1 .TH dgit 1 "" "Debian Project" "dgit"
3 dgit \- git integration with the Debian archive
7 [\fIdgit\-opts\fP] \fBclone\fP [\fIdgit\-opts\fP]
8 \fIpackage\fP [\fIsuite\fP] [\fB./\fP\fIdir|\fB/\fP\fIdir\fR]
11 [\fIdgit\-opts\fP] \fBfetch\fP|\fBpull\fP [\fIdgit\-opts\fP]
15 [\fIdgit\-opts\fP] \fBbuild\fP|\fBsbuild\fP|\fBbuild-source\fP
19 [\fIdgit\-opts\fP] \fBpush\fP [\fIdgit\-opts\fP]
23 [\fIdgit\-opts\fP] \fIaction\fR ...
26 treats the Debian archive as a version control system, and
27 bidirectionally gateways between the archive and git. The git view of
28 the package can contain the usual upstream git history, and will be
29 augmented by commits representing uploads done by other developers not
30 using dgit. This git history is stored in a canonical location known
33 which lives outside the Debian archive (currently, on Alioth).
35 The usual workflow is: 1. clone or fetch; 2. make and commit changes
36 in git as desired; 3. run dgit build, dgit sbuild or dgit
37 build-source, or generate the source and binary packages for upload
38 some other way; 4. do pre-upload tests of the proposed upload; 5. run
41 \fBdgit clone\fR \fIpackage\fP [\fIsuite\fP] [\fB./\fP\fIdir|\fB/\fP\fIdir\fR]
42 Consults the archive and dgit-repos to construct the git view of
49 in a new directory (named
52 also, downloads any necessary orig tarballs.
54 The suite's git tip is
55 left on the local branch
57 ready for work, and on the corresponding dgit remote tracking branch.
60 remote will be set up to point to the package's dgit-repos tree
61 for the distro to which
65 \fBdgit fetch\fR [\fIsuite\fP]
66 Consults the archive and git-repos to update the git view of
67 history for a specific suite (and downloads any necessary orig
68 tarballs), and updates the remote tracking branch
69 .BR remotes/dgit/dgit/ \fIsuite\fR.
70 If the current branch is
72 then dgit fetch defaults to
74 otherwise it parses debian/changelog and uses the suite specified
77 \fBdgit pull\fR [\fIsuite\fP]
78 Does dgit fetch, and then merges the new head of the remote tracking
80 .BI remotes/dgit/dgit/ suite
81 into the current branch.
86 with some suitable options. Options and argumments after build
87 will be passed on to dpkg-buildpackage. It is not necessary to use
88 dgit build when using dgit; it is OK to use any approach which ensures
89 that the generated source package corresponds to the relevant git
92 Tagging, signing and actually uploading should be left to dgit push.
94 \fBdgit build-source\fR ...
95 Builds the source package, and a changes file for a prospective
96 source-only upload, using
99 .IR package \fB_\fR version \fB.dsc\fR
101 .IR package \fB_\fR version \fB_source.changes\fR.
103 Tagging, signing and actually uploading should be left to dgit push.
106 Print a usage summary.
108 \fBdgit sbuild\fR ...
109 Constructs the source package, uses
111 to do a binary build, and uses mergechanges to merge the source and
112 binary changes files. Options and argumments after sbuild will be
113 passed on to sbuild. Changes files matching
114 .IB package _ version _*.changes
115 in the parent directory will be removed; the output is left in
116 .IR package \fB_\fR version \fB_multi.changes\fR.
118 Tagging, signing and actually uploading should be left to dgit push.
120 \fBdgit git-build\fR ...
123 with some suitable options. Options and argumments after git-build
124 will be passed on to git-buildpackage.
126 Tagging, signing and actually uploading should be left to dgit push.
128 \fBdgit push\fR [\fIsuite\fP]
129 Does an `upload', pushing the current HEAD to the archive (as a source
130 package) and to dgit-repos (as git commits). The package must already
131 have been built ready for upload, with the .dsc and .changes
132 left in the parent directory.
134 In more detail: dgit push checks that the current HEAD corresponds to
135 the .dsc. It then pushes the HEAD to the suite's dgit-repos branch,
136 makes a signed git tag, edits the .dsc to contain the dgit metadata
137 field, runs debsign to sign the upload (.dsc and .changes), pushes the
138 signed tag, and finally uses dput to upload the .changes to the
141 dgit push always uses the package, suite and version specified in the
142 debian/changelog and the .dsc, which must agree. If the command line
143 specifies a suite then that must match too.
