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 Looks to see if the tree is one which dpkg-source cannot properly
187 represent. If it isn't, dgit will fix it up for you (in quilt terms,
188 by making a new debian/ patch containing your unquilty changes) and
189 make a commit of the changes it has made.
191 This is normally done automatically by dgit build and dgit push.
194 Prints version information and exits.
198 Go through the motions, fetching all information needed, but do not
199 actually update the output(s). For push, dgit does
200 the required checks and leaves the new .dsc in a temporary file,
201 but does not sign, tag, push or upload.
204 Go through many more of the motions: do everything that doesn't
205 involve either signing things, or making changes on the public
211 for signing the tag and the upload.
214 does not sign tags or uploads (meaningful only with push).
218 Specifies that we should process source package
220 rather than looking in debian/control or debian/changelog.
221 Valid with dgit fetch and dgit pull, only.
223 .BR --clean=git | -wg
224 The source tree should be cleaned, before building a source package
225 with one of the build options, using
226 .BR "git clean -xdf" .
227 This will delete all files which are not tracked by git.
229 .BR --clean=none | -wn
230 Do not clean the tree before building a source package. If there are
231 files which are not in git, a subsequent dgit push will fail.
233 .BR --clean=dpkg-source | -wd
234 Use dpkg-buildpackage to do the clean, so that the source package
235 is cleaned by dpkg-source running the package's clean target.
236 This is the default. It requires the package's build dependencies.
239 The package may be new in this suite. Without this, dgit will
243 Do not complain if the working tree does not match your git HEAD.
244 This can be useful with build, if you plan to commit later. (dgit
245 push will still ensure that the .dsc you upload and the git tree
246 you push are identical, so this option won't make broken pushes.)
248 This option may not work properly on `3.0 (quilt)' packages, as in
249 that case dgit needs to use and perhaps commit parts of your working
253 Do not fix up source format `3.0 (quilt)' metadata. If you use this
254 option and the package did in fact need fixing up, dgit push will
258 Prints debugging information to stderr. Repeating the option produces
259 more output (currently, up to -DD is meaningfully different).
262 Specifies a git configuration option. dgit itself is also controlled
263 by git configuration options.
265 .RI \fB-v\fR version "|\fB_\fR | " \fB--since-version=\fR version |\fB_\fR
268 option to pass to dpkg-genchanges, during builds. Changes (from
269 debian/changelog) since this version will be included in the built
270 changes file, and hence in the upload. If this option is not
271 specified, dgit will query the archive and use the latest version
272 uploaded to the intended suite.
276 inhibits this, so that no -v option will be passed to dpkg-genchanges
277 (and as a result, only the last stanza from debian/changelog will
278 be used for the build and upload).
280 .RI \fB-m\fR maintaineraddress
281 Passed to dpkg-genchanges (eventually).
283 .RI \fB--ch:\fR option
284 Specifies a single additional option to pass, eventually, to
287 .RI \fB--curl=\fR program |\fB--dput=\fR program |...
288 Specifies alternative programs to use instead of
293 .BR dpkg-buildpackage ,
294 .BR dpkg-genchanges ,
302 For dpkg-buildpackage, dpkg-genchanges, mergechanges and sbuild,
303 this applies only when the program is invoked directly by dgit.
305 For dgit, specifies the command to run on the remote host when dgit
306 rpush needs to invoke a remote copy of itself. (dgit also reinvokes
307 itself as the EDITOR for dpkg-source --commit; this is done using
308 argv[0], and is not affected by --dgit=).
310 For ssh, the default value is taken from the
314 environment variables, if set (see below). And, for ssh, when accessing the
315 archive and dgit-repos, this command line setting is overridden by the
317 .BI dgit-distro. distro .ssh
320 (which can in turn be overridden with -c). Also, when dgit is using
321 git to access dgit-repos, only git's idea of what ssh to use (eg,
325 .RI \fB--curl:\fR option |\fB--dput:\fR option |...
326 Specifies a single additional option to pass to
331 .BR dpkg-buildpackage ,
332 .BR dpkg-genchanges ,
338 Can be repeated as necessary.
340 For dpkg-buildpackage, dpkg-genchanges, mergechanges and sbuild,
341 this applies only when the program is invoked directly by dