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
171 You will need similar enough versions of dgit on the build-host and
175 Looks to see if the tree is one which dpkg-source cannot properly
176 represent. If it isn't, dgit will fix it up for you (in quilt terms,
177 by making a new debian/ patch containing your unquilty changes) and
178 make a commit of the changes it has made.
180 This is normally done automatically by dgit build and dgit push.
183 Prints version information and exits.
187 Go through the motions, fetching all information needed, but do not
188 actually update the output(s). For push, dgit does
189 the required checks and leaves the new .dsc in a temporary file,
190 but does not sign, tag, push or upload.
193 Go through many more of the motions: do everything that doesn't
194 involve either signing things, or making changes on the public
200 for signing the tag and the upload.
203 does not sign tags or uploads (meaningful only with push).
207 Specifies that we should process source package
209 rather than looking in debian/control or debian/changelog.
210 Valid with dgit fetch and dgit pull, only.
212 .BR --clean=git | -wg
213 The source tree should be cleaned, before building a source package
214 with one of the build options, using
215 .BR "git clean -xdf" .
216 This will delete all files which are not tracked by git.
218 .BR --clean=none | -wn
219 Do not clean the tree before building a source package. If there are
220 files which are not in git, a subsequent dgit push will fail.
222 .BR --clean=dpkg-source | -wd
223 Use dpkg-buildpackage to do the clean, so that the source package
224 is cleaned by dpkg-source running the package's clean target.
225 This is the default. It requires the package's build dependencies.
228 The package may be new in this suite. Without this, dgit will
232 Do not complain if the working tree does not match your git HEAD.
233 This can be useful with build, if you plan to commit later. (dgit
234 push will still ensure that the .dsc you upload and the git tree
235 you push are identical, so this option won't make broken pushes.)
237 This option may not work properly on `3.0 (quilt)' packages, as in
238 that case dgit needs to use and perhaps commit parts of your working
242 Do not fix up source format `3.0 (quilt)' metadata. If you use this
243 option and the package did in fact need fixing up, dgit push will
247 Prints debugging information to stderr. Repeating the option produces
248 more output (currently, up to -DD is meaningfully different).
251 Specifies a git configuration option. dgit itself is also controlled
252 by git configuration options.
254 .RI \fB-v\fR version "|\fB_\fR | " \fB--since-version=\fR version |\fB_\fR
257 option to pass to dpkg-genchanges, during builds. Changes (from
258 debian/changelog) since this version will be included in the built
259 changes file, and hence in the upload. If this option is not
260 specified, dgit will query the archive and use the latest version
261 uploaded to the intended suite.
265 inhibits this, so that no -v option will be passed to dpkg-genchanges
266 (and as a result, only the last stanza from debian/changelog will
267 be used for the build and upload).
269 .RI \fB-m\fR maintaineraddress
270 Passed to dpkg-genchanges (eventually).
272 .RI \fB--ch:\fR option
273 Specifies a single additional option to pass, eventually, to
276 .RI \fB--dget=\fR program |\fB--dput=\fR program |...
277 Specifies alternative programs to use instead of
282 .BR dpkg-buildpackage ,
283 .BR dpkg-genchanges ,
291 For dpkg-buildpackage, dpkg-genchanges, mergechanges and sbuild,
292 this applies only when the program is invoked directly by dgit.
294 For dgit, specifies the command to run on the remote host when dgit
295 rpush needs to invoke a remote copy of itself. (dgit also reinvokes
296 itself as the EDITOR for dpkg-source --commit; this is done using
297 argv[0], and is not affected by --dget=).
299 For ssh, the default value is taken from the
303 environment variables, if set (see below). And, for ssh, when accessing the
304 archive and dgit-repos, this command line setting is overridden by the
306 .BI dgit-distro. distro .ssh
309 (which can in turn be overridden with -c). Also, when dgit is using
310 git to access dgit-repos, only git's idea of what ssh to use (eg,
314 .RI \fB--dget:\fR option |\fB--dput:\fR option |...
315 Specifies a single additional option to pass to
320 .BR dpkg-buildpackage ,
321 .BR dpkg-genchanges ,
327 Can be repeated as necessary.
329 For dpkg-buildpackage, dpkg-genchanges, mergechanges and sbuild,
330 this applies only when the program is invoked directly by dgit.
331 Usually, for passing options to dpkg-genchanges, you should use
332 .BR --ch: \fIoption\fR.
334 See notes above regarding ssh and dgit.
336 NB that --gpg:option is not supported (because debsign does not
337 have that facility). But see -k.
339 .BR -d "\fIdistro\fR | " --distro= \fIdistro\fR
340 Specifies that the suite to be operated on is part of distro
342 This overrides the default value found from the git config option
343 .BR dgit-suite. \fIsuite\fR .distro .
