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 For your convenience, the
71 remote will be set up from the package's Vcs-Git field, if there is
72 one - but note that in the general case the history found there may be
73 different to or even disjoint from dgit's view.
75 \fBdgit fetch\fR [\fIsuite\fP]
76 Consults the archive and git-repos to update the git view of
77 history for a specific suite (and downloads any necessary orig
78 tarballs), and updates the remote tracking branch
79 .BR remotes/dgit/dgit/ \fIsuite\fR.
80 If the current branch is
82 then dgit fetch defaults to
84 otherwise it parses debian/changelog and uses the suite specified
87 \fBdgit pull\fR [\fIsuite\fP]
88 Does dgit fetch, and then merges the new head of the remote tracking
90 .BI remotes/dgit/dgit/ suite
91 into the current branch.
96 with some suitable options. Options and argumments after build
97 will be passed on to dpkg-buildpackage. It is not necessary to use
98 dgit build when using dgit; it is OK to use any approach which ensures
99 that the generated source package corresponds to the relevant git
102 Tagging, signing and actually uploading should be left to dgit push.
104 \fBdgit build-source\fR ...
105 Builds the source package, and a changes file for a prospective
106 source-only upload, using
108 The output is left in
109 .IR package \fB_\fR version \fB.dsc\fR
111 .IR package \fB_\fR version \fB_source.changes\fR.
113 Tagging, signing and actually uploading should be left to dgit push.
116 Cleans the current working tree (according to the --clean= option in
120 Print a usage summary.
122 \fBdgit sbuild\fR ...
123 Constructs the source package, uses
125 to do a binary build, and uses mergechanges to merge the source and
126 binary changes files. Options and argumments after sbuild will be
127 passed on to sbuild. Changes files matching
128 .IB package _ version _*.changes
129 in the parent directory will be removed; the output is left in
130 .IR package \fB_\fR version \fB_multi.changes\fR.
132 Tagging, signing and actually uploading should be left to dgit push.
134 \fBdgit git-build\fR ...
137 with some suitable options. Options and argumments after git-build
138 will be passed on to git-buildpackage.
140 Tagging, signing and actually uploading should be left to dgit push.
142 \fBdgit push\fR [\fIsuite\fP]
143 Does an `upload', pushing the current HEAD to the archive (as a source
144 package) and to dgit-repos (as git commits). The package must already
145 have been built ready for upload, with the .dsc and .changes
146 left in the parent directory.
148 In more detail: dgit push checks that the current HEAD corresponds to
149 the .dsc. It then pushes the HEAD to the suite's dgit-repos branch,
150 makes a signed git tag, edits the .dsc to contain the dgit metadata
151 field, runs debsign to sign the upload (.dsc and .changes), pushes the
152 signed tag, and finally uses dput to upload the .changes to the
155 dgit push always uses the package, suite and version specified in the
156 debian/changelog and the .dsc, which must agree. If the command line
157 specifies a suite then that must match too.
159 If dgit push fails while uploading, it is fine to simply retry the
160 dput on the .changes file at your leisure.
162 \fBdgit rpush\fR \fIbuild-host\fR\fB:\fR\fIbuild-dir\fR [\fIpush args...\fR]
163 Pushes the contents of the specified directory on a remote machine.
164 This is like running dgit push on build-host with build-dir as the
165 current directory; however, signing operations are done on the
166 invoking host. This allows you to do a push when the system which has
167 the source code and the build outputs has no access to the key.
169 However, the build-host must be able to ssh to the dgit repos. If
170 this is not already the case, you must organise it separately, for
171 example by the use of ssh agent forwarding.
173 The remaining arguments are treated just as dgit push would handle
176 build-host and build\-dir can be passed as separate
177 arguments; this is assumed to be the case if the first argument
178 contains no : (except perhaps one in [ ], to support IPv6 address
181 You will need similar enough versions of dgit on the build-host and
182 the invocation host. The build-host needs gnupg installed, with your
183 public key in its keyring (but not your private key, obviously).
186 `3.0 (quilt)' format source packages need changes representing not
187 only in-tree but also as patches in debian/patches. dgit quilt-fixup
188 checks whether this has been done; if not, dgit will make appropriate
189 patches in debian/patches and also commit the resulting changes to
192 This is normally done automatically by dgit build and dgit push.
195 Prints version information and exits.
199 Go through the motions, fetching all information needed, but do not
200 actually update the output(s). For push, dgit does
201 the required checks and leaves the new .dsc in a temporary file,
202 but does not sign, tag, push or upload.
205 Go through many more of the motions: do everything that doesn't
206 involve either signing things, or making changes on the public
212 for signing the tag and the upload.
215 does not sign tags or uploads (meaningful only with push).
219 Specifies that we should process source package
221 rather than looking in debian/control or debian/changelog.
222 Valid with dgit fetch and dgit pull, only.
224 .BR --clean=git | -wg
225 The source tree should be cleaned, before building a source package
226 with one of the build options, using
227 .BR "git clean -xdf" .
228 This will delete all files which are not tracked by git.
230 .BR --clean=none | -wn
231 Do not clean the tree before building a source package. If there are
232 files which are not in git, a subsequent dgit push will fail.
234 .BR --clean=dpkg-source | -wd
235 Use dpkg-buildpackage to do the clean, so that the source package
236 is cleaned by dpkg-source running the package's clean target.
237 This is the default. It requires the package's build dependencies.
240 The package may be new in this suite. Without this, dgit will
244 Do not complain if the working tree does not match your git HEAD.
245 This can be useful with build, if you plan to commit later. (dgit
246 push will still ensure that the .dsc you upload and the git tree
247 you push are identical, so this option won't make broken pushes.)
250 Do not fix up source format `3.0 (quilt)' metadata. If you use this
251 option and the package did in fact need fixing up, dgit push will
255 Prints debugging information to stderr. Repeating the option produces
256 more output (currently, up to -DD is meaningfully different).
259 Specifies a git configuration option. dgit itself is also controlled
260 by git configuration options.
262 .RI \fB-v\fR version "|\fB_\fR | " \fB--since-version=\fR version |\fB_\fR
265 option to pass to dpkg-genchanges, during builds. Changes (from
266 debian/changelog) since this version will be included in the built
267 changes file, and hence in the upload. If this option is not
268 specified, dgit will query the archive and use the latest version
269 uploaded to the intended suite.
273 inhibits this, so that no -v option will be passed to dpkg-genchanges
274 (and as a result, only the last stanza from debian/changelog will
275 be used for the build and upload).
277 .RI \fB-m\fR maintaineraddress
278 Passed to dpkg-genchanges (eventually).
280 .RI \fB--ch:\fR option
281 Specifies a single additional option to pass, eventually, to
284 .RI \fB--curl=\fR program |\fB--dput=\fR program |...
285 Specifies alternative programs to use instead of
290 .BR dpkg-buildpackage ,
291 .BR dpkg-genchanges ,
299 For dpkg-buildpackage, dpkg-genchanges, mergechanges and sbuild,
300 this applies only when the program is invoked directly by dgit.
302 For dgit, specifies the command to run on the remote host when dgit
303 rpush needs to invoke a remote copy of itself. (dgit also reinvokes
304 itself as the EDITOR for dpkg-source --commit; this is done using
305 argv[0], and is not affected by --dgit=).
307 For ssh, the default value is taken from the
311 environment variables, if set (see below). And, for ssh, when accessing the
312 archive and dgit-repos, this command line setting is overridden by the
314 .BI dgit-distro. distro .ssh
317 (which can in turn be overridden with -c). Also, when dgit is using
318 git to access dgit-repos, only git's idea of what ssh to use (eg,
322 .RI \fB--curl:\fR option |\fB--dput:\fR option |...
323 Specifies a single additional option to pass to
328 .BR dpkg-buildpackage ,
329 .BR dpkg-genchanges ,
335 Can be repeated as necessary.
337 For dpkg-buildpackage, dpkg-genchanges, mergechanges and sbuild,
338 this applies only when the program is invoked directly by dgit.
339 Usually, for passing options to dpkg-genchanges, you should use
340 .BR --ch: \fIoption\fR.
342 See notes above regarding ssh and dgit.
344 NB that --gpg:option is not supported (because debsign does not
345 have that facility). But see -k.
347 .BR -d "\fIdistro\fR | " --distro= \fIdistro\fR
348 Specifies that the suite to be operated on is part of distro
350 This overrides the default value found from the git config option
351 .BR dgit-suite. \fIsuite\fR .distro .
352 The only effect is that other configuration variables (used
353 for accessing the archive and dgit-repos) used are
354 .BR dgit-distro. \fIdistro\fR .* .
356 If your suite is part of a distro that dgit already knows about, you
357 can use this option to make dgit work even if your dgit doesn't know
358 about the suite. For example, specifying
360 will work when the suite is an unknown suite in the Debian archive.
362 To define a new distro it is necessary to define methods and URLs
363 for fetching (and, for dgit push, altering) a variety of information both
364 in the archive and in dgit-repos. How to do this is not yet
365 documented, and currently the arrangements are unpleasant. See
369 Specifies the .changes file which is to be uploaded. By default
370 dgit push looks for single .changes file in the parent directory whose
371 filename suggests it is for the right package and version - or,
372 if there is a _multi.changes file, dgit uses that.
376 pathname contains slashes, the directory part is also used as
378 .BR --build-products-dir ;
379 otherwise, the changes file is expected in that directory (by
383 .BI --build-products-dir= directory
384 Specifies where to find the built files to be uploaded.
385 By default, dgit looks in the parent directory
388 .BI --existing-package= package
389 dgit push needs to canonicalise the suite name. Sometimes, dgit
390 lacks a way to ask the archive to do this without knowing the
391 name of an existing package. Without --new we can just use the
392 package we are trying to push. But with --new that will not work, so
395 or use the value of this option. This option is not needed with the
396 default mechanisms for accessing the archive.
399 Print a usage summary.
401 .BI --initiator-tempdir= directory
402 dgit rpush uses a temporary directory on the invoking (signing) host.
403 This option causes dgit to use
405 instead. Furthermore, the specified directory will be emptied,
406 removed and recreated before dgit starts, rather than removed
407 after dgit finishes. The directory specified must be an absolute
411 Do not delete the destination directory if clone fails.
412 .SH WORKFLOW - SIMPLE
413 It is always possible with dgit to clone or fetch a package, make
414 changes in git (using git-commit) on the suite branch
415 .RB ( "git checkout dgit/" \fIsuite\fR)
416 and then dgit push. You can use whatever gitish techniques you like
417 to construct the commit to push; the only requirement is that it is a
418 descendant of the state of the archive, as provided by dgit in the
419 remote tracking branch
420 .BR remotes/dgit/dgit/ \fIsuite\fR.
422 If you are lucky the other uploaders have also used dgit and
423 integrated the other relevant git history; if not you can fetch it
424 into your tree and cherry-pick etc. as you wish.
425 .SH WORKFLOW - INTEGRATING BETWEEN DGIT AND OTHER GIT HISTORY
426 If you are the maintainer of a package dealing with uploads made
427 without dgit, you will probably want to merge the synthetic commits
428 (made by dgit to represent the uploads) into your git history.
429 Normally you can just merge the dgit branch into your own master, or
430 indeed if you do your work on the dgit local suite branch
432 you can just use dgit pull.
434 However the first time dgit is used it will generate a new origin
435 commit from the archive which won't be linked into the rest of your
436 git history. You will need to merge this.
438 If last upload was in fact made with git, you should usually proceed
439 as follows: identify the commit which was actually used to build the
440 package. (Hopefully you have a tag for this.) Check out the dgit
442 .RB ( "git checkout dgit/" \fIsuite\fR)
443 and merge that other commit
444 .RB ( "git merge debian/" \fIversion\fR).
445 Hopefully this merge will be trivial because the two trees should
446 be the same. The resulting branch head can be merged into your
448 .RB ( "git checkout master && git merge dgit/" \fIsuite\fR).
450 If last upload was not made with git, a different approach is required
451 to start using dgit. First, do
453 (or clone) to obtain a git history representation of what's in the
454 archive and record it in the
455 .BI remotes/dgit/dgit/ suite
456 tracking branch. Then somehow, using your other git history
457 plus appropriate diffs and cherry picks from the dgit remote tracking
458 branch, construct a git commit whose tree corresponds to the tree to use for the
459 next upload. If that commit-to-be-uploaded is not a descendant of the
460 dig remote tracking branch, check it out and say
461 .BR "git merge -s ours remotes/dgit/dgit/" \fIsuite\fR;
462 that tells git that we are deliberately throwing away any differences
463 between what's in the archive and what you intend to upload.
466 to actually upload the result.
468 You may use any suitable git workflow with dgit, provided you
469 satisfy dgit's requirements:
471 dgit maintains a pseudo-remote called
473 with one branch per suite. This remote cannot be used with
478 repository for each package contains one ref per suite named
479 \fBrefs/dgit/\fR\fIsuite\fR. These should be pushed to only by
480 dgit. They are fast forwarding. Each push on this branch
481 corresponds to an upload (or attempted upload).