145 If dgit push fails while uploading, it is fine to simply retry the
146 dput on the .changes file at your leisure.
149 Looks to see if the tree is one which dpkg-source cannot properly
150 represent. If it isn't, dgit will fix it up for you (in quilt terms,
151 by making a new debian/ patch containing your unquilty changes) and
152 make a commit of the changes it has made.
154 This is normally done automatically by dgit build and dgit push.
157 Prints version information and exits.
161 Go through the motions, fetching all information needed, but do not
162 actually update the output(s). For push, dgit does
163 the required checks and leaves the new .dsc in a temporary file,
164 but does not sign, tag, push or upload.
169 for signing the tag and the upload.
172 does not sign tags or uploads (meaningful only with push).
176 Specifies that we should process source package
178 rather than looking in debian/control or debian/changelog.
179 Valid with dgit fetch and dgit pull, only.
181 .BR --clean=git | -wg
182 The source tree should be cleaned, before building a source package
183 with one of the build options, using
184 .BR "git clean -xdf" .
185 This will delete all files which are not tracked by git.
187 .BR --clean=none | -wn
188 Do not clean the tree before building a source package. If there are
189 files which are not in git, a subsequent dgit push will fail.
191 .BR --clean=dpkg-source | -wd
192 Use dpkg-buildpackage to do the build, so that the source package
193 is cleaned by dpkg-source running the package's clean target.
194 This is the default. It requires the package's build dependencies.
197 The package may be new in this suite. Without this, dgit will
201 Do not complain if the working tree does not match your git HEAD.
202 This can be useful with build, if you plan to commit later. (dgit
203 push will still ensure that the .dsc you upload and the git tree
204 you push are identical, so this option won't make broken pushes.)
206 This option may not work properly on `3.0 (quilt)' packages, as in
207 that case dgit needs to use and perhaps commit parts of your working
211 Do not fix up source format `3.0 (quilt)' metadata. If you use this
212 option and the package did in fact need fixing up, dgit push will
216 Prints debugging information to stderr. Repeating the option produces
217 more output (currently, up to -DD is meaningfully different).
220 Specifies a git configuration option. dgit itself is also controlled
221 by git configuration options.
223 .RI \fB-v\fR version |\fB-m\fR maintaineraddress
224 Passed to dpkg-genchanges (eventually).
226 .RI \fB--ch:\fR option
227 Specifies a single additional option to pass, eventually, to
230 .RI \fB--dget=\fR program |\fB--dput=\fR program |...
231 Specifies alternative programs to use instead of
236 .BR dpkg-buildpackage ,
237 .BR dpkg-genchanges ,
245 For dpkg-buildpackage, dpkg-genchanges, mergechanges and sbuild,
246 this applies only when the program is invoked directly by dgit.
248 For dgit, specifies the command to run on the remote host when dgit
249 rpush needs to invoke a remote copy of itself. (dgit also reinvokes
250 itself as the EDITOR for dpkg-source --commit; this is done using
251 argv[0], and is not affected by --dget=).
253 For ssh, the default value is taken from the
257 environment variables, if set (see below). And, for ssh, when accessing the
258 archive and dgit-repos, this command line setting is overridden by the
260 .BI dgit-distro. distro .ssh
263 (which can in turn be overridden with -c). Also, when dgit is using
264 git to access dgit-repos, only git's idea of what ssh to use (eg,
268 .RI \fB--dget:\fR option |\fB--dput:\fR option |...
269 Specifies a single additional option to pass to
274 .BR dpkg-buildpackage ,
275 .BR dpkg-genchanges ,
281 Can be repeated as necessary.
283 For dpkg-buildpackage, dpkg-genchanges, mergechanges and sbuild,
284 this applies only when the program is invoked directly by dgit.
285 Usually, for passing options to dpkg-genchanges, you should use
286 .BR --ch: \fIoption\fR.
288 See notes above regarding ssh and dgit.
290 NB that --gpg:option is not supported (because debsign does not
291 have that facility). But see -k.
293 .BR -d "\fIdistro\fR | " --distro= \fIdistro\fR
294 Specifies that the suite to be operated on is part of distro
296 This overrides the default value found from the git config option
297 .BR dgit-suite. \fIsuite\fR .distro .
298 The only effect is that other configuration variables (used
299 for accessing the archive and dgit-repos) used are
300 .BR dgit-distro. \fIdistro\fR .* .