344 The only effect is that other configuration variables (used
345 for accessing the archive and dgit-repos) used are
346 .BR dgit-distro. \fIdistro\fR .* .
348 If your suite is part of a distro that dgit already knows about, you
349 can use this option to make dgit work even if your dgit doesn't know
350 about the suite. For example, specifying
352 will work when the suite is an unknown suite in the Debian archive.
354 To define a new distro it is necessary to define methods and URLs
355 for fetching (and, for dgit push, altering) a variety of information both
356 in the archive and in dgit-repos. How to do this is not yet
357 documented, and currently the arrangements are unpleasant. See
361 Specifies the .changes file which is to be uploaded. By default
362 dgit push looks for single .changes file in the parent directory whose
363 filename suggests it is for the right package and version - or,
364 if there is a _multi.changes file, dgit uses that.
368 pathname contains slashes, the directory part is also used as
370 .BR --build-products-dir ;
371 otherwise, the changes file is expected in that directory (by
375 .BI --build-products-dir= directory
376 Specifies where to find the built files to be uploaded.
377 By default, dgit looks in the parent directory
380 .BI --existing-package= package
381 dgit push needs to canonicalise the suite name. Sometimes, dgit
382 lacks a way to ask the archive to do this without knowing the
383 name of an existing package. Without --new we can just use the
384 package we are trying to push. But with --new that will not work, so
387 or use the value of this option. This option is not needed with the
388 default mechanisms for accessing the archive.
391 Print a usage summary.
393 .BI --initiator-tempdir= directory
394 dgit rpush uses a temporary directory on the invoking (signing) host.
395 This option causes dgit to use
397 instead. Furthermore, the specified directory will be emptied,
398 removed and recreated before dgit starts, rather than removed
399 after dgit finishes. The directory specified must be an absolute
401 .SH WORKFLOW - SIMPLE
402 It is always possible with dgit to clone or fetch a package, make
403 changes in git (using git-commit) on the suite branch
404 .RB ( "git checkout dgit/" \fIsuite\fR)
405 and then dgit push. You can use whatever gitish techniques you like
406 to construct the commit to push; the only requirement is that it is a
407 descendant of the state of the archive, as provided by dgit in the
408 remote tracking branch
409 .BR remotes/dgit/dgit/ \fIsuite\fR.
411 If you are lucky the other uploaders have also used dgit and
412 integrated the other relevant git history; if not you can fetch it
413 into your tree and cherry-pick etc. as you wish.
414 .SH WORKFLOW - INTEGRATING BETWEEN DGIT AND OTHER GIT HISTORY
415 If you are the maintainer of a package dealing with uploads made
416 without dgit, you will probably want to merge the synthetic commits
417 (made by dgit to represent the uploads) into your git history.
418 Normally you can just merge the dgit branch into your own master, or
419 indeed if you do your work on the dgit local suite branch
421 you can just use dgit pull.
423 However the first time dgit is used it will generate a new origin
424 commit from the archive which won't be linked into the rest of your
425 git history. You will need to merge this.
427 If last upload was in fact made with git, you should usually proceed
428 as follows: identify the commit which was actually used to build the
429 package. (Hopefully you have a tag for this.) Check out the dgit
431 .RB ( "git checkout dgit/" \fIsuite\fR)
432 and merge that other commit
433 .RB ( "git merge debian/" \fIversion\fR).
434 Hopefully this merge will be trivial because the two trees should
435 be the same. The resulting branch head can be merged into your
437 .RB ( "git checkout master && git merge dgit/" \fIsuite\fR).
439 If last upload was not made with git, a different approach is required
440 to start using dgit. First, do
442 (or clone) to obtain a git history representation of what's in the
443 archive and record it in the
444 .BI remotes/dgit/dgit/ suite
445 tracking branch. Then somehow, using your other git history
446 plus appropriate diffs and cherry picks from the dgit remote tracking
447 branch, construct a git commit whose tree corresponds to the tree to use for the
448 next upload. If that commit-to-be-uploaded is not a descendant of the
449 dig remote tracking branch, check it out and say
450 .BR "git merge -s ours remotes/dgit/dgit/" \fIsuite\fR;
451 that tells git that we are deliberately throwing away any differences
452 between what's in the archive and what you intend to upload.
455 to actually upload the result.
457 You may use any suitable git workflow with dgit, provided you
458 satisfy dgit's requirements:
460 dgit maintains a pseudo-remote called
462 with one branch per suite. This remote cannot be used with
467 repository for each package contains one ref per suite named
468 \fBrefs/dgit/\fR\fIsuite\fR. These should be pushed to only by
469 dgit. They are fast forwarding. Each push on this branch
470 corresponds to an upload (or attempted upload).