483 However, it is perfectly fine to have other branches in dgit-repos;
484 normally the dgit-repos repo for the package will be accessible via
485 the remote name `origin'.
487 dgit push will also (by default) make signed tags called
489 and push them to dgit-repos, but nothing depends on these tags
492 dgit push can operate on any commit which is a descendant of the
493 current dgit/suite tip in dgit-repos.
495 Uploads made by dgit contain an additional field
497 in the source package .dsc. (This is added by dgit push.)
498 This specifies a commit (an ancestor of the dgit/suite
499 branch) whose tree is identical to the unpacked source upload.
501 Uploads not made by dgit are represented in git by commits which are
502 synthesised by dgit. The tree of each such commit corresponds to the
503 unpacked source; there is an origin commit with the contents, and a
504 psuedo-merge from last known upload - that is, from the contents of
505 the dgit/suite branch.
507 dgit expects repos that it works with to have a
509 remote. This refers to the well-known dgit-repos location
510 (currently, the dgit-repos project on Alioth). dgit fetch updates
511 the remote tracking branch for dgit/suite.
513 dgit does not (currently) represent the orig tarball(s) in git. The
514 orig tarballs are downloaded (by dgit clone) into the parent
515 directory, as with a traditional (non-gitish) dpkg-source workflow.
516 You need to retain these tarballs in the parent directory for dgit
519 To a user looking at the archive, changes pushed using dgit look like
520 changes made in an NMU: in a `3.0 (quilt)' package the delta from the
521 previous upload is recorded in a new patch constructed by dpkg-source.
522 .SH READ-ONLY DISTROS
523 Distros which do not maintain a set of dgit history git repositories
524 can still be used in a read-only mode with dgit. Currently Ubuntu
525 is configured this way.
526 .SH PACKAGE SOURCE FORMATS
527 If you are not the maintainer, you do not need to worry about the
528 source format of the package. You can just make changes as you like
529 in git. If the package is a `3.0 (quilt)' package, the patch stack
530 will usually not be represented in the git history.
531 .SH FORMAT 3.0 (QUILT)
532 For a format `3.0 (quilt)' source package, dgit may have to make a
533 commit on your current branch to contain metadata used by quilt and
536 This is because `3.0 (quilt)' source format represents the patch stack
537 as files in debian/patches/ actually inside the source tree. This
538 means that, taking the whole tree (as seen by git or ls) (i)
539 dpkg-source cannot represent certain trees, and (ii) packing up a tree
540 in `3.0 (quilt)' and then unpacking it does not always yield the same
543 dgit will automatically work around this for you when building and
544 pushing. The only thing you need to know is that dgit build, sbuild,
545 etc., may make new commit (or, very occasionally, two) on your HEAD.
546 If you're not a quilt user this commit won't contain any changes to
547 files you care about.
549 You can explicitly request that dgit do just this fixup, by running
552 If you are a quilt user you need to know that dgit's git trees do not
553 contain the .pc directory which is used by quilt to record which
554 patches are applied. If you want to manipulate the patch stack you
555 probably want to be looking at tools like git-dpm.
556 .SH FILES IN THE SOURCE PACKAGE BUT NOT IN GIT
557 This section is mainly of interest to maintainers who want to use dgit
558 with their existing git history for the Debian package.
560 Some developers like to have an extra-clean git tree which lacks files
561 which are normally found in source tarballs and therefore in Debian
562 source packages. For example, it is conventional to ship ./configure
563 in the source tarball, but some people prefer not to have it present
564 in the git view of their project.
566 dgit requires that the source package unpacks to exactly the same
567 files as are in the git commit on which dgit push operates. So if you
568 just try to dgit push directly from one of these extra-clean git
569 branches, it will fail.
571 As the maintainer you therefore have the following options:
574 Persuade upstream that the source code in their git history and the
575 source they ship as tarballs should be identical. Of course simply
576 removing the files from the tarball may make the tarball hard for
579 One answer is to commit the (maybe autogenerated)
580 files, perhaps with some simple automation to deal with conflicts and
581 spurious changes. This has the advantage that someone who clones
582 the git repository finds the program just as easy to build as someone
583 who uses the tarball.
586 Have separate git branches which do contain the extra files, and after
587 regenerating the extra files (whenever you would have to anyway),
588 commit the result onto those branches.
591 Provide source packages which lack the files you don't want
592 in git, and arrange for your package build to create them as needed.
593 This may mean not using upstream source tarballs and makes the Debian
594 source package less useful for people without Debian build
597 Of course it may also be that the differences are due to build system
598 bugs, which cause unintended files to end up in the source package.
