network apps and
daemons, <literal>x11</literal> for X11 programs that don't fit anywhere else,
and many more.
<footnote> <para>See 
<ulink url="&policy-subsections;">Debian Policy Manual, 2.4 "Sections"</ulink> and 
<ulink url="&sections-unstable;">List of sections in <literal>sid</literal></ulink>.</para>
</footnote>
</para>
<para>
Let's change it then to x11.  (A <literal>main/</literal> prefix is implied so
we can omit it.)
</para>
<para>
Line 3 describes how important it is that the user installs this package.
<footnote> <para>See 
<ulink url="&policy-priorities;">Debian Policy Manual, 2.5 "Priorities"</ulink>.
</para>
</footnote>
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
The <literal>optional</literal> priority will usually work for new packages
that do not conflict with others claiming <literal>required</literal>,
<literal>important</literal>, or <literal>standard</literal> priority.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
The <literal>extra</literal> priority will usually work for new packages that
conflict with others with non-<literal>extra</literal> priorities.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
Section and priority are used by front-ends like <command>aptitude</command>
when they sort packages and select defaults.  Once you upload the package to
Debian, the value of these two fields can be overridden by the archive
maintainers, in which case you will be notified by email.
</para>
<para>
As this is a normal priority package and doesn't conflict with anything else,
we will change the priority to <literal>optional</literal>.
</para>
<para>
Line 4 is the name and email address of the maintainer.  Make sure that this
field includes a valid <literal>To</literal> header for email, because after
you upload it, the bug tracking system will use it to deliver bug emails to
you.  Avoid using commas, ampersands, or parentheses.
</para>
<para>
Line 5 includes the list of packages required to build your package as
the <literal>Build-Depends</literal> field.  You can also have the
<literal>Build-Depends-Indep</literal> field as an additional line, here.
<footnote><para>See 
<ulink url="&policy-relationships;#s-sourcebinarydeps">Debian Policy Manual, 7.7 "Relationships between source and binary packages - Build-Depends, Build-Depends-Indep, Build-Conflicts, Build-Conflicts-Indep"</ulink>.</para></footnote>
Some packages like 
<systemitem role="package">gcc</systemitem> and 
<systemitem role="package">make</systemitem> which are required by the 
<systemitem role="package">build-essential</systemitem> package are implied.  If you need
to have other tools to build your package, you should add them to these fields.
Multiple entries are separated with commas; read on for the explanation of
binary package dependencies to find out more about the syntax of these lines.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
For all packages packaged with the <command>dh</command> command in the
<filename>debian/rules</filename> file, you must have <literal>debhelper
(&gt;=7.0.50~)</literal> in the <literal>Build-Depends</literal> field to
satisfy the Debian Policy requirement for the <literal>clean</literal> target.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Source packages which have binary packages with <literal>Architecture:
any</literal> are rebuilt by the autobuilder.  Since this autobuilder
procedure installs only the packages listed in the
<literal>Build-Depends</literal> field before running
<literal>debian/rules build</literal> (see <xref
linkend="autobuilder"/>), the <literal>Build-Depends</literal> field
needs to  list practically all the required packages and
<literal>Build-Depends-indep</literal> is rarely used.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
For source packages with binary packages all of which are <literal>Architecture:
all</literal>, the <literal>Build-Depends-Indep</literal> field may list all
the required packages unless they are already listed in the
<literal>Build-Depends</literal> field to satisfy the Debian Policy requirement
for the <literal>clean</literal> target.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
If you are not sure which one should be used, use the
<literal>Build-Depends</literal> field to be on the safe side.
<footnote><para> This somewhat strange situation is a feature well documented
in the <ulink url="&policy-build-depends-indep;">Debian Policy
Manual, Footnotes 48</ulink>.  This is not due to the use of the
<command>dh</command> command in the <filename>debian/rules</filename> file but
due to how the <command>dpkg-buildpackage</command> works.  The same situation
applies to the <ulink url="https://bugs.launchpad.net/launchpad-buildd/+bug/238141">auto build system
for Ubuntu</ulink>.  </para> </footnote>
</para>
<para>
To find out what packages your package needs to be built run the command:
</para>
<screen>
$ dpkg-depcheck -d ./configure
</screen>
<para>
To manually find exact build dependencies for
<command><replaceable>/usr/bin/foo</replaceable></command>, execute
</para>
<screen>
$ objdump -p <replaceable>/usr/bin/foo</replaceable> | grep NEEDED
</screen>
<para>
and for each library listed, e.g., <command>libfoo.so.6</command>, execute
</para>
<screen>
$ dpkg -S libfoo.so.6
</screen>
<para>
Then just take <literal>-dev</literal> version of every package as a
<literal>Build-Depends</literal> entry.  If you use <command>ldd</command> for
this purpose, it will report indirect lib dependencies as well, resulting in
the problem of excessive build dependencies.
</para>
<para>
<systemitem role="package">gentoo</systemitem> also happens to require
<systemitem role="package">xlibs-dev</systemitem>, <systemitem role="package">libgtk1.2-dev</systemitem> and <systemitem role="package">libglib1.2-dev</systemitem> to build, so we'll add them here
next to <systemitem role="package">debhelper</systemitem>.
</para>
<para>
Line 6 is the version of the <ulink url="&debian-policy;">Debian Policy
Manual</ulink> standards this package follows, the one you read while making
your package.
</para>
<para>
On line 7 you can put the URL of the software's upstream homepage.
</para>
<para>
Line 9 is the name of the binary package.  This is usually the same as the name
of the source package, but it doesn't necessarily have to be that way.
</para>
<para>
Line 10 describes the CPU architectures the binary package can be compiled for.
We'll leave this as <literal>any</literal> because <citerefentry>
<refentrytitle>dpkg-gencontrol</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
</citerefentry> will fill in the appropriate value for any machine this package
gets compiled on.
</para>
<para>
If your package is architecture independent (for example, a shell or Perl
script, or a document), change this to <literal>all</literal>, and read later
in <xref linkend="rules"/> about using the <literal>binary-indep</literal> rule
instead of <literal>binary-arch</literal> for building the package.
</para>
<para>
Line 11 shows one of the most powerful features of the Debian packaging system.
Packages can relate to each other in various ways.  Apart from
<literal>Depends</literal>, other relationship fields are
<literal>Recommends</literal>, <literal>Suggests</literal>,
<literal>Pre-Depends</literal>, <literal>Breaks</literal>,
<literal>Conflicts</literal>, <literal>Provides</literal>, and
<literal>Replaces</literal>.
</para>
<para>
The package management tools usually behave the same way when dealing with
these relations; if not, it will be explained.  (see <citerefentry>
<refentrytitle>dpkg</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>8</manvolnum> </citerefentry>,
<citerefentry> <refentrytitle>dselect</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
</citerefentry>, <citerefentry> <refentrytitle>apt</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>8</manvolnum> </citerefentry>, <citerefentry>
<refentrytitle>aptitude</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
</citerefentry>, etc.)
</para>
<para>
Here is a simplified description of package relationships.
<footnote><para>See 
<ulink url="&policy-relationships;">Debian Policy Manual, 7 "Declaring relationships between packages"</ulink>.
</para></footnote>
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<literal>Depends</literal>
</para>
<para>
The package will not be installed unless the packages it depends on are
installed.  Use this if your program absolutely will not run (or will cause
severe breakage) unless a particular package is present.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<literal>Recommends</literal>
</para>
<para>
Use this for packages that are not strictly necessary but are typically used
with your program.  When a user installs your program, all front-ends will
probably prompt them to install the recommended packages.
