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] \fBrpush\fR \fIbuild-host\fR\fB:\fR\fIbuild-dir\fR
27 [\fIdgit\-opts\fP] \fIaction\fR ...
30 treats the Debian archive as a version control system, and
31 bidirectionally gateways between the archive and git. The git view of
32 the package can contain the usual upstream git history, and will be
33 augmented by commits representing uploads done by other developers not
34 using dgit. This git history is stored in a canonical location known
37 which lives outside the Debian archive (currently, on Alioth).
39 The usual workflow is: 1. clone or fetch; 2. make and commit changes
40 in git as desired; 3. run dgit build, dgit sbuild or dgit
41 build-source, or generate the source and binary packages for upload
42 some other way; 4. do pre-upload tests of the proposed upload; 5. run
45 \fBdgit clone\fR \fIpackage\fP [\fIsuite\fP] [\fB./\fP\fIdir|\fB/\fP\fIdir\fR]
46 Consults the archive and dgit-repos to construct the git view of
53 in a new directory (named
56 also, downloads any necessary orig tarballs.
58 The suite's git tip is
59 left on the local branch
61 ready for work, and on the corresponding dgit remote tracking branch.
64 remote will be set up to point to the package's dgit-repos tree
65 for the distro to which
69 \fBdgit fetch\fR [\fIsuite\fP]
70 Consults the archive and git-repos to update the git view of
71 history for a specific suite (and downloads any necessary orig
72 tarballs), and updates the remote tracking branch
73 .BR remotes/dgit/dgit/ \fIsuite\fR.
74 If the current branch is
76 then dgit fetch defaults to
78 otherwise it parses debian/changelog and uses the suite specified
81 \fBdgit pull\fR [\fIsuite\fP]
82 Does dgit fetch, and then merges the new head of the remote tracking
84 .BI remotes/dgit/dgit/ suite
85 into the current branch.
90 with some suitable options. Options and argumments after build
91 will be passed on to dpkg-buildpackage. It is not necessary to use
92 dgit build when using dgit; it is OK to use any approach which ensures
93 that the generated source package corresponds to the relevant git
96 Tagging, signing and actually uploading should be left to dgit push.
98 \fBdgit build-source\fR ...
99 Builds the source package, and a changes file for a prospective
100 source-only upload, using
102 The output is left in
103 .IR package \fB_\fR version \fB.dsc\fR
105 .IR package \fB_\fR version \fB_source.changes\fR.
107 Tagging, signing and actually uploading should be left to dgit push.
110 Print a usage summary.
112 \fBdgit sbuild\fR ...
113 Constructs the source package, uses
115 to do a binary build, and uses mergechanges to merge the source and
116 binary changes files. Options and argumments after sbuild will be
117 passed on to sbuild. Changes files matching
118 .IB package _ version _*.changes
119 in the parent directory will be removed; the output is left in
120 .IR package \fB_\fR version \fB_multi.changes\fR.
122 Tagging, signing and actually uploading should be left to dgit push.
124 \fBdgit git-build\fR ...
127 with some suitable options. Options and argumments after git-build
128 will be passed on to git-buildpackage.
130 Tagging, signing and actually uploading should be left to dgit push.
132 \fBdgit push\fR [\fIsuite\fP]
133 Does an `upload', pushing the current HEAD to the archive (as a source
134 package) and to dgit-repos (as git commits). The package must already
135 have been built ready for upload, with the .dsc and .changes
136 left in the parent directory.
138 In more detail: dgit push checks that the current HEAD corresponds to
139 the .dsc. It then pushes the HEAD to the suite's dgit-repos branch,
140 makes a signed git tag, edits the .dsc to contain the dgit metadata
141 field, runs debsign to sign the upload (.dsc and .changes), pushes the
142 signed tag, and finally uses dput to upload the .changes to the
145 dgit push always uses the package, suite and version specified in the
146 debian/changelog and the .dsc, which must agree. If the command line
147 specifies a suite then that must match too.
149 If dgit push fails while uploading, it is fine to simply retry the
150 dput on the .changes file at your leisure.
152 \fBdgit rpush\fR \fIbuild-host\fR\fB:\fR\fIbuild-dir\fR [\fIpush args...\fR]
153 Pushes the contents of the specified directory on a remote machine.
154 This is like running dgit push on build-host with build-dir as the
155 current directory; however, signing operations are done on the
156 invoking host. This allows you to do a push when the system which has
157 the source code and the build outputs has no access to the key.
