dh_install(1) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | FILES | OPTIONS | EXAMPLES | LIMITATIONS | SEE ALSO | AUTHOR | COLOPHON

DH_INSTALL(1)                   Debhelper                  DH_INSTALL(1)

NAME         top

       dh_install - install files into package build directories

SYNOPSIS         top

       dh_install [-Xitem] [--autodest] [--sourcedir=dir]
       [debhelper options] [file|dir ... destdir]

DESCRIPTION         top

       dh_install is a debhelper program that handles installing files
       into package build directories. There are many dh_install*
       commands that handle installing specific types of files such as
       documentation, examples, man pages, and so on, and they should be
       used when possible as they often have extra intelligence for
       those particular tasks. dh_install, then, is useful for
       installing everything else, for which no particular intelligence
       is needed. It is a replacement for the old dh_movefiles command.

       This program may be used in one of two ways. If you just have a
       file or two that the upstream Makefile does not install for you,
       you can run dh_install on them to move them into place. On the
       other hand, maybe you have a large package that builds multiple
       binary packages. You can use the upstream Makefile to install it
       all into debian/tmp, and then use dh_install to copy directories
       and files from there into the proper package build directories.

       From debhelper compatibility level 7 on, dh_install will fall
       back to looking in debian/tmp for files, if it does not find them
       in the current directory (or wherever you've told it to look
       using --sourcedir).

FILES         top

       debian/package.install
           List the files to install into each package and the directory
           they should be installed to. The format is a set of lines,
           where each line lists a file or files to install, and at the
           end of the line tells the directory it should be installed
           in. The name of the files (or directories) to install should
           be given relative to the current directory, while the
           installation directory is given relative to the package build
           directory. You may use wildcards in the names of the files to
           install.

           Note that if you list exactly one filename or wildcard-
           pattern on a line by itself, with no explicit destination,
           then dh_install will automatically guess the destination to
           use, the same as if the --autodest option were used.

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

       debian/not-installed
           Used with the deprecated --list-missing and --fail-missing
           options.  Please refer to dh_missing(1) for the documentation
           of this file.

OPTIONS         top

       --list-missing
           Deprecated: Please use dh_missing --list-missing instead.  If
           you use this option, dh_install will call dh_missing with
           that option after it has processed all the files.  Please see
           dh_missing(1) for the documentation of this option.

           This option is removed in compat 12.

       --fail-missing
           Deprecated: Please use dh_missing --fail-missing instead.  If
           you use this option, dh_install will call dh_missing with
           that option after it has processed all the files.  Please see
           dh_missing(1) for the documentation of this option.

           This option is removed in compat 12.

       --sourcedir=dir
           Look in the specified directory for files to be installed.

           Note that this is not the same as the --sourcedirectory
           option used by the dh_auto_* commands. You rarely need to use
           this option, since dh_install automatically looks for files
           in debian/tmp in debhelper compatibility level 7 and above.

       --autodest
           Guess as the destination directory to install things to. If
           this is specified, you should not list destination
           directories in debian/package.install files or on the command
           line. Instead, dh_install will guess as follows:

           Strip off debian/tmp (or the sourcedir if one is given) from
           the front of the filename, if it is present, and install into
           the dirname of the filename. So if the filename is
           debian/tmp/usr/bin, then that directory will be copied to
           debian/package/usr/. If the filename is
           debian/tmp/etc/passwd, it will be copied to
           debian/package/etc/.

       file|dir ... destdir
           Lists files (or directories) to install and where to install
           them to.  The files will be installed into the first package
           dh_install acts on.

EXAMPLES         top

       Here are some small examples of configuration files for
       dh_install.

           # Install my-prog into usr/bin (as "usr/bin/my-prog")
           my-prog usr/bin

           # Install a plugins directory into usr/share/my-prog
           # (as "usr/share/my-prog/plugins/")
           plugins usr/share/my-prog

           # Install a file with spaces in into usr/share/my-prog/data
           # (as "usr/share/my-prog/data/my datafile with spaces.txt")
           # ASSUMES COMPAT 13, where substitution patterns are available
           my${Space}datafile${Space}with${Space}spaces.txt usr/share/my-prog/data

           # Install a library into the multi-arch lib directory
           # ASSUMES COMPAT 13, where substitution patterns are available
           build/output/libfrop*.so.* usr/lib/${DEB_HOST_MULTIARCH}

LIMITATIONS         top

       dh_install cannot rename files or directories, it can only
       install them with the names they already have into wherever you
       want in the package build tree.

       There is also no way to filter out results based on build
       profiles or architecture. For documentation content, consider
       using dh_installdocs or dh_installexamples as those helpers
       account for the nodoc build profile.

       However, renaming and filtering can be achieved by using dh-exec
       with compatibility level 9 or later.  An example
       debian/package.install file using dh-exec could look like:

        #!/usr/bin/dh-exec
        debian/default.conf => /etc/my-package/start.conf
        build/foo /usr/bin <!pkg.bar.nofoo>

       Please remember the following three things:

       •   The package must be using compatibility level 9 or later (see
           debhelper(7))

       •   The package will need a build-dependency on dh-exec.

       •   The install file must be marked as executable.

SEE ALSO         top

       debhelper(7)

       This program is a part of debhelper.

AUTHOR         top

       Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the debhelper (helper programs for
       debian/rules) project.  Information about the project can be
       found at [unknown -- if you know, please contact man-
       pages@man7.org] If you have a bug report for this manual page,
       send it to submit@bugs.debian.org.  This page was obtained from
       the project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debhelper.git⟩ on 2024-06-14.
       (At that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found
       in the repository was 2024-06-09.)  If you discover any rendering
       problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there
       is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
       corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
       (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       man-pages@man7.org

13.15.3                        2024-06-07                  DH_INSTALL(1)

Pages that refer to this page: dh(1)dh_assistant(1)dh_auto_install(1)dh_installdocs(1)dh_installman(1)debhelper(7)