<command>aptitude</command> and <command>apt-get</command> install recommended
packages along with your package by default (but the user can disable this
behavior).  <command>dpkg</command> will ignore this field.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<literal>Suggests</literal>
</para>
<para>
Use this for packages which will work nicely with your program but are not at
all necessary.  When a user installs your program, they will probably not be
prompted to install suggested packages.  <command>aptitude</command> can
be configured to install suggested packages along with your package but this is
not its default.  <command>dpkg</command> and <command>apt-get</command> will
ignore this field.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<literal>Pre-Depends</literal>
</para>
<para>
This is stronger than <literal>Depends</literal>.  The package will not be
installed unless the packages it pre-depends on are installed and
<emphasis>correctly configured</emphasis>.  Use this <emphasis>very</emphasis>
sparingly and only after discussing it on the <ulink url="&debian-devel-ldo;">debian-devel@lists.debian.org</ulink>
mailing list.  Read: don't use it at all.  :-)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<literal>Conflicts</literal>
</para>
<para>
The package will not be installed until all the packages it conflicts with have
been removed.  Use this if your program absolutely will not run or will cause
severe problems if a particular package is present.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<literal>Breaks</literal>
</para>
<para>
When installed the package will break all the listed packages.
Normally a <literal>Breaks</literal> entry specifies that it applies to versions earlier than a certain value.
The resolution is generally to use higher-level package management tools to upgrade the listed packages.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<literal>Provides</literal>
</para>
<para>
For some types of packages where there are multiple alternatives virtual names
have been defined.  You can get the full list in the
<ulink url="&virtual-package;">virtual-package-names-list.txt.gz</ulink>
file.  Use this if your program provides a function of an existing virtual
package.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<literal>Replaces</literal>
</para>
<para>
Use this when your program replaces files from another package, or completely
replaces another package (used in conjunction with
<literal>Conflicts</literal>).  Files from the named packages will be
overwritten with the files from your package.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
All these fields have uniform syntax.  They are a list of package names
separated by commas.  These package names may also be lists of alternative
package names, separated by vertical bar symbols <literal>|</literal> (pipe
symbols).
</para>
<para>
The fields may restrict their applicability to particular versions of each
named package.  These versions are listed in parentheses after each individual
package name, and should contain a relation from the list below followed
by the version number.  The relations allowed are: <literal>&lt;&lt;</literal>,
<literal>&lt;=</literal>, <literal>=</literal>, <literal>&gt;=</literal> and
<literal>&gt;&gt;</literal> for strictly lower, lower or equal, exactly equal,
greater or equal, and strictly greater, respectively.  For example,
</para>
<screen>
Depends: foo (&gt;= 1.2), libbar1 (= 1.3.4)
Conflicts: baz
Recommends: libbaz4 (&gt;&gt; 4.0.7)
Suggests: quux
Replaces: quux (&lt;&lt; 5), quux-foo (&lt;= 7.6)
</screen>
<para>
The last feature you need to know about is
<literal>${shlibs:Depends}</literal>, <literal>${perl:Depends}</literal>,
<literal>${misc:Depends}</literal>, etc.
</para>
<para>
<citerefentry> <refentrytitle>dh_shlibdeps</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>1</manvolnum> </citerefentry> calculates shared library dependencies
for binary packages.  It generates a list of ELF executables and shared
libraries it has found for each binary package.  This list is used for
substituting <literal>${shlibs:Depends}</literal>.
</para>
<para>
<citerefentry> <refentrytitle>dh_perl</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
</citerefentry> calculates Perl dependencies.  It generates a list of a
dependency on <literal>perl</literal> or <literal>perlapi</literal> for each binary package.  This list is used for
substituting <literal>${perl:Depends}</literal>.
</para>
<para>
Some <systemitem role="package">debhelper</systemitem> commands may cause the
generated package to depend on some additional packages.  All such commands
generate a list of required packages for each binary package.
This list is used for substituting <literal>${misc:Depends}</literal>.
</para>
<para>
<citerefentry> <refentrytitle>dh_gencontrol</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>1</manvolnum> </citerefentry> generates
<filename>DEBIAN/control</filename> for each binary package while
substituting <literal>${shlibs:Depends}</literal>,
<literal>${perl:Depends}</literal>, <literal>${misc:Depends}</literal>, etc.
</para>
<para>
Having said all that, we can leave the <literal>Depends</literal> field exactly
as it is now, and insert another line after it saying <literal>Suggests:
file</literal>, because <systemitem role="package">gentoo</systemitem> can use
some features provided by the <systemitem role="package">file</systemitem>
package.
</para>
<para> Line 9 is the Homepage URL.  Let's assume this to be at 
<ulink url="&gentoo;"/>.
</para>
<para>
Line 12 is the short description.  Terminals are conventionally 80 columns wide so
this shouldn't be longer than about 60 characters.  I'll change it to
<literal>fully GUI-configurable, two-pane X file manager</literal>.
</para>
<para>
Line 13 is where the long description goes.  This should be a paragraph which
gives more details about the package.  Column 1 of each line should be empty.
There must be no blank lines, but you can put a single <literal>.</literal>
(dot) in a column to simulate that.  Also, there must be no more than one blank
line after the long description. <footnote><para>These descriptions are in
English.  Translations of these descriptions are provided by 
<ulink url="&ddtp;">The Debian Description Translation Project - DDTP</ulink>.</para></footnote>
</para>
<para>
We can insert <literal>Vcs-*</literal> fields to document the Version Control
System (VCS) location between line 6 and 7.
<footnote><para>See 
<ulink url="&devref-bpp-vcs;">Debian Developer's Reference, 6.2.5. "Version Control System location"</ulink>.
</para></footnote>
Let's assume that the <systemitem role="package">gentoo</systemitem>
package has its VCS located in the Debian Alioth Git Service at
<literal>git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/gentoo.git</literal>.
</para>
<para>
Finally, here is the updated <filename>control</filename> file:
</para>
<screen>
 1 Source: gentoo
 2 Section: x11
 3 Priority: optional
 4 Maintainer: Josip Rodin &lt;joy-mg@debian.org&gt;
 5 Build-Depends: debhelper (&gt;= 7.0.5), xlibs-dev, libgtk1.2-dev, libglib1.2-dev
 6 Standards-Version: 3.8.4
 7 Vcs-Git: git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/gentoo.git
 8 Vcs-browser: http://git.debian.org/?p=collab-maint/gentoo.git
 9 Homepage: &gentoo;
10
11 Package: gentoo
12 Architecture: any
13 Depends: ${shlibs:Depends}, ${misc:Depends}
14 Suggests: file
15 Description: fully GUI-configurable, two-pane X file manager
16  gentoo is a two-pane file manager for the X Window System. gentoo lets the
17  user do (almost) all of the configuration and customizing from within the
18  program itself. If you still prefer to hand-edit configuration files,
19  they're fairly easy to work with since they are written in an XML format.
20  .
21  gentoo features a fairly complex and powerful file identification system,
22  coupled to an object-oriented style system, which together give you a lot
23  of control over how files of different types are displayed and acted upon.
24  Additionally, over a hundred pixmap images are available for use in file
25  type descriptions.
26  .
29  gentoo was written from scratch in ANSI C, and it utilizes the GTK+ toolkit
30  for its interface.
</screen>
<para>
(I've added the line numbers.)
</para>
</section>
<section id="copyright"><title><filename>copyright</filename></title>
<para>
This file contains information about the copyright and license of the upstream sources.
<ulink url="&policy-copyright;">Debian Policy Manual, 12.5 "Copyright information"</ulink>
dictates its content and
<ulink url="&dep5;">DEP-5: Machine-parseable <filename>debian/copyright</filename></ulink>
provides guidelines for its format.
</para>
<para>
<command>dh_make</command> can give you a template
<filename>copyright</filename> file.  Let's use the <literal>--copyright
gpl2</literal> option here to get a template file for the <systemitem role="package">gentoo</systemitem> package released under GPL-2.
</para>
<para>
You must fill in missing information such as the place you got the package
from, the actual copyright notice and their license to complete this file.  For
the common free software licenses such as GNU GPL-1, GNU GPL-2, GNU GPL-3,
LGPL-2, LGPL-2.1, LGPL-3, GNU FDL-1.2, GNU FDL-1.3, Apache-2.0 or the Artistic
license, you can just refer to the appropriate file in the
<filename>/usr/share/common-licenses/</filename> directory that exists on every
Debian system.  Otherwise, you must include the complete license.