599 dgit will notice this and complain. You may have to fix these bugs
600 before you can unify your existing git history with dgit's.
602 dgit looks at the following git config keys to control its behaviour.
603 You may set them with git-config (either in system-global or per-tree
604 configuration), or provide
606 on the dgit command line.
608 .BI dgit-suite. suite .distro
610 .BI dgit.default.distro
612 .BI dgit-distro. distro .username
614 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-url
616 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-user
618 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-host
620 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-proto
622 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-path
624 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-check
626 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-create
628 .BI dgit-distro. distro .upload-host
630 .BI dgit-distro. distro .mirror
632 .BI dgit-distro. distro .archive-query
634 .BI dgit-distro. distro .archive-query-default-component
636 .BI dgit-distro. distro .sshpsql-user
638 .BI dgit-distro. distro .sshpsql-host
640 .BI dgit-distro. distro .sshpsql-dbname
642 .BI dgit-distro. distro .ssh
644 .BI dgit-distro. distro .keyid
648 .BR dgit-distro. \fIdistro\fR . *
649 .SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
651 .BR DGIT_SSH ", " GIT_SSH
652 specify an alternative default program (and perhaps arguments) to use
653 instead of ssh. DGIT_SSH is consulted first and may contain arguments;
654 if it contains any whitespace will be passed to the shell. GIT_SSH
655 specifies just the program; no arguments can be specified, so dgit
656 interprets it the same way as git does.
658 also the --ssh= and --ssh: options.
660 .BR gpg ", " dpkg- "..., " debsign ", " git ", " curl ", " dput ", " LWP::UserAgent
661 and other subprograms and modules used by dgit are affected by various
662 environment variables. Consult the documentaton for those programs
665 We should be using some kind of vhost/vpath setup for the git repos on
666 alioth, so that they can be moved later if and when this turns out to
669 dgit push should perhaps do `git push origin', or something similar,
672 Debian does not have a working rmadison server, so to find out what
673 version of a package is in the archive, or to canonicalise suite
674 names, we ssh directly into the ftpmaster server and run psql there to
677 The mechanism for checking for and creating per-package repos on
678 alioth is a hideous bodge. One consequence is that dgit currently
679 only works for people with push access.
681 Debian Maintainers are currently not able to push, as there is not
682 currently any mechanism for determining and honouring the archive's
683 ideas about access control. Currently only DDs can push.
685 dgit's git representation of format `3.0 (quilt)' source packages does
686 not represent the patch stack as git commits. Currently the patch
687 series representation cannot round trip between git and the archive.
688 Ideally dgit would represent a quilty package with an origin commit of
689 some kind followed by the patch stack as a series of commits followed
690 by a pseudo-merge (to make the branch fast-forwarding). This would
691 also mean a new `dgit rebase-prep' command or some such to turn such a
692 fast-forwarding branch back into a rebasing patch stack, and a `force'
693 option to dgit push (perhaps enabled automatically by a note left by
694 rebase-prep) which will make the required pseudo-merge.
696 If the dgit push fails halfway through, it should be restartable and
697 idempotent. However this is not true for the git tag operation.
698 Also, it would be good to check that the proposed signing key is
699 available before starting work.
701 dgit's handling of .orig.tar.gz is not very sophisticated. Ideally
702 the .orig.tar.gz could be transported via the git repo as git tags.
703 Doing this is made more complicated by the possibility of a `3.0
704 (quilt)' package with multiple .orig tarballs.
706 dgit's build functions, and dgit push, should not make any changes to
707 your current HEAD. Sadly this is necessary for packages in the `3.0
708 (quilt)' source format. This is ultimately due to what I consider
709 design problems in quilt and dpkg-source.
711 There should be an option which arranges for the `3.0 (quilt)'
712 autocommit(s) to not appear on your HEAD, but instead only in the
713 remote tracking suite branch.
715 The option parser requires values to be cuddled to the option name.
717 dgit assumes knowledge of the archive database. (The information dgit
718 needs is not currently available via any public online service with a
719 well-defined interface, let alone a secure one.)
721 --dry-run does not always work properly, as not doing some of the git
722 fetches may result in subsequent actions being different. Doing a
723 non-dry-run dgit fetch first will help.
729 \fBgit-buildpackage\fP(1),
730 \fBdpkg-buildpackage\fP(1),
732 https://wiki.debian.org/Alioth
~ianmdlvl / dgit.git / blob