159 However, the build-host must be able to ssh to the dgit repos. If
160 this is not already the case, you must organise it separately, for
161 example by the use of ssh agent forwarding.
163 The remaining arguments are treated just as dgit push would handle
166 build-host and build\-dir can be passed as separate
167 arguments; this is assumed to be the case if the first argument
168 contains no : (except perhaps on in [ ], to support IPv6 address
172 Looks to see if the tree is one which dpkg-source cannot properly
173 represent. If it isn't, dgit will fix it up for you (in quilt terms,
174 by making a new debian/ patch containing your unquilty changes) and
175 make a commit of the changes it has made.
177 This is normally done automatically by dgit build and dgit push.
180 Prints version information and exits.
184 Go through the motions, fetching all information needed, but do not
185 actually update the output(s). For push, dgit does
186 the required checks and leaves the new .dsc in a temporary file,
187 but does not sign, tag, push or upload.
192 for signing the tag and the upload.
195 does not sign tags or uploads (meaningful only with push).
199 Specifies that we should process source package
201 rather than looking in debian/control or debian/changelog.
202 Valid with dgit fetch and dgit pull, only.
204 .BR --clean=git | -wg
205 The source tree should be cleaned, before building a source package
206 with one of the build options, using
207 .BR "git clean -xdf" .
208 This will delete all files which are not tracked by git.
210 .BR --clean=none | -wn
211 Do not clean the tree before building a source package. If there are
212 files which are not in git, a subsequent dgit push will fail.
214 .BR --clean=dpkg-source | -wd
215 Use dpkg-buildpackage to do the build, so that the source package
216 is cleaned by dpkg-source running the package's clean target.
217 This is the default. It requires the package's build dependencies.
220 The package may be new in this suite. Without this, dgit will
224 Do not complain if the working tree does not match your git HEAD.
225 This can be useful with build, if you plan to commit later. (dgit
226 push will still ensure that the .dsc you upload and the git tree
227 you push are identical, so this option won't make broken pushes.)
229 This option may not work properly on `3.0 (quilt)' packages, as in
230 that case dgit needs to use and perhaps commit parts of your working
234 Do not fix up source format `3.0 (quilt)' metadata. If you use this
235 option and the package did in fact need fixing up, dgit push will
239 Prints debugging information to stderr. Repeating the option produces
240 more output (currently, up to -DD is meaningfully different).
243 Specifies a git configuration option. dgit itself is also controlled
244 by git configuration options.
246 .RI \fB-v\fR version |\fB-m\fR maintaineraddress
247 Passed to dpkg-genchanges (eventually).
249 .RI \fB--ch:\fR option
250 Specifies a single additional option to pass, eventually, to
253 .RI \fB--dget=\fR program |\fB--dput=\fR program |...
254 Specifies alternative programs to use instead of
259 .BR dpkg-buildpackage ,
260 .BR dpkg-genchanges ,
268 For dpkg-buildpackage, dpkg-genchanges, mergechanges and sbuild,
269 this applies only when the program is invoked directly by dgit.
271 For dgit, specifies the command to run on the remote host when dgit
272 rpush needs to invoke a remote copy of itself. (dgit also reinvokes
273 itself as the EDITOR for dpkg-source --commit; this is done using
274 argv[0], and is not affected by --dget=).
276 For ssh, the default value is taken from the
280 environment variables, if set (see below). And, for ssh, when accessing the
281 archive and dgit-repos, this command line setting is overridden by the
283 .BI dgit-distro. distro .ssh
286 (which can in turn be overridden with -c). Also, when dgit is using
287 git to access dgit-repos, only git's idea of what ssh to use (eg,
291 .RI \fB--dget:\fR option |\fB--dput:\fR option |...
292 Specifies a single additional option to pass to
297 .BR dpkg-buildpackage ,
298 .BR dpkg-genchanges ,
304 Can be repeated as necessary.
306 For dpkg-buildpackage, dpkg-genchanges, mergechanges and sbuild,
307 this applies only when the program is invoked directly by dgit.
308 Usually, for passing options to dpkg-genchanges, you should use
309 .BR --ch: \fIoption\fR.
311 See notes above regarding ssh and dgit.
313 NB that --gpg:option is not supported (because debsign does not
314 have that facility). But see -k.
316 .BR -d "\fIdistro\fR | " --distro= \fIdistro\fR
317 Specifies that the suite to be operated on is part of distro
319 This overrides the default value found from the git config option
320 .BR dgit-suite. \fIsuite\fR .distro .
321 The only effect is that other configuration variables (used
322 for accessing the archive and dgit-repos) used are
323 .BR dgit-distro. \fIdistro\fR .* .