472 However, it is perfectly fine to have other branches in dgit-repos;
473 normally the dgit-repos repo for the package will be accessible via
474 the remote name `origin'.
476 dgit push will also (by default) make signed tags called
478 and push them to dgit-repos, but nothing depends on these tags
481 dgit push can operate on any commit which is a descendant of the
482 current dgit/suite tip in dgit-repos.
484 Uploads made by dgit contain an additional field
486 in the source package .dsc. (This is added by dgit push.)
487 This specifies a commit (an ancestor of the dgit/suite
488 branch) whose tree is identical to the unpacked source upload.
490 Uploads not made by dgit are represented in git by commits which are
491 synthesised by dgit. The tree of each such commit corresponds to the
492 unpacked source; there is an origin commit with the contents, and a
493 psuedo-merge from last known upload - that is, from the contents of
494 the dgit/suite branch.
496 dgit expects repos that it works with to have a
498 remote. This refers to the well-known dgit-repos location
499 (currently, the dgit-repos project on Alioth). dgit fetch updates
500 the remote tracking branch for dgit/suite.
502 dgit does not (currently) represent the orig tarball(s) in git. The
503 orig tarballs are downloaded (by dgit clone) into the parent
504 directory, as with a traditional (non-gitish) dpkg-source workflow.
505 You need to retain these tarballs in the parent directory for dgit
508 To a user looking at the archive, changes pushed using dgit look like
509 changes made in an NMU: in a `3.0 (quilt)' package the delta from the
510 previous upload is recorded in a new patch constructed by dpkg-source.
511 .SH PACKAGE SOURCE FORMATS
512 If you are not the maintainer, you do not need to worry about the
513 source format of the package. You can just make changes as you like
514 in git. If the package is a `3.0 (quilt)' package, the patch stack
515 will usually not be represented in the git history.
517 If you are the maintainer of a non-native package, you currently have
518 two sensible options:
520 Firstly, you can regard your git history as primary, and the archive
521 as an export format. For example, you could maintain topic branches
522 in git and a fast-forwarding release branch; or you could do your work
523 directly in a merging way on the
525 branches. If you do this you should probably use a `1.0' format
526 source package if you can. In the archive, the delta between upstream
527 will be represented in the single Debian patch.
529 Secondly, you can use `3.0 (quilt)', and regard your quiltish patch
530 stack in the archive as primary. You will have to use other tools
531 besides dgit to import and export this patch stack. But see below:
532 .SH FORMAT 3.0 (QUILT)
533 For a format `3.0 (quilt)' source package, dgit may have to make a
534 commit on your current branch to contain metadata used by quilt and
537 This is because (i) the `3.0 (quilt)' source format cannot represent
538 certain trees, and (ii) packing up a tree in `3.0 (quilt)' and then
539 unpacking it does not always yield the same tree. Instead,
540 dpkg-source insists on the trees having extra quilty metadata and
541 patch files in the debian/ and .pc/ directories, which dpkg-source
544 dgit will automatically work around this braindamage for you when
545 building and pushing. The only thing you need to know is that dgit
546 build, sbuild, etc., may make a new commit on your HEAD. If you're
547 not a quilt user this commit won't contain any changes to files you
550 You can explicitly request that dgit do just this fixup, by running
553 We recommend against the use of `3.0 (quilt)'.
554 .SH FILES IN THE SOURCE PACKAGE BUT NOT IN GIT
555 This section is mainly of interest to maintainers who want to use dgit
556 with their existing git history for the Debian package.
558 Some developers like to have an extra-clean git tree which lacks files
559 which are normally found in source tarballs and therefore in Debian
560 source packages. For example, it is conventional to ship ./configure
561 in the source tarball, but some people prefer not to have it present
562 in the git view of their project.
564 dgit requires that the source package unpacks to exactly the same
565 files as are in the git commit on which dgit push operates. So if you
566 just try to dgit push directly from one of these extra-clean git
567 branches, it will fail.
569 As the maintainer you therefore have the following options:
572 Persuade upstream that the source code in their git history and the
573 source they ship as tarballs should be identical. Of course simply
574 removing the files from the tarball may make the tarball hard for
577 One answer is to commit the (maybe autogenerated)
578 files, perhaps with some simple automation to deal with conflicts and
579 spurious changes. This has the advantage that someone who clones
580 the git repository finds the program just as easy to build as someone
581 who uses the tarball.
584 Have separate git branches which do contain the extra files, and after
585 regenerating the extra files (whenever you would have to anyway),
586 commit the result onto those branches.