</para>
<para>
In short, here's what <systemitem role="package">gentoo</systemitem>'s
<filename>copyright</filename> file should look like:
</para>
<screen>
 1 Format-Specification: http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/dep/web/deps/dep5.mdwn?op=file&amp;rev=135
 2 Name: gentoo
 3 Maintainer: Josip Rodin &lt;joy-mg@debian.org&gt;
 4 Source: http://sourceforge.net/projects/gentoo/files/
 5
 6 Copyright: 1998-2010 Emil Brink &lt;emil@obsession.se&gt;
 7 License: GPL-2+
 8
 9 Files: icons/*
10 Copyright: 1998 Johan Hanson &lt;johan@tiq.com&gt;
11 License: GPL-2+
12
13 Files: debian/*
14 Copyright: 1998-2010 Josip Rodin &lt;joy-mg@debian.org&gt;
15 License: GPL-2+
16
17 License: GPL-2+
18  This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
19  it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
20  the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
21  (at your option) any later version. 
22  .
23  This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
24  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
25  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
26  GNU General Public License for more details.
27  .
28  You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
29  with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
30  51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
31  .
32  On Debian systems, the full text of the GNU General Public
33  License version 2 can be found in the file
34  `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2'.
</screen>
<para>
(I've added the line numbers.)
</para>
<para>
Please follow the HOWTO provided by the ftpmasters and sent to
debian-devel-announce: <ulink url="&howto-copyright;"/>.
</para>
</section>
<section id="changelog"><title><filename>changelog</filename></title>
<para>
This is a required file, which has a special format described in
<ulink url="&policy-dpkgchangelog;">Debian Policy Manual, 4.4 "debian/changelog"</ulink>.
This format is used by <command>dpkg</command> and other programs to obtain the
version number, revision, distribution, and urgency of your package.
</para>
<para>
For you, it is also important, since it is good to have documented all changes
you have done.  It will help people downloading your package to see whether
there are issues with the package that they should know about.  It will be
saved as <filename>/usr/share/doc/gentoo/changelog.Debian.gz</filename> in the
binary package.
</para>
<para>
<command>dh_make</command> created a default one, and this is what it looks
like:
</para>
<screen>
1  gentoo (0.9.12-1) unstable; urgency=low
2
3   * Initial release (Closes: #<replaceable>nnnn</replaceable>)  &lt;<replaceable>nnnn</replaceable> is the bug number of your ITP&gt;
4
5  -- Josip Rodin &lt;joy-mg@debian.org&gt;  Mon, 22 Mar 2010 00:37:31 +0100
6
</screen>
<para>
(I've added the line numbers.)
</para>
<para>
Line 1 is the package name, version, distribution, and urgency.  The name must
match the source package name; distribution should be
<literal>unstable</literal> (or even <literal>experimental</literal>)
<footnote><para> Some people use invalid distribution values such as
<literal>UNRELEASED</literal> to prevent a package being accidentally uploaded
when updating a package in a shared VCS.  </para> </footnote>, and urgency
shouldn't be changed to anything higher than <literal>low</literal>.  :-)
</para>
<para>
Lines 3-5 are a log entry, where you document changes made in this package
revision (not the upstream changes - there is a special file for that purpose,
created by the upstream authors, which you will later install as
<filename>/usr/share/doc/gentoo/changelog.gz</filename>).  Let's assume your
ITP (Intent To Package) bug report number was <literal>12345</literal>.  New
lines must be inserted just before the uppermost line that begins with
<literal>*</literal> (asterisk).  You can do it with <citerefentry>
<refentrytitle>dch</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>1</manvolnum> </citerefentry>, or
manually with a text editor.
</para>
<para>
You will end up with something like this:
</para>
<screen>
1  gentoo (0.9.12-1) unstable; urgency=low
2
3   * Initial Release. Closes: #12345
4   * This is my first Debian package.
5   * Adjusted the Makefile to fix $(DESTDIR) problems.
6
7  -- Josip Rodin &lt;joy-mg@debian.org&gt;  Mon, 22 Mar 2010 00:37:31 +0100
8
</screen>
<para>
(I've added the line numbers.)
</para>
<para>
You can read more about updating the <filename>changelog</filename> file later
in <xref linkend="update"/>.
</para>
</section>
<section id="rules"><title><filename>rules</filename></title>
<para>
Now we need to take a look at the exact rules which <citerefentry>
<refentrytitle>dpkg-buildpackage</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
</citerefentry> will use to actually create the package.  This file is in fact
another <filename>Makefile</filename>, but different from the one(s) in the
upstream source.  Unlike other files in <filename>debian</filename>, this one
is marked as executable.
</para>
<section id="targets"><title>Targets of the <filename>rules</filename> file</title>
<para>
Every <filename>rules</filename> file, like any other
<filename>Makefile</filename>, consists of several targets and their rules
specifying how to handle the source.  <ulink url="&policy-debianrules;">Debian
Policy Manual, 4.9 "Main building script: debian/rules"</ulink> explains the
details.
</para>
<para>
Here is a simplified explanation of the targets:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<literal>clean</literal> target: to clean all compiled, generated, and useless
files in the build-tree.  (Required)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<literal>build</literal> target: to build the source into compiled programs and
formatted documents in the build-tree.  (Required)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<literal>install</literal> target: to install files into a file tree for each
binary package under the <filename>debian</filename> directory.  If defined,
<literal>binary*</literal> targets effectively depend on this target.
(Optional)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<literal>binary</literal> target: to create all binary packages (effectively
a combination of <literal>binary-arch</literal> and
<literal>binary-indep</literal> targets).  (Required)<footnote><para> This
target is used by <literal>dpkg-buildpackage</literal> as in <xref linkend="completebuild"/>.  </para> </footnote>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<literal>binary-arch</literal> target: to create arch-dependent
(<literal>Architecture: any</literal>) binary packages in the parent directory.
(Required)<footnote><para> This target is used by <literal>dpkg-buildpackage
-B</literal> as in <xref linkend="autobuilder"/>.  </para> </footnote>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<literal>binary-indep</literal> target: to create arch-independent
(<literal>Architecture: all</literal>) binary packages in the parent directory.
(Required)<footnote><para> This target is used by <literal>dpkg-buildpackage
-A</literal>.  </para> </footnote>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<literal>get-orig-source</literal> target: to obtain the most recent version of
the original source package from an upstream archive.  (Optional)
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
Rules that you want to execute are invoked as command line arguments (for
example, <literal>./debian/rules build</literal> or <literal>fakeroot make -f
debian/rules binary</literal>).  After the target name, you can name the
dependency, program or file that the rule depends on.  After that, there can be
any number of commands, indented with
<literal><replaceable>TAB</replaceable></literal>.  A new rule begins with the
target declaration in the first column.  Empty lines and lines beginning with
<literal>#</literal> (hash) are treated as comments and ignored.
</para>
<para>
You are probably confused now, but it will all be clear upon examination of the
<filename>rules</filename> file that <command>dh_make</command> gives us as a
default.  You should also read <literal>info make</literal> for more
information.
</para>
</section>
<section id="defaultrules"><title>Default <filename>rules</filename> file</title>
<para>
Newer <command>dh_make</command> generates a very simple but powerful default
<filename>rules</filename> file using the <command>dh</command> command:
</para>
<screen>
 1 #!/usr/bin/make -f
 2 # -*- makefile -*-
 3 # Sample debian/rules that uses debhelper.
 4 # This file was originally written by Joey Hess and Craig Small.
 5 # As a special exception, when this file is copied by dh-make into a
 6 # dh-make output file, you may use that output file without restriction.
 7 # This special exception was added by Craig Small in version 0.37 of dh-make.
 8
 9 # Uncomment this to turn on verbose mode.
10 #export DH_VERBOSE=1
11
12 %:
13        dh $@
</screen>
<para>
(I've added the line numbers.  In the actual <filename>rules</filename> file,
the leading white spaces are TAB codes.)