325 If your suite is part of a distro that dgit already knows about, you
326 can use this option to make dgit work even if your dgit doesn't know
327 about the suite. For example, specifying
329 will work when the suite is an unknown suite in the Debian archive.
331 To define a new distro it is necessary to define methods and URLs
332 for fetching (and, for dgit push, altering) a variety of information both
333 in the archive and in dgit-repos. How to do this is not yet
334 documented, and currently the arrangements are unpleasant. See
338 Specifies the .changes file which is to be uploaded. By default
339 dgit push looks for single .changes file in the parent directory whose
340 filename suggests it is for the right package and version - or,
341 if there is a _multi.changes file, dgit uses that.
343 .BI --existing-package= package
344 dgit push needs to canonicalise the suite name. But currently
345 there is no way to ask the archive to do this without knowing the
346 name of an existing package. Without --new we can just use the
347 package we are trying to push. But with --new that will not work, so
350 or use the value of this option.
353 Print a usage summary.
354 .SH WORKFLOW - SIMPLE
355 It is always possible with dgit to clone or fetch a package, make
356 changes in git (using git-commit) on the suite branch
357 .RB ( "git checkout dgit/" \fIsuite\fR)
358 and then dgit push. You can use whatever gitish techniques you like
359 to construct the commit to push; the only requirement is that it is a
360 descendant of the state of the archive, as provided by dgit in the
361 remote tracking branch
362 .BR remotes/dgit/dgit/ \fIsuite\fR.
364 If you are lucky the other uploaders have also used dgit and
365 integrated the other relevant git history; if not you can fetch it
366 into your tree and cherry-pick etc. as you wish.
367 .SH WORKFLOW - INTEGRATING BETWEEN DGIT AND OTHER GIT HISTORY
368 If you are the maintainer of a package dealing with uploads made
369 without dgit, you will probably want to merge the synthetic commits
370 (made by dgit to represent the uploads) into your git history.
371 Normally you can just merge the dgit branch into your own master, or
372 indeed if you do your work on the dgit local suite branch
374 you can just use dgit pull.
376 However the first time dgit is used it will generate a new origin
377 commit from the archive which won't be linked into the rest of your
378 git history. You will need to merge this.
380 If last upload was in fact made with git, you should usually proceed
381 as follows: identify the commit which was actually used to build the
382 package. (Hopefully you have a tag for this.) Check out the dgit
384 .RB ( "git checkout dgit/" \fIsuite\fR)
385 and merge that other commit
386 .RB ( "git merge debian/" \fIversion\fR).
387 Hopefully this merge will be trivial because the two trees should
388 be the same. The resulting branch head can be merged into your
390 .RB ( "git checkout master && git merge dgit/" \fIsuite\fR).
392 If last upload was not made with git, a different approach is required
393 to start using dgit. First, do
395 (or clone) to obtain a git history representation of what's in the
396 archive and record it in the
397 .BI remotes/dgit/dgit/ suite
398 tracking branch. Then somehow, using your other git history
399 plus appropriate diffs and cherry picks from the dgit remote tracking
400 branch, construct a git commit whose tree corresponds to the tree to use for the
401 next upload. If that commit-to-be-uploaded is not a descendant of the
402 dig remote tracking branch, check it out and say
403 .BR "git merge -s ours remotes/dgit/dgit/" \fIsuite\fR;
404 that tells git that we are deliberately throwing away any differences
405 between what's in the archive and what you intend to upload.
408 to actually upload the result.
410 You may use any suitable git workflow with dgit, provided you
411 satisfy dgit's requirements:
413 dgit maintains a pseudo-remote called
415 with one branch per suite. This remote cannot be used with
420 repository for each package contains one ref per suite named
421 \fBrefs/dgit/\fR\fIsuite\fR. These should be pushed to only by
422 dgit. They are fast forwarding. Each push on this branch
423 corresponds to an upload (or attempted upload).
425 However, it is perfectly fine to have other branches in dgit-repos;
426 normally the dgit-repos repo for the package will be accessible via
427 the remote name `origin'.
429 dgit push will also (by default) make signed tags called
431 and push them to dgit-repos, but nothing depends on these tags
434 dgit push can operate on any commit which is a descendant of the
435 current dgit/suite tip in dgit-repos.
437 Uploads made by dgit contain an additional field
439 in the source package .dsc. (This is added by dgit push.)
440 This specifies a commit (an ancestor of the dgit/suite
441 branch) whose tree is identical to the unpacked source upload.