589 Provide source packages which lack the files you don't want
590 in git, and arrange for your package build to create them as needed.
591 This may mean not using upstream source tarballs and makes the Debian
592 source package less useful for people without Debian build
595 Of course it may also be that the differences are due to build system
596 bugs, which cause unintended files to end up in the source package.
597 dgit will notice this and complain. You may have to fix these bugs
598 before you can unify your existing git history with dgit's.
600 dgit looks at the following git config keys to control its behaviour.
601 You may set them with git-config (either in system-global or per-tree
602 configuration), or provide
604 on the dgit command line.
606 .BI dgit-suite. suite .distro
608 .BI dgit.default.distro
610 .BI dgit-distro. distro .username
612 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-url
614 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-user
616 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-host
618 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-proto
620 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-path
622 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-check
624 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-create
626 .BI dgit-distro. distro .upload-host
628 .BI dgit-distro. distro .mirror
630 .BI dgit-distro. distro .archive-query
632 .BI dgit-distro. distro .archive-query-default-component
634 .BI dgit-distro. distro .sshpsql-user
636 .BI dgit-distro. distro .sshpsql-host
638 .BI dgit-distro. distro .sshpsql-dbname
640 .BI dgit-distro. distro .ssh
642 .BI dgit-distro. distro .keyid
646 .BR dgit-distro. \fIdistro\fR . *
647 .SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
649 .BR DGIT_SSH ", " GIT_SSH
650 specify an alternative default program (and perhaps arguments) to use
651 instead of ssh. DGIT_SSH is consulted first and may contain arguments;
652 if it contains any whitespace will be passed to the shell. GIT_SSH
653 specifies just the program; no arguments can be specified, so dgit
654 interprets it the same way as git does.
656 also the --ssh= and --ssh: options.
658 .BR gpg ", " dpkg- "..., " debsign ", " git ", " dget ", " dput ", " LWP::UserAgent
659 and other subprograms and modules used by dgit are affected by various
660 environment variables. Consult the documentaton for those programs
663 We should be using some kind of vhost/vpath setup for the git repos on
664 alioth, so that they can be moved later if and when this turns out to
667 dgit push should perhaps do `git push origin', or something similar,
670 Debian does not have a working rmadison server, so to find out what
671 version of a package is in the archive, or to canonicalise suite
672 names, we ssh directly into the ftpmaster server and run psql there to
675 The mechanism for checking for and creating per-package repos on
676 alioth is a hideous bodge. One consequence is that dgit currently
677 only works for people with push access.
679 Debian Maintainers are currently not able to push, as there is not
680 currently any mechanism for determining and honouring the archive's
681 ideas about access control. Currently only DDs can push.
683 dgit's representation of format `3.0 (quilt)' source packages does not
684 represent the patch stack. Currently the patch series representation
685 cannot round trip through the archive. Ideally dgit would represent a
686 quilty package with an origin commit of some kind followed by the
687 patch stack as a series of commits followed by a pseudo-merge (to make
688 the branch fast-forwarding). This would also mean a new `dgit
689 rebase-prep' command or some such to turn such a fast-forwarding
690 branch back into a rebasing patch stack, and a `force' option to dgit
691 push (perhaps enabled automatically by a note left by rebase-prep)
692 which will make the required pseudo-merge.
694 If the dgit push fails halfway through, it should be restartable and
695 idempotent. However this is not true for the git tag operation.
696 Also, it would be good to check that the proposed signing key is
697 available before starting work.
699 dgit's handling of .orig.tar.gz is not very sophisticated. Ideally
700 the .orig.tar.gz could be transported via the git repo as git tags.
701 Doing this is made more complicated by the possibility of a `3.0
702 (quilt)' package with multiple .orig tarballs.
704 dgit's build functions, and dgit push, should not make any changes to
705 your current HEAD. Sadly this is necessary for packages in the `3.0
706 (quilt)' source format. This is ultimately due to design problems in
707 quilt and dpkg-source.
709 There should be an option which arranges for the `3.0 (quilt)'
710 autocommit to not appear on your HEAD, but instead only in the
711 remote tracking suite branch.
713 The option parser requires values to be cuddled to the option name.
715 dgit assumes knowledge of the archive database. (The information dgit
716 needs is not currently available via any public online service with a
717 well-defined interface, let alone a secure one.)
719 --dry-run does not always work properly, as not doing some of the git
720 fetches may result in subsequent actions being different. Doing a
721 non-dry-run dgit fetch first will help.
727 \fBgit-buildpackage\fP(1),
728 \fBdpkg-buildpackage\fP(1),
730 https://wiki.debian.org/Alioth
~ianmdlvl / dgit.git / blob