302 If your suite is part of a distro that dgit already knows about, you
303 can use this option to make dgit work even if your dgit doesn't know
304 about the suite. For example, specifying
306 will work when the suite is an unknown suite in the Debian archive.
308 To define a new distro it is necessary to define methods and URLs
309 for fetching (and, for dgit push, altering) a variety of information both
310 in the archive and in dgit-repos. How to do this is not yet
311 documented, and currently the arrangements are unpleasant. See
315 Specifies the .changes file which is to be uploaded. By default
316 dgit push looks for single .changes file in the parent directory whose
317 filename suggests it is for the right package and version - or,
318 if there is a _multi.changes file, dgit uses that.
320 .BI --existing-package= package
321 dgit push needs to canonicalise the suite name. But currently
322 there is no way to ask the archive to do this without knowing the
323 name of an existing package. Without --new we can just use the
324 package we are trying to push. But with --new that will not work, so
327 or use the value of this option.
330 Print a usage summary.
331 .SH WORKFLOW - SIMPLE
332 It is always possible with dgit to clone or fetch a package, make
333 changes in git (using git-commit) on the suite branch
334 .RB ( "git checkout dgit/" \fIsuite\fR)
335 and then dgit push. You can use whatever gitish techniques you like
336 to construct the commit to push; the only requirement is that it is a
337 descendant of the state of the archive, as provided by dgit in the
338 remote tracking branch
339 .BR remotes/dgit/dgit/ \fIsuite\fR.
341 If you are lucky the other uploaders have also used dgit and
342 integrated the other relevant git history; if not you can fetch it
343 into your tree and cherry-pick etc. as you wish.
344 .SH WORKFLOW - INTEGRATING BETWEEN DGIT AND OTHER GIT HISTORY
345 If you are the maintainer of a package dealing with uploads made
346 without dgit, you will probably want to merge the synthetic commits
347 (made by dgit to represent the uploads) into your git history.
348 Normally you can just merge the dgit branch into your own master, or
349 indeed if you do your work on the dgit local suite branch
351 you can just use dgit pull.
353 However the first time dgit is used it will generate a new origin
354 commit from the archive which won't be linked into the rest of your
355 git history. You will need to merge this.
357 If last upload was in fact made with git, you should usually proceed
358 as follows: identify the commit which was actually used to build the
359 package. (Hopefully you have a tag for this.) Check out the dgit
361 .RB ( "git checkout dgit/" \fIsuite\fR)
362 and merge that other commit
363 .RB ( "git merge debian/" \fIversion\fR).
364 Hopefully this merge will be trivial because the two trees should
365 be the same. The resulting branch head can be merged into your
367 .RB ( "git checkout master && git merge dgit/" \fIsuite\fR).
369 If last upload was not made with git, a different approach is required
370 to start using dgit. First, do
372 (or clone) to obtain a git history representation of what's in the
373 archive and record it in the
374 .BI remotes/dgit/dgit/ suite
375 tracking branch. Then somehow, using your other git history
376 plus appropriate diffs and cherry picks from the dgit remote tracking
377 branch, construct a git commit whose tree corresponds to the tree to use for the
378 next upload. If that commit-to-be-uploaded is not a descendant of the
379 dig remote tracking branch, check it out and say
380 .BR "git merge -s ours remotes/dgit/dgit/" \fIsuite\fR;
381 that tells git that we are deliberately throwing away any differences
382 between what's in the archive and what you intend to upload.
385 to actually upload the result.
387 You may use any suitable git workflow with dgit, provided you
388 satisfy dgit's requirements:
390 dgit maintains a pseudo-remote called
392 with one branch per suite. This remote cannot be used with
397 repository for each package contains one ref per suite named
398 \fBrefs/dgit/\fR\fIsuite\fR. These should be pushed to only by
399 dgit. They are fast forwarding. Each push on this branch
400 corresponds to an upload (or attempted upload).
402 However, it is perfectly fine to have other branches in dgit-repos;
403 normally the dgit-repos repo for the package will be accessible via
404 the remote name `origin'.
406 dgit push will also (by default) make signed tags called
408 and push them to dgit-repos, but nothing depends on these tags
411 dgit push can operate on any commit which is a descendant of the
412 current dgit/suite tip in dgit-repos.
414 Uploads made by dgit contain an additional field
416 in the source package .dsc. (This is added by dgit push.)
417 This specifies a commit (an ancestor of the dgit/suite
418 branch) whose tree is identical to the unpacked source upload.
