diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'debhelper.pod')
| -rw-r--r-- | debhelper.pod | 51 |
1 files changed, 41 insertions, 10 deletions
diff --git a/debhelper.pod b/debhelper.pod index 535d4772..df822163 100644 --- a/debhelper.pod +++ b/debhelper.pod @@ -182,6 +182,24 @@ the set command): system ($temp) / 256 == 0 or die "Problem with debhelper scripts: $!"; +=head2 Automatic generation of miscellaneous dependencies. + +Some debhelper commands may make the generated package need to depend on +some other packages. For example, if you use L<dh_installdebconf(1)>, you'r +package will generally need to depend on debconf. Or if you use +L<dh_installxfonts(1)>, your package will generally need to depend on a +particular version of xutils. Keeping track of these miscellaneous +dependencies can be annoying, so debhelper offers a way to automate it. +All commands of this type, besides documenting what dependencies may be +needed on their man pages, will automatically generate a substvar called +${misc:Depends}. If you put that token into your debian/control file, it +will be expanded to the dependencies debhelper figures you need. + +This is entirely independent of the standard ${shlibs:Depends} generated by +L<dh_makeshlibs(1)>, and the ${perl:Depends} generated by L<dh_perl(1)>. +You can choose not to use any of these, if debhelper's guesses don't match +reality. + =head2 Package build directories By default, all debhelper programs assume that the temporary directory used @@ -200,29 +218,36 @@ act on. From time to time, major non-backwards-compatible changes need to be made to debhelper, to keep it clean and well-designed as needs change and its author gains more experience. To prevent such major changes from breaking -existing packages, the DH_COMPAT environment variable was introduced. -DH_COMPAT may be set to a number, to determine which major revision of -debhelper should be used. There are currently 3: +existing packages, the concept of debhelper compatability levels was +introduced. You tell debhelper which compatability level it should use, and +it modifies its behavior in various ways. + +You tell debhelper what compatability level to use by writing a number to +debian/compat. For example, to turn on V3 mode: + + % echo 3 > debian/compat + +These are the available compatablity levels: =over 4 =item V1 -Setting DH_COMPAT=1 (or leaving it unset) causes debhelper to act in -compatibility mode. It will use debian/tmp as the package tree +This is the original debhelper compatability level, and so it is the default +one. In this mode, debhelper will use debian/tmp as the package tree directory for the first binary package listed in the control file, while using debian/<package> for all other packages listed in the control file. This mode is deprecated. =item V2 -Setting DH_COMPAT=2 causes debhelper to consistently use debian/<package> +In this mode, debhelper will consistently use debian/<package> as the package tree directory for every package that is built. =item V3 -This is the reccommended mode of operation. -Setting DH_COMPAT=3 does everything V2 does, plus: +This is the reccommended mode of operation. It does everything V2 does, +plus: =over 8 @@ -244,7 +269,7 @@ Every file in etc/ is automatically flagged as a conffile by dh_installdeb. =item V4 This mode is still under development, and its behavior may change at any -time. Currently, setting DH_COMPAT=4 does everything V4 does, plus: +time. Currently, it does everything V3 does, plus: =over 8 @@ -253,6 +278,11 @@ time. Currently, setting DH_COMPAT=4 does everything V4 does, plus: dh_makeshlibs -V will not include the debian part of the version number in the generated dependancy line in the shlibs file. +=item - + +dh_installinit uses the new invoke-rc.d program in its generated maintainer +scripts. (This may later be rolled back into V3). + =back =back @@ -297,7 +327,8 @@ that modifies files on the build system. =item DH_COMPAT -Specifies what compatibility level debhelper should run at. See above. +Temporarily specifies what compatibility level debhelper should run at, +overriding any value in debian/compat. =item DH_NO_ACT |