443 Uploads not made by dgit are represented in git by commits which are
444 synthesised by dgit. The tree of each such commit corresponds to the
445 unpacked source; there is an origin commit with the contents, and a
446 psuedo-merge from last known upload - that is, from the contents of
447 the dgit/suite branch.
449 dgit expects repos that it works with to have a
451 remote. This refers to the well-known dgit-repos location
452 (currently, the dgit-repos project on Alioth). dgit fetch updates
453 the remote tracking branch for dgit/suite.
455 dgit does not (currently) represent the orig tarball(s) in git; nor
456 does it represent the patch statck of a `3.0 (quilt)' package. The
457 orig tarballs are downloaded and kept in the parent directory, as with
458 a traditional (non-gitish) dpkg-source workflow.
460 To a user looking at the archive, changes pushed using dgit look like
461 changes made in an NMU: in a `3.0 (quilt)' package the delta from the
462 previous upload is recorded in a new patch constructed by dpkg-source.
463 .SH PACKAGE SOURCE FORMATS
464 If you are not the maintainer, you do not need to worry about the
465 source format of the package. You can just make changes as you like
466 in git. If the package is a `3.0 (quilt)' package, the patch stack
467 will usually not be represented in the git history.
469 If you are the maintainer of a non-native package, you currently have
470 two sensible options:
472 Firstly, you can regard your git history as primary, and the archive
473 as an export format. For example, you could maintain topic branches
474 in git and a fast-forwarding release branch; or you could do your work
475 directly in a merging way on the
477 branches. If you do this you should probably use a `1.0' format
478 source package if you can. In the archive, the delta between upstream
479 will be represented in the single Debian patch.
481 Secondly, you can use `3.0 (quilt)', and regard your quiltish patch
482 stack in the archive as primary. You will have to use other tools
483 besides dgit to import and export this patch stack. But see below:
484 .SH FORMAT 3.0 (QUILT)
485 For a format `3.0 (quilt)' source package, dgit may have to make a
486 commit on your current branch to contain metadata used by quilt and
489 This is because (i) the `3.0 (quilt)' source format cannot represent
490 certain trees, and (ii) packing up a tree in `3.0 (quilt)' and then
491 unpacking it does not always yield the same tree. Instead,
492 dpkg-source insists on the trees having extra quilty metadata and
493 patch files in the debian/ and .pc/ directories, which dpkg-source
496 dgit will automatically work around this braindamage for you when
497 building and pushing. The only thing you need to know is that dgit
498 build, sbuild, etc., may make a new commit on your HEAD. If you're
499 not a quilt user this commit won't contain any changes to files you
502 You can explicitly request that dgit do just this fixup, by running
505 We recommend against the use of `3.0 (quilt)'.
506 .SH FILES IN THE SOURCE PACKAGE BUT NOT IN GIT
507 This section is mainly of interest to maintainers who want to use dgit
508 with their existing git history for the Debian package.
510 Some developers like to have an extra-clean git tree which lacks files
511 which are normally found in source tarballs and therefore in Debian
512 source packages. For example, it is conventional to ship ./configure
513 in the source tarball, but some people prefer not to have it present
514 in the git view of their project.
516 dgit requires that the source package unpacks to exactly the same
517 files as are in the git commit on which dgit push operates. So if you
518 just try to dgit push directly from one of these extra-clean git
519 branches, it will fail.
521 As the maintainer you therefore have the following options:
524 Persuade upstream that the source code in their git history and the
525 source they ship as tarballs should be identical. Of course simply
526 removing the files from the tarball may make the tarball hard for
529 One answer is to commit the (maybe autogenerated)
530 files, perhaps with some simple automation to deal with conflicts and
531 spurious changes. This has the advantage that someone who clones
532 the git repository finds the program just as easy to build as someone
533 who uses the tarball.
536 Have separate git branches which do contain the extra files, and after
537 regenerating the extra files (whenever you would have to anyway),
538 commit the result onto those branches.
541 Provide source packages which lack the files you don't want
542 in git, and arrange for your package build to create them as needed.
543 This may mean not using upstream source tarballs and makes the Debian
544 source package less useful for people without Debian build
547 Of course it may also be that the differences are due to build system
548 bugs, which cause unintended files to end up in the source package.
549 dgit will notice this and complain. You may have to fix these bugs
550 before you can unify your existing git history with dgit's.
552 dgit looks at the following git config keys to control its behaviour.
553 You may set them with git-config (either in system-global or per-tree
554 configuration), or provide
556 on the dgit command line.