420 Uploads not made by dgit are represented in git by commits which are
421 synthesised by dgit. The tree of each such commit corresponds to the
422 unpacked source; there is an origin commit with the contents, and a
423 psuedo-merge from last known upload - that is, from the contents of
424 the dgit/suite branch.
426 dgit expects repos that it works with to have a
428 remote. This refers to the well-known dgit-repos location
429 (currently, the dgit-repos project on Alioth). dgit fetch updates
430 the remote tracking branch for dgit/suite.
432 dgit does not (currently) represent the orig tarball(s) in git; nor
433 does it represent the patch statck of a `3.0 (quilt)' package. The
434 orig tarballs are downloaded and kept in the parent directory, as with
435 a traditional (non-gitish) dpkg-source workflow.
437 To a user looking at the archive, changes pushed using dgit look like
438 changes made in an NMU: in a `3.0 (quilt)' package the delta from the
439 previous upload is recorded in a new patch constructed by dpkg-source.
440 .SH PACKAGE SOURCE FORMATS
441 If you are not the maintainer, you do not need to worry about the
442 source format of the package. You can just make changes as you like
443 in git. If the package is a `3.0 (quilt)' package, the patch stack
444 will usually not be represented in the git history.
446 If you are the maintainer of a non-native package, you currently have
447 two sensible options:
449 Firstly, you can regard your git history as primary, and the archive
450 as an export format. For example, you could maintain topic branches
451 in git and a fast-forwarding release branch; or you could do your work
452 directly in a merging way on the
454 branches. If you do this you should probably use a `1.0' format
455 source package if you can. In the archive, the delta between upstream
456 will be represented in the single Debian patch.
458 Secondly, you can use `3.0 (quilt)', and regard your quiltish patch
459 stack in the archive as primary. You will have to use other tools
460 besides dgit to import and export this patch stack. But see below:
461 .SH FORMAT 3.0 (QUILT)
462 For a format `3.0 (quilt)' source package, dgit may have to make a
463 commit on your current branch to contain metadata used by quilt and
466 This is because (i) the `3.0 (quilt)' source format cannot represent
467 certain trees, and (ii) packing up a tree in `3.0 (quilt)' and then
468 unpacking it does not always yield the same tree. Instead,
469 dpkg-source insists on the trees having extra quilty metadata and
470 patch files in the debian/ and .pc/ directories, which dpkg-source
473 dgit will automatically work around this braindamage for you when
474 building and pushing. The only thing you need to know is that dgit
475 build, sbuild, etc., may make a new commit on your HEAD. If you're
476 not a quilt user this commit won't contain any changes to files you
479 You can explicitly request that dgit do just this fixup, by running
482 We recommend against the use of `3.0 (quilt)'.
483 .SH FILES IN THE SOURCE PACKAGE BUT NOT IN GIT
484 This section is mainly of interest to maintainers who want to use dgit
485 with their existing git history for the Debian package.
487 Some developers like to have an extra-clean git tree which lacks files
488 which are normally found in source tarballs and therefore in Debian
489 source packages. For example, it is conventional to ship ./configure
490 in the source tarball, but some people prefer not to have it present
491 in the git view of their project.
493 dgit requires that the source package unpacks to exactly the same
494 files as are in the git commit on which dgit push operates. So if you
495 just try to dgit push directly from one of these extra-clean git
496 branches, it will fail.
498 As the maintainer you therefore have the following options:
501 Persuade upstream that the source code in their git history and the
502 source they ship as tarballs should be identical. Of course simply
503 removing the files from the tarball may make the tarball hard for
506 One answer is to commit the (maybe autogenerated)
507 files, perhaps with some simple automation to deal with conflicts and
508 spurious changes. This has the advantage that someone who clones
509 the git repository finds the program just as easy to build as someone
510 who uses the tarball.
513 Have separate git branches which do contain the extra files, and after
514 regenerating the extra files (whenever you would have to anyway),
515 commit the result onto those branches.
518 Provide source packages which lack the files you don't want
519 in git, and arrange for your package build to create them as needed.
520 This may mean not using upstream source tarballs and makes the Debian
521 source package less useful for people without Debian build
524 Of course it may also be that the differences are due to build system
525 bugs, which cause unintended files to end up in the source package.
526 dgit will notice this and complain. You may have to fix these bugs
527 before you can unify your existing git history with dgit's.
529 dgit looks at the following git config keys to control its behaviour.
530 You may set them with git-config (either in system-global or per-tree
531 configuration), or provide
533 on the dgit command line.