</para>
<para>
You are probably familiar with lines like line 1 from shell and Perl scripts.
It tells the operating system that this file is to be processed with
<filename>/usr/bin/make</filename>.
</para>
<para>
Line 10 can be uncommented to set the <literal>DH_VERBOSE</literal> variable to 1,
so that the <command>dh</command> command outputs which
<command>dh_*</command> commands it is executing.
You can also add a line <literal>export DH_OPTIONS=-v</literal> here,
so that each <command>dh_*</command> command outputs which commands it
is executing.  This helps you to understand
exactly what is going on behind this simple <filename>rules</filename> file and
to debug its problems.  This new <command>dh</command> is designed to form a core part of the
<systemitem role="package">debhelper</systemitem> tools, and not to hide
anything from you.
</para>
<para>
Lines 12 and 13 are where all the work is done.  The percent sign means "any
targets", which then call a single program, <command>dh</command>, with the target
name.  <footnote><para> This uses the new <systemitem role="package">debhelper</systemitem> v7 features.  Its design concepts are
explained in <ulink url="&debhelper-slides;">Not Your
Grandpa's Debhelper</ulink> presented at Debconf9 by the <systemitem role="package">debhelper</systemitem> upstream.  Under
<literal>lenny</literal>, <command>dh_make</command> created a much more
complicated <filename>rules</filename> file with explicit rules
and many <command>dh_*</command> scripts listed for each one, most of
which are now unnecessary (and show the package's age). The new <command>dh</command> command is
simpler and frees us from doing the routine work "manually". You still have full power to
customize the process with <literal>override_dh_*</literal> targets. See <xref linkend="customrules"/>.  It is based only on the <systemitem role="package">debhelper</systemitem> package and does not obfuscate the
package building process as the <systemitem role="package">cdbs</systemitem>
package tends to.  </para> </footnote> The <command>dh</command> command is a wrapper
script which runs appropriate sequences of <command>dh_*</command> programs
depending on its argument.  <footnote><para> You can verify the actual sequences of
<command>dh_*</command> programs invoked for a given
<literal><replaceable>target</replaceable></literal> without really running them by invoking <literal>dh --no-act
<replaceable>target</replaceable></literal> or <literal>debian/rules --
'--no-act <replaceable>target</replaceable>'</literal>.  </para> </footnote>
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<literal>debian/rules clean</literal> runs <literal>dh clean</literal>, which
in turn runs the following:
</para>
<screen>
dh_testdir
dh_auto_clean
dh_clean
</screen>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<literal>debian/rules build</literal> runs <literal>dh build</literal>; which
in turn runs the following:
</para>
<screen>
dh_testdir
dh_auto_configure
dh_auto_build
dh_auto_test
</screen>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<literal>fakeroot debian/rules binary</literal> runs <literal>fakeroot dh
binary</literal>; which in turn runs the following<footnote><para> This assumes
that the <systemitem role="package">python-support</systemitem> package is
installed on the system.  </para> </footnote>:
</para>
<screen>
dh_testroot
dh_prep
dh_installdirs
dh_auto_install
dh_install
dh_installdocs
dh_installchangelogs
dh_installexamples
dh_installman
dh_installcatalogs
dh_installcron
dh_installdebconf
dh_installemacsen
dh_installifupdown
dh_installinfo
dh_pysupport
dh_installinit
dh_installmenu
dh_installmime
dh_installmodules
dh_installlogcheck
dh_installlogrotate
dh_installpam
dh_installppp
dh_installudev
dh_installwm
dh_installxfonts
dh_bugfiles
dh_lintian
dh_gconf
dh_icons
dh_perl
dh_usrlocal
dh_link
dh_compress
dh_fixperms
dh_strip
dh_makeshlibs
dh_shlibdeps
dh_installdeb
dh_gencontrol
dh_md5sums
dh_builddeb
</screen>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<literal>fakeroot debian/rules binary-arch</literal> runs <literal>fakeroot dh
binary-arch</literal>; which in turn runs the same sequence as
<literal>fakeroot dh binary</literal> but with the <literal>-a</literal> option
appended for each command.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<literal>fakeroot debian/rules binary-indep</literal> runs <literal>fakeroot dh
binary-indep</literal>; which in turn runs almost the same sequence as
<literal>fakeroot dh binary</literal> but excluding
<command>dh_strip</command>, <command>dh_makeshlibs</command>, and
<command>dh_shlibdeps</command> with the <literal>-i</literal> option appended
for each remaining command.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
The functions of <command>dh_*</command> commands are largely self-evident from
their names.  <footnote><para> For complete information on what all these
<command>dh_*</command> scripts do exactly, and what their other options are,
please read their respective manual pages and the <systemitem role="package">debhelper</systemitem> documentation.  </para> </footnote> There
are a few notable ones that are worth giving (over)simplified explanations here assuming
typical build environment based on a <filename>Makefile</filename>.
<footnote><para> These commands support other build environments such as
<filename>setup.py</filename> which can be listed by executing
<literal>dh_auto_build --list</literal> in a package source directory.  </para>
</footnote>
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<command>dh_auto_clean</command> usually executes the following if a
<filename>Makefile</filename> exists with the <literal>distclean</literal>
target.  <footnote><para> It actually looks for the first available target
in the <filename>Makefile</filename> out of
<literal>distclean</literal>, <literal>realclean</literal>, or
<literal>clean</literal>, and executes that.
</para> </footnote>
</para>
<screen>
make distclean
</screen>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<command>dh_auto_configure</command> usually executes the following if
<filename>./configure</filename> exists (arguments abbreviated for
readability).
</para>
<screen>
./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var ...
</screen>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<command>dh_auto_build</command> usually executes the following to execute the
first target of <filename>Makefile</filename> if it exists.
</para>
<screen>
make
</screen>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<command>dh_auto_test</command> usually executes the following if a
<filename>Makefile</filename> exists with the <literal>test</literal> target.
<footnote><para> It actually looks for the first available target in
the <filename>Makefile</filename> out of <literal>test</literal> or
<literal>check</literal>, and executes thait.  </para> </footnote>
</para>
<screen>
make test
</screen>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<command>dh_auto_install</command> usually executes the following if a
<filename>Makefile</filename> exists with the <literal>install</literal> target
(line folded for readability).
</para>
<screen>
make install \
  DESTDIR=<replaceable>/path/to</replaceable>/<replaceable>package</replaceable>_<replaceable>version</replaceable>-<replaceable>revision</replaceable>/debian/<replaceable>package</replaceable>
</screen>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
All targets which require the <command>fakeroot</command> command will contain
<command>dh_testroot</command>, which exits with an error if you are not
using this command to pretend to be root.
</para>
<para>
The important part to know about the <filename>rules</filename> file created by
<command>dh_make</command> is that it is just a suggestion.  It will work for
most packages but for more complicated ones, don't be afraid to customize it to
fit your needs.  The only things that you must not change are the names of the
rules, because all the tools use these names, as mandated by the Debian Policy.
</para>
<para>
Although <literal>install</literal> is not a required target, it is supported.
<literal>fakeroot dh install</literal> behaves like <literal>fakeroot dh
binary</literal> but stops after <command>dh_fixperms</command>.
</para>
</section>
<section id="customrules"><title>Customization of <filename>rules</filename> file</title>
<para>
There are many ways to customize the <filename>rules</filename> file created
with the new <command>dh</command> command.
</para>
<para>
The <literal>dh $@</literal> command can be customized as follows.
<footnote><para> If a package installs the
<filename>/usr/share/perl5/Debian/Debhelper/Sequence/<replaceable>custom_name</replaceable>.pm</filename>
file, you should activate its customization function by <literal>dh --with
<replaceable>custom-name</replaceable> $@</literal>.  </para> </footnote>
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Add support for the <command>dh_pysupport</command> command.  (The best choice
for Python.) <footnote><para> Use of the <command>dh_pysupport</command>
command is preferred over use of the <command>dh_pycentral</command> command.