558 .BI dgit-suite. suite .distro
560 .BI dgit.default.distro
562 .BI dgit-distro. distro .username
564 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-url
566 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-user
568 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-host
570 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-proto
572 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-path
574 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-check
576 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-create
578 .BI dgit-distro. distro .upload-host
580 .BI dgit-distro. distro .mirror
582 .BI dgit-distro. distro .archive-query
584 .BI dgit-distro. distro .archive-query-default-component
586 .BI dgit-distro. distro .sshdakls-user
588 .BI dgit-distro. distro .sshdakls-host
590 .BI dgit-distro. distro .sshdakls-dir
592 .BI dgit-distro. distro .ssh
594 .BI dgit-distro. distro .keyid
598 .BR dgit-distro. \fIdistro\fR . *
599 .SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
601 .BR DGIT_SSH ", " GIT_SSH
602 specify an alternative default program (and perhaps arguments) to use
603 instead of ssh. DGIT_SSH is consulted first and may contain arguments;
604 if it contains any whitespace will be passed to the shell. GIT_SSH
605 specifies just the program; no arguments can be specified, so dgit
606 interprets it the same way as git does.
608 also the --ssh= and --ssh: options.
610 .BR gpg ", " dpkg- "..., " debsign ", " git ", " dget ", " dput ", " LWP::UserAgent
611 and other subprograms and modules used by dgit are affected by various
612 environment variables. Consult the documentaton for those programs
615 We should be using some kind of vhost/vpath setup for the git repos on
616 alioth, so that they can be moved later if and when this turns out to
619 Debian Policy needs to be updated to describe the new Dgit .dsc
620 field (and to specify that it is an RC bug for that field to refer
621 to an unavailable commit).
623 The method of canonicalising suite names is bizarre. See the
624 .B --existing-package
625 option for one of the implications.
627 dgit push should perhaps do `git push origin', or something similar,
630 Debian does not have a working rmadison server, so to find out what
631 version of a package is in the archive, or to canonicalise suite
632 names, we ssh directly into the ftpmaster server.
634 The mechanism for checking for and creating per-package repos on
635 alioth is a hideous bodge. One consequence is that dgit currently
636 only works for people with push access.
638 Debian Maintainers are currently not able to push, as there is not
639 currently any mechanism for determining and honouring the archive's
640 ideas about access control. Currently only DDs can push.
642 dgit's representation of format `3.0 (quilt)' source packages does not
643 represent the patch stack. Currently the patch series representation
644 cannot round trip through the archive. Ideally dgit would represent a
645 quilty package with an origin commit of some kind followed by the
646 patch stack as a series of commits followed by a pseudo-merge (to make
647 the branch fast-forwarding). This would also mean a new `dgit
648 rebase-prep' command or some such to turn such a fast-forwarding
649 branch back into a rebasing patch stack, and a `force' option to dgit
650 push (perhaps enabled automatically by a note left by rebase-prep)
651 which will make the required pseudo-merge.
653 If the dgit push fails halfway through, it should be restartable and
654 idempotent. However this is not true for the git tag operation.
655 Also, it would be good to check that the proposed signing key is
656 available before starting work.
658 dgit's handling of .orig.tar.gz is not very sophisticated. Ideally
659 the .orig.tar.gz could be transported via the git repo as git tags.
660 Doing this is made more complicated by the possibility of a `3.0
661 (quilt)' package with multiple .orig tarballs.
663 dgit's build functions, and dgit push, should not make any changes to
664 your current HEAD. Sadly this is necessary for packages in the `3.0
665 (quilt)' source format. This is ultimately due to design problems in
666 quilt and dpkg-source.
668 There should be an option which arranges for the `3.0 (quilt)'
669 autocommit to not appear on your HEAD, but instead only in the
670 remote tracking suite branch.
672 There should at the very least be some advice in the manpage about how
673 to use dgit when the signing key is not available on the same machine
676 The option parser requires values to be cuddled to the option name.
678 dgit assumes knowledge of the archive layout. There appears to be no
679 sane way to find the path in the archive pool of the .dsc for a
680 particular suite. I'm assured that the archive layout is a
681 `well known algorithm' by now.
683 --dry-run does not always work properly, as not doing some of the git
684 fetches may result in subsequent actions being different. Doing a
685 non-dry-run dgit fetch first will help.
691 \fBgit-buildpackage\fP(1),
692 \fBdpkg-buildpackage\fP(1),
694 https://wiki.debian.org/Alioth
~ianmdlvl / dgit.git / blob