535 .BI dgit-suite. suite .distro
537 .BI dgit.default.distro
539 .BI dgit-distro. distro .username
541 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-url
543 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-user
545 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-host
547 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-proto
549 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-path
551 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-check
553 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-create
555 .BI dgit-distro. distro .upload-host
557 .BI dgit-distro. distro .mirror
559 .BI dgit-distro. distro .archive-query
561 .BI dgit-distro. distro .archive-query-default-component
563 .BI dgit-distro. distro .sshdakls-user
565 .BI dgit-distro. distro .sshdakls-host
567 .BI dgit-distro. distro .sshdakls-dir
569 .BI dgit-distro. distro .ssh
571 .BI dgit-distro. distro .keyid
575 .BR dgit-distro. \fIdistro\fR . *
576 .SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
578 .BR DGIT_SSH ", " GIT_SSH
579 specify an alternative default program (and perhaps arguments) to use
580 instead of ssh. DGIT_SSH is consulted first and may contain arguments;
581 if it contains any whitespace will be passed to the shell. GIT_SSH
582 specifies just the program; no arguments can be specified, so dgit
583 interprets it the same way as git does.
585 also the --ssh= and --ssh: options.
587 .BR gpg ", " dpkg- "..., " debsign ", " git ", " dget ", " dput ", " LWP::UserAgent
588 and other subprograms and modules used by dgit are affected by various
589 environment variables. Consult the documentaton for those programs
592 We should be using some kind of vhost/vpath setup for the git repos on
593 alioth, so that they can be moved later if and when this turns out to
596 Debian Policy needs to be updated to describe the new Dgit .dsc
597 field (and to specify that it is an RC bug for that field to refer
598 to an unavailable commit).
600 The method of canonicalising suite names is bizarre. See the
601 .B --existing-package
602 option for one of the implications.
604 dgit push should perhaps do `git push origin', or something similar,
607 Debian does not have a working rmadison server, so to find out what
608 version of a package is in the archive, or to canonicalise suite
609 names, we ssh directly into the ftpmaster server.
611 The mechanism for checking for and creating per-package repos on
612 alioth is a hideous bodge. One consequence is that dgit currently
613 only works for people with push access.
615 Debian Maintainers are currently not able to push, as there is not
616 currently any mechanism for determining and honouring the archive's
617 ideas about access control. Currently only DDs can push.
619 dgit's representation of format `3.0 (quilt)' source packages does not
620 represent the patch stack. Currently the patch series representation
621 cannot round trip through the archive. Ideally dgit would represent a
622 quilty package with an origin commit of some kind followed by the
623 patch stack as a series of commits followed by a pseudo-merge (to make
624 the branch fast-forwarding). This would also mean a new `dgit
625 rebase-prep' command or some such to turn such a fast-forwarding
626 branch back into a rebasing patch stack, and a `force' option to dgit
627 push (perhaps enabled automatically by a note left by rebase-prep)
628 which will make the required pseudo-merge.
630 If the dgit push fails halfway through, it should be restartable and
631 idempotent. However this is not true for the git tag operation.
632 Also, it would be good to check that the proposed signing key is
633 available before starting work.
635 dgit's handling of .orig.tar.gz is not very sophisticated. Ideally
636 the .orig.tar.gz could be transported via the git repo as git tags.
637 Doing this is made more complicated by the possibility of a `3.0
638 (quilt)' package with multiple .orig tarballs.
640 dgit's build functions, and dgit push, should not make any changes to
641 your current HEAD. Sadly this is necessary for packages in the `3.0
642 (quilt)' source format. This is ultimately due to design problems in
643 quilt and dpkg-source.
645 There should be an option which arranges for the `3.0 (quilt)'
646 autocommit to not appear on your HEAD, but instead only in the
647 remote tracking suite branch.
649 There should at the very least be some advice in the manpage about how
650 to use dgit when the signing key is not available on the same machine
653 The option parser requires values to be cuddled to the option name.
655 dgit assumes knowledge of the archive layout. There appears to be no
656 sane way to find the path in the archive pool of the .dsc for a
657 particular suite. I'm assured that the archive layout is a
658 `well known algorithm' by now.
660 --dry-run does not always work properly, as not doing some of the git
661 fetches may result in subsequent actions being different. Doing a
662 non-dry-run dgit fetch first will help.
668 \fBgit-buildpackage\fP(1),
669 \fBdpkg-buildpackage\fP(1),
671 https://wiki.debian.org/Alioth
~ianmdlvl / dgit.git / blob