Do not use the <command>dh_python</command> command.  </para> </footnote>
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Include the <systemitem role="package">python-support</systemitem> package in
<literal>Build-Depends</literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Use <literal>dh $@</literal> as usual.  (Use of <command>dh_pysupport</command> is the default)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
This handles Python modules using the <systemitem role="package">python-support</systemitem> framework.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Add support for the <command>dh_pycentral</command> command.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Include the <systemitem role="package">python-central</systemitem> package in
<literal>Build-Depends</literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Use <literal>dh --with python-central $@</literal> instead.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
This also deactivates the <command>dh_pysupport</command> command.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
This handles Python modules using the <systemitem role="package">python-central</systemitem> framework.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Add support for the <command>dh_installtex</command> command.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Include the <systemitem role="package">tex-common</systemitem> package in
<literal>Build-Depends</literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Use <literal>dh --with tex $@</literal> instead.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
This registers Type 1 fonts, hyphenation patterns, and formats with TeX.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Add support for the <command>dh_quilt_patch</command> and
<command>dh_quilt_unpatch</command> commands.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Include the <systemitem role="package">quilt</systemitem> package in
<literal>Build-Depends</literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Use <literal>dh --with quilt $@</literal> instead.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
This applies and un-applies patches to the upstream source from files in the
<filename>debian/patches</filename> directory for a source package in the <literal>1.0</literal> format.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
This is not needed if you use the new <literal>3.0 (quilt)</literal> source
package format.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Add support for the <command>dh_dkms</command> command.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Include the <systemitem role="package">dkms</systemitem> package in
<literal>Build-Depends</literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Use <literal>dh --with dkms $@</literal> instead.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
This correctly handles DKMS usage by kernel module packages.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Add support for the <command>dh_autotools-dev_updateconfig</command> and
<command>dh_autotools-dev_restoreconfig</command> commands.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Include the <systemitem role="package">autotools-dev</systemitem> package in
<literal>Build-Depends</literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Use <literal>dh --with autotools-dev $@</literal> instead.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
This updates and restores <filename>config.sub</filename> and
<filename>config.guess</filename>.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Add support for the <command>dh_autoreconf</command> and
<command>dh_autoreconf_clean</command> commands.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Include the <systemitem role="package">dh-autoreconf</systemitem> package in
<literal>Build-Depends</literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Use <literal>dh --with autoreconf $@</literal> instead.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
This updates the GNU Build System files and restores them after the build.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Add support for the <command>bash</command> completion feature.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Includes the <systemitem role="package">bash-completion</systemitem> package in
<literal>Build-Depends</literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Use <literal>dh --with bash-completion $@</literal> instead.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
This installs <command>bash</command> completions using a configuration file at
<filename>debian/<replaceable>package</replaceable>.bash-completion</filename>.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
Many <command>dh_*</command> commands invoked by the new <command>dh</command>
command can be customized by the corresponding configuration files in the
<filename>debian</filename> directory.  See <xref linkend="dother"/> and the
manpage of each command for the customization of such features.
</para>
<para>
You may need to run <command>dh_*</command> commands invoked via the new <command>dh</command>
with added arguments, or to run additional commands with them, or to skip them.
For such cases, you create an
<literal>override_dh_<replaceable>foo</replaceable></literal> target with its
rule in the <filename>rules</filename> file defining an
<literal>override_dh_<replaceable>foo</replaceable></literal> target for the
<command>dh_<replaceable>foo</replaceable></command> command you want to
change.  It basically says <emphasis>run me instead</emphasis>.
<footnote><para> Under <literal>lenny</literal>, if you wanted to change the
behavior of a <command>dh_*</command> script you found the relevant line in the
<filename>rules</filename> file and adjusted it.  </para> </footnote>
</para>
<para>
Please note that the <command>dh_auto_*</command> commands tend to do more than
what has been discussed in this (over)simplified explanation to take care of all the
corner cases.  It is a bad idea to use <literal>override_dh_*</literal> targets
to substitute simplified equivalent commands (except for the
<literal>override_dh_auto_clean</literal> target) since it may
bypass such smart <systemitem role="package">debhelper</systemitem> features.
</para>
<para>
So, for instance, if you want to store system configuration data in the
<filename>/etc/gentoo</filename> directory instead of the usual
<filename>/etc</filename> directory for the recent 
<systemitem role="package">gentoo</systemitem> package using Autotools, you can override the default
<literal>--sysconfig=/etc</literal> argument given by the
<command>dh_auto_configure</command> command to the
<command>./configure</command> command by the following.
</para>
<screen>
override_dh_auto_configure:
        dh_auto_configure -- --sysconfig=/etc/gentoo
</screen>
<para>
The arguments given after <literal>--</literal> are appended to the default
arguments of the auto-executed program to override them.  Using the
<command>dh_auto_configure</command> command is better than directly invoking the
<command>./configure</command> command here since it will only override the
<literal>--sysconfig</literal> argument and retains any other, benign arguments
to the <command>./configure</command> command.
</para>
<para>
If the <filename>Makefile</filename> in the source for <systemitem role="package">gentoo</systemitem> requires you to specify
<literal>build</literal> as its target to build it <footnote><para>
<command>dh_auto_build</command> without any arguments will execute the first
target in the <filename>Makefile</filename>.  </para> </footnote>, you
create an <literal>override_dh_auto_build</literal> target to enable this.
</para>
<screen>
override_dh_auto_build:
        dh_auto_build -- build
</screen>
<para>
This ensures $(MAKE) is run with all the default arguments given by the
<command>dh_auto_build</command> command plus the <literal>build</literal> argument.
</para>
<para>
If the <filename>Makefile</filename> in the source for <systemitem role="package">gentoo</systemitem> requires you to specify the
<literal>packageclean</literal> target to clean it for the Debian package instead
of using <literal>distclean</literal> or <literal>clean</literal> targets,
you can create an
<literal>override_dh_auto_clean</literal> target to enable thit.
</para>
<screen>
override_dh_auto_clean:
        $(MAKE) packageclean
</screen>
<para>
If the <filename>Makefile</filename> in the source for <systemitem role="package">gentoo</systemitem> contains a <literal>test</literal> target
which you do not want to run for the Debian package building process, you can
use an empty <literal>override_dh_auto_test</literal> target to skip it.
</para>
<screen>
override_dh_auto_test:
</screen>
<para>
If <systemitem role="package">gentoo</systemitem> has an unusual upstream
changelog file called <filename>FIXES</filename>,
<command>dh_installchangelogs</command> will not install that file by default.
The <command>dh_installchangelogs</command> command requires
<filename>FIXES</filename> as its argument to install it.  <footnote><para> The
<filename>debian/changelog</filename> and <filename>debian/NEWS</filename>
files are always automatically installed.  The upstream changelog is searched
by converting filenames to the lower case and matching them with the
<filename>changelog</filename>, <filename>changes</filename>,
<filename>changelog.txt</filename>, and <filename>changes.txt</filename>.
</para> </footnote>
</para>
<screen>
override_dh_installchangelogs:
        dh_installchangelogs FIXES
</screen>
<para>
When you use the new <command>dh</command> command, use of explicit targets
such as the ones listed in <xref linkend="targets"/>, other than the
<literal>get-orig-source</literal> target, may make it difficult to understand
their exact effects.  Please limit explicit targets to
<literal>override_dh_*</literal> targets and completely independent ones, if
possible.
</para>
</section>
</section>
</chapter>
<chapter id="dother"><title>Other files under the <filename>debian</filename> directory</title>
<para>
To control most of what <systemitem role="package">debhelper</systemitem> does
while building the package, you put optional configuration files under the
<filename>debian</filename> directory.  This chapter will provide an overview of
what each of these does and its format.  Please read the <ulink url="&debian-policy;">Debian Policy
Manual</ulink> and <ulink url="&developers-reference;">Debian Developer's
Reference</ulink> for guidelines for packaging.
</para>
<para>
The <command>dh_make</command> command will create some template configuration
files under the <filename>debian</filename> directory.  Most of them come with
filenames suffixed by <literal>.ex</literal>.  Some of them come with filenames
prefixed by the binary package name such as
<literal><replaceable>package</replaceable></literal>.  Take a look at all of
them.
<footnote><para>
In this chapter, files in the <filename>debian</filename> directory are
referred to without the preceding <filename>debian/</filename> for simplicity whenever
they are obvious.
</para></footnote>
</para>
<para>
Some template configuration files for <systemitem role="package">debhelper</systemitem>
may not be created by the <command>dh_make</command> command.  In
such cases, you need to create them with an editor.
</para>
<para>
If you wish or need to activate any of these, please do the following:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
rename template files by removing the <literal>.ex</literal> or
<literal>.EX</literal> suffix if they have one;
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
rename the configuration files to use the actual binary package
name in place of <literal><replaceable>package</replaceable></literal>;
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
modify template file contents to suit your needs;
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
remove template files which you do not need;
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
modify the <filename>control</filename> file (see <xref linkend="control"/>),
if necessary;
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
modify the <filename>rules</filename> file (see <xref linkend="rules"/>), if
necessary.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
Any <systemitem role="package">debhelper</systemitem> configuration files
without a <filename><replaceable>package</replaceable></filename> prefix, such as
<filename>install</filename>, apply to the first binary package.  When there are
many binary packages, their configurations can be specified by prefixing their
name to their configuration filenames such as
<filename><replaceable>package-1</replaceable>.install</filename>,
<filename><replaceable>package-2</replaceable>.install</filename>, etc.
</para>
<section id="readme"><title><filename>README.Debian</filename></title>
<para>
Any extra details or discrepancies between the original package and your Debian
version should be documented here.
</para>
<para>
<command>dh_make</command> created a default one; this is what it looks like:
</para>
<screen>
gentoo for Debian
-----------------
&lt;possible notes regarding this package - if none, delete this file&gt;
 -- Josip Rodin &lt;joy-mg@debian.org&gt;, Wed, 11 Nov 1998 21:02:14 +0100
</screen>
<para>
If you have nothing to be documented, remove this file.  See <citerefentry>
<refentrytitle>dh_installdocs</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
</citerefentry>.
</para>
</section>
<section id="compat"><title><filename>compat</filename></title>
<para>
The <filename>compat</filename> file defines the <systemitem role="package">debhelper</systemitem> compatibility level.  Currently, you
should set it to the <systemitem role="package">debhelper</systemitem> v7 as
follows:
</para>
<screen>
$ echo 7 &gt; debian/compat
</screen>
</section>
<section id="conffiles"><title><filename>conffiles</filename></title>
<para>
One of the most annoying things about software is when you spend a great deal
of time and effort customizing a program, only to have an upgrade stomp all
over your changes.  Debian solves this problem by marking such configuration files as conffiles.
<footnote><para>See <citerefentry> <refentrytitle>dpkg</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>1</manvolnum> </citerefentry> and
<ulink url="&policy-conffiles;">Debian Policy Manual "D.2.5 Conffiles"</ulink>.
</para></footnote>
When you upgrade a package, you'll be asked whether you want to keep
your old configuration files or not.
</para>
<para>
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>dh_installdeb</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
</citerefentry> <emphasis>automatically</emphasis> flags any files under
the <filename>/etc</filename> directory as conffiles, so if your program only
has conffiles there you do not need to specify them in this file.  For most
package types, the only place conffiles should ever be is under
<filename>/etc</filename>, and so this file doesn't need to exist.
</para>
<para>
If your program uses configuration files but also rewrites them on its own,
it's best not to make them conffiles because <command>dpkg</command> will
then prompt users to verify the changes all the time.
</para>
<para>
If the program you're packaging requires every user to modify the configuration
files in the <filename>/etc</filename> directory, there are two popular ways to
arrange for them to not be conffiles, keeping <command>dpkg</command> quiet.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Create a symlink under the <filename>/etc</filename> directory pointing to a
file under the <filename>/var</filename> directory generated by the
maintainer scripts.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Create a file generated by the maintainer scripts under the <filename>/etc</filename> directory.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
For information on maintainer scripts, see <xref linkend="maintscripts"/>.
</para>
</section>
<section id="crond"><title><filename><replaceable>package</replaceable>.cron.*</filename></title>
<para>
If your package requires regularly scheduled tasks to operate properly, you can
use these files to set that up.  You can set up regular tasks that either happen
hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly, or alternatively happen at any other time that
you wish.  The filenames are:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<filename><replaceable>package</replaceable>.cron.hourly</filename> - Installed as
<filename>/etc/cron.hourly/<replaceable>package</replaceable></filename>; run
once an hour.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<filename><replaceable>package</replaceable>.cron.daily</filename> - Installed as
<filename>/etc/cron.daily/<replaceable>package</replaceable></filename>; run
once a day.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<filename><replaceable>package</replaceable>.cron.weekly</filename> - Installed as
<filename>/etc/cron.weekly/<replaceable>package</replaceable></filename>; run
once a week.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<filename><replaceable>package</replaceable>.cron.monthly</filename> - Installed as
<filename>/etc/cron.monthly/<replaceable>package</replaceable></filename>: run
once a month.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<filename><replaceable>package</replaceable>.cron.d</filename> - Installed as
<filename>/etc/cron.d/<replaceable>package</replaceable></filename>: for any
other time.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
Most of these files are shell scripts, with the exception of
<filename><replaceable>package</replaceable>.cron.d</filename> which follows
the format of <citerefentry> <refentrytitle>crontab</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>5</manvolnum> </citerefentry>.
</para>
<para>
No explicit <filename>cron.*</filename> file is needed to set up log rotation;
for that, see
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>dh_installlogrotate</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> and
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>logrotate</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
</para>
</section>
<section id="dirs"><title><filename>dirs</filename></title>
<para>
This file specifies any directories which we need but which are not created by the normal installation
procedure (<literal>make install DESTDIR=...</literal> invoked by
<literal>dh_auto_install</literal>).  This generally
means there is a problem with the <filename>Makefile</filename>.
</para>
<para>
Files listed in an <filename>install</filename> file don't need their
directories created first.  See <xref linkend="install"/>.
</para>
<para>
It is best to try to run the installation first and only use this if you
run into trouble.  There is no preceding slash on the directory names listed in
the <filename>dirs</filename> file.
</para>
</section>
<section id="doc-base"><title><filename><replaceable>package</replaceable>.doc-base</filename></title>
<para>
If your package has documentation other than manual and info pages, you
should use the <systemitem role="package">doc-base</systemitem> file to
register it, so the user can find it with e.g.  <citerefentry>
<refentrytitle>dhelp</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>1</manvolnum> </citerefentry>,
<citerefentry> <refentrytitle>dwww</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
</citerefentry>, or <citerefentry> <refentrytitle>doccentral</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>1</manvolnum> </citerefentry>.
</para>
<para>
This usually includes HTML, PS and PDF files, shipped in
<filename>/usr/share/doc/<replaceable>packagename</replaceable>/</filename>.
</para>
<para>
This is what <systemitem role="package">gentoo</systemitem>'s doc-base file
<filename>gentoo.doc-base</filename> looks like:
</para>
<screen>
Document: gentoo
Title: Gentoo Manual
Author: Emil Brink
Abstract: This manual describes what Gentoo is, and how it can be used.
Section: File Management
Format: HTML
Index: /usr/share/doc/gentoo/html/index.html
Files: /usr/share/doc/gentoo/html/*.html
</screen>
<para>
For information on the file format, see <citerefentry>
<refentrytitle>install-docs</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
</citerefentry> and the <systemitem role="package">doc-base</systemitem>
manual, in <ulink url="&doc-base;">Debian doc-base Manual</ulink>.
</para>
<para>
For more details on installing additional documentation, look in <xref linkend="destdir"/>.
</para>
</section>
<section id="docs"><title><filename>docs</filename></title>
<para>
This file specifies the file names of documentation files we can have
<citerefentry> <refentrytitle>dh_installdocs</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>1</manvolnum> </citerefentry> install into the temporary directory
for us.
</para>
<para>
By default, it will include all existing files in the top-level source
directory that are called <filename>BUGS</filename>,
<filename>README*</filename>, <filename>TODO</filename> etc.
</para>
<para>
For <systemitem role="package">gentoo</systemitem>, some other files
are also included:
</para>
<screen>
BUGS
CONFIG-CHANGES
CREDITS
NEWS
README
README.gtkrc
TODO
</screen>
</section>
<section id="emacsen"><title><filename>emacsen-*</filename></title>
<para>
If your package supplies Emacs files that can be bytecompiled at package
installation time, you can use these files to set it up.
</para>
<para>
They are installed into the temporary directory by <citerefentry>
<refentrytitle>dh_installemacsen</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
</citerefentry>.
</para>
<para>
If you don't need these, remove them.
</para>
</section>
<section id="examples"><title><filename><replaceable>package</replaceable>.examples</filename></title>
<para>
The <citerefentry> <refentrytitle>dh_installexamples</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>1</manvolnum> </citerefentry> command installs files and directories
listed in this file as example files.
</para>
</section>
<section id="initd"><title><filename><replaceable>package</replaceable>.init</filename> and <filename><replaceable>package</replaceable>.default</filename></title>
<para>
If your package is a daemon that needs to be run at system start-up, you've
obviously disregarded my initial recommendation, haven't you?  :-)
</para>
<para>
The <filename><replaceable>package</replaceable>.init</filename> file is
installed as the
<filename>/etc/init.d/<replaceable>package</replaceable></filename> script
which starts and stops the daemon.
Its fairly generic skeleton template is provided by the
<command>dh_make</command> command as <filename>init.d.ex</filename>.  You'll
likely have to rename and edit it, a lot, while making sure to provide
<ulink url="&lsb;">Linux Standard Base</ulink> (LSB) compliant headers.  It
gets installed into the temporary directory by <citerefentry>
<refentrytitle>dh_installinit</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
</citerefentry>.
</para>
<para>
The <filename><replaceable>package</replaceable>.default</filename> file will
be installed as
<filename>/etc/default/<replaceable>package</replaceable></filename>.  This
file sets defaults that are sourced by the init script.  This
<filename><replaceable>package</replaceable>.default</filename> file
is most often used to disable running a daemon, or to set some default flags or
timeouts.  If your init script has certain configurable
features, you can set them in the <filename><replaceable>package</replaceable>.default</filename> file,
instead of in the init script itself.
</para>
<para>
If your upstream program provides a file for the init script, you can either use it or not.  If you
don't use their init script then create a new one in
<filename><replaceable>package</replaceable>.init</filename>.  However
if the upstream init script looks fine and installs in the right place you
still need to set up the <filename>rc*</filename> symlinks.  To do this you will
need to override <command>dh_installinit</command> in the
<filename>rules</filename> file with the following lines:
</para>
<screen>
override_dh_installinit:
        dh_installinit --onlyscripts
</screen>
<para>
If you don't need this, remove the files.
</para>
</section>
<section id="install"><title><filename>install</filename></title>
<para>
If there are files that need to be installed into your package but your
standard <literal>make install</literal> won't do it, put the filenames and
destinations into this <filename>install</filename> file.  They are installed
by <citerefentry> <refentrytitle>dh_install</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>1</manvolnum> </citerefentry>.<footnote><para> This replaces the
deprecated <citerefentry> <refentrytitle>dh_movefiles</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>1</manvolnum> </citerefentry> command which is configured by the
<filename>files</filename> file.  </para> </footnote> You should first check
there is not a more specific tool to use.  For example, documents should be in
the <filename>docs</filename> file and not in this one.
</para>
<para>
This <filename>install</filename> file has one line per file installed, with
the name of the file (relative to the top build directory) then a space then
the installation directory (relative to the install directory).  One example of where this is used is if a binary <filename>src/<replaceable>bar</replaceable></filename> is left uninstalled; the
<filename>install</filename> file might look like:
</para>
<screen>
src/<replaceable>bar</replaceable> usr/bin
</screen>
<para>
This means when this package is installed, there will be a binary executable
<filename>/usr/bin/<replaceable>bar</replaceable></filename>.
</para>
<para>
Alternatively, this <filename>install</filename> can have the name of the file
only without the installation directory when the relative directory path does
not change.  This format is usually used for a large package that splits the 
output of its build into multiple binary packages using
<filename><replaceable>package-1</replaceable>.install</filename>,
<filename><replaceable>package-2</replaceable>.install</filename>, etc.
</para>
<para>
The <command>dh_install</command> command will fall back to looking in
<filename>debian/tmp</filename> for files, if it doesn't find them in the
current directory (or wherever you've told it to look using
<literal>--sourcedir</literal>).
</para>
</section>
<section id="info"><title><filename><replaceable>package</replaceable>.info</filename></title>
<para>
If your package has info pages, you should install them using <citerefentry>
<refentrytitle>dh_installinfo</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
</citerefentry> by listing them in a
<filename><replaceable>package</replaceable>.info</filename> file.
</para>
</section>
<section id="lintian"><title><filename>{<replaceable>package</replaceable>.,source/}lintian-overrides</filename></title>
<para>
If <systemitem role="package">lintian</systemitem> reports an erroneous
diagnostic for a case where Debian policy allows exceptions to some rule, you can
use <filename><replaceable>package</replaceable>.lintian-overrides</filename>
or <filename>source/lintian-overrides</filename> to quieten it.  Please read
<ulink url="&lintian-doc;">Lintian User's Manual</ulink> and refrain
from abusing this.
</para>
<para>
<filename><replaceable>package</replaceable>.lintian-overrides</filename> is
for the binary package named <systemitem role="package"><replaceable>package</replaceable></systemitem> and is installed
into
<filename>usr/share/lintian/overrides/<replaceable>package</replaceable></filename>
by the <command>dh_lintian</command> command.
</para>
<para>
<filename>source/lintian-overrides</filename> is for the source package.  This
is not installed.
</para>
</section>
<section id="manpage"><title><filename>manpage.*</filename></title>
<para>
Your program(s) should have a manual page.  If they don't, you should create
them.  The <command>dh_make</command> command creates some template files for
manual pages.  These need to be copied and edited for each command missing its
manual page.  Please make sure to remove unused templates.
</para>
<section id="manpage1"><title><filename>manpage.1.ex</filename></title>
<para>
Manual pages are normally written in <citerefentry>
<refentrytitle>nroff</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>1</manvolnum> </citerefentry>.
The <filename>manpage.1.ex</filename> template is written in
<command>nroff</command>, too.  See the <citerefentry>
<refentrytitle>man</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>7</manvolnum> </citerefentry>
manual page for a brief description of how to edit such a file.
</para>
<para>
The final manual page file name should give the name of the program it is
documenting, so we will rename it from <literal>manpage</literal> to
<literal>gentoo</literal>.  The file name also includes <literal>.1</literal>
as the first suffix, which means it's a manual page for a user command.  Be
sure to verify that this section is indeed the correct one.  Here's a short
list of manual page sections:
</para>
<informaltable id="manpage-sections" pgwide="0" frame="topbot" rowsep="1" colsep="1">
<tgroup cols="3">
  <colspec colwidth="8*" align="left"/> <colspec colwidth="24*" align="left"/> <colspec colwidth="40*" align="left"/>
  <thead>
    <row> <entry>Section</entry> <entry>Description</entry> <entry>Notes</entry> </row>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <row> <entry>1</entry> <entry>User command</entry> <entry>Executable commands or scripts</entry> </row>
    <row> <entry>2</entry> <entry>System calls</entry> <entry>Functions provided by the kernel</entry> </row>
    <row> <entry>3</entry> <entry>Library calls</entry> <entry>Functions within system libraries</entry> </row>
    <row> <entry>4</entry> <entry>Special files</entry> <entry>Usually found in <filename>/dev</filename></entry> </row>
    <row> <entry>5</entry> <entry>File formats</entry> <entry>E.g. <filename>/etc/passwd</filename>'s format</entry> </row>
    <row> <entry>6</entry> <entry>Games</entry> <entry>Games or other frivolous programs</entry> </row>
    <row> <entry>7</entry> <entry>Macro packages</entry> <entry>Such as <command>man</command> macros</entry> </row>
    <row> <entry>8</entry> <entry>System administration</entry> <entry>Programs typically only run by root</entry> </row>
    <row> <entry>9</entry> <entry>Kernel routines</entry> <entry>Non-standard calls and internals</entry> </row>
  </tbody>
</tgroup>
</informaltable>
<para>
So <systemitem role="package">gentoo</systemitem>'s man page should be called
<filename>gentoo.1</filename>.  If there was no <filename>gentoo.1</filename>
man page in the original source, you should create it by renaming the
<filename>manpage.1.ex</filename> template to <filename>gentoo.1</filename> and
editing it using information from the example and from the upstream docs.
</para>
<para>
You can use the <command>help2man</command> command to generate a man page out
of the <literal>--help</literal> and <literal>--version</literal> output of each
program, too.  <footnote><para> Note that <command>help2man</command>'s
placeholder man page will claim that more detailed documentation is
available in the info system. If the command is missing an
<command>info</command> page, you
should manually edit the man page created by the
<command>help2man</command> command.  </para> </footnote>
</para>
</section>
<section id="manpagesgml"><title><filename>manpage.sgml.ex</filename></title>
<para>
If on the other hand you prefer writing SGML instead of
<command>nroff</command>, you can use the <filename>manpage.sgml.ex</filename>
template.  If you do this, you have to:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
rename the file to something like <filename>gentoo.sgml</filename>.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
install the <systemitem role="package">docbook-to-man</systemitem> package
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
add <literal>docbook-to-man</literal> to the <literal>Build-Depends</literal>
line in the <filename>control</filename> file
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
add an <literal>override_dh_auto_build</literal> target to your
<filename>rules</filename> file:
</para>
<screen>
override_dh_auto_build:
        docbook-to-man debian/gentoo.sgml &gt; debian/gentoo.1
        dh_auto_build
</screen>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</section>
<section id="manpagexml"><title><filename>manpage.xml.ex</filename></title>
<para>
If you prefer XML over SGML, you can use the <literal>manpage.xml.ex</literal>
template.  If you do this, you have to:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
rename the source file to something like <literal>gentoo.1.xml</literal>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
install the <systemitem role="package">docbook-xsl</systemitem> package and an
XSLT processor like <systemitem role="package">xsltproc</systemitem>
(recommended)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
add the <literal>docbook-xsl</literal>, <literal>docbook-xml</literal>, and
<literal>xsltproc</literal> packages to the <literal>Build-Depends</literal>
line in the <literal>control</literal> file
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
add an <literal>override_dh_auto_build</literal> target to your
<filename>rules</filename> file:
</para>
<screen>
override_dh_auto_build:
        xsltproc --nonet \
         --param make.year.ranges 1 \
         --param make.single.year.ranges 1 \
         --param man.charmap.use.subset 0 \
         -o debian/ \
 http://docbook.sourceforge.net/release/xsl/current/manpages/docbook.xsl\
        debian/gentoo.1.xml
        dh_auto_build
</screen>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</section>
</section>
<section id="manpages"><title><filename><replaceable>package</replaceable>.manpages</filename></title>
<para>
If your package has manual pages, you should install them using <citerefentry>
<refentrytitle>dh_installman</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
</citerefentry> by listing them in a
<filename><replaceable>package</replaceable>.manpages</filename> file.
</para>
<para>
To install <filename>docs/gentoo.1</filename> as a manpage for the <systemitem role="package">gentoo</systemitem> package, create a
<filename>gentoo.manpages</filename> file as follows.
</para>
<screen>
docs/gentoo.1
</screen>
</section>
<section id="menu"><title><filename>menu</filename></title>
<para>
X Window System users usually have a window manager with a menu that can be
customized to launch programs.  If they have installed the Debian <systemitem role="package">menu</systemitem> package, a set of menus for every program on
the system will be created for them.
</para>
<para>
Here's the default <filename>menu.ex</filename> file that
<command>dh_make</command> created.
</para>
<screen>
?package(gentoo):needs=X11|text|vc|wm \
        section=Applications/see-menu-manual\
        title=gentoo command=/usr/bin/gentoo
</screen>
<para>
The first field after the colon character is <literal>needs</literal>, and it
specifies what kind of interface the program needs.  Change this to one of the
listed alternatives, e.g.  <literal>text</literal> or <literal>X11</literal>.
</para>
<para>
The next is the <literal>section</literal> that the menu and submenu entry
should appear in.
<footnote><para> The current list of sections is in
<ulink url="&menu-structure;">The Debian Menu sub-policy 2.1 "Preferred menu structure"</ulink>.
There was a major reorganization of menu structure for <literal>squeeze</literal>.
</para> </footnote>
</para>
<para>
The <literal>title</literal> field is the name of the program.  You can start
this one in uppercase if you like.  Just keep it short.
</para>
<para>
Finally, the <literal>command</literal> field is the command that runs the
program.
</para>
<para>
Let's change the file name to <filename>menu</filename> and change the menu
entry to this:
</para>
<screen>
?package(gentoo): needs=X11 \
        section=Applications/Tools \
        title=Gentoo command=gentoo
</screen>
<para>
You can also add other fields like <literal>longtitle</literal>,
<literal>icon</literal>, <literal>hints</literal> etc.  See <citerefentry>
<refentrytitle>dh_installmenu</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
</citerefentry>, <citerefentry> <refentrytitle>menufile</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>5</manvolnum> </citerefentry>, <citerefentry>
<refentrytitle>update-menus</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
</citerefentry>, and
<ulink url="&policy-menu;">The Debian Menu sub-policy</ulink> for more
information.
</para>
</section>
<section id="news"><title><filename>NEWS</filename></title>
<para>
The <citerefentry> <refentrytitle>dh_installchangelogs</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>1</manvolnum> </citerefentry> command installs this.
</para>
</section>
<section id="maintscripts"><title><filename>{pre,post}{inst,rm}</filename></title>
<para>
These <filename>postinst</filename>, <filename>preinst</filename>,
<filename>postrm</filename>, and <filename>prerm</filename> files
<footnote><para> Despite this use of the <command>bash</command>
shorthand expression <filename>{pre,post}{inst,rm}</filename> to indicate these
filenames, you should use pure POSIX syntax for these maintainer scripts for
compatibility with <command>dash</command> as the system shell.  </para> </footnote> are
called <emphasis>maintainer scripts</emphasis>.  They are scripts which are put
in the control area of the package and run by <command>dpkg</command> when your
package is installed, upgraded, or removed.
</para>
<para>
As a novice maintainer, you should avoid any manual editing of
maintainer scripts because they are problematic.  For more
information refer to the <ulink url="&policy-mantainerscripts;">Debian
Policy Manual, 6 "Package maintainer scripts and installation
procedure"</ulink>, and take a look at the example files provided by
<command>dh_make</command>.
</para>
<para>
If you did not listen to me and have created custom maintainer
scripts for a package, you should make sure to test them not only
for <emphasis role="strong">install</emphasis> and
<emphasis role="strong">upgrade</emphasis> but also for
<emphasis role="strong">remove</emphasis> and
<emphasis role="strong">purge</emphasis>.
</para>
<para>
Upgrades to the new version should be silent and non-intrusive (existing users
should not notice the upgrade except by discovering that old bugs have been
fixed and perhaps that there are new features).
</para>
<para>
When the upgrade is necessarily intrusive (eg., config files scattered through
various home directories with totally different structure), you may
consider as the last resort switching the package to a safe fallback state
(e.g., disabling a service) and providing the proper documentation
required by policy (<filename>README.Debian</filename> and
<filename>NEWS.Debian</filename>).  Don't bother the user with
<command>debconf</command> notes invoked from these maintainer scripts
for upgrades.
</para>
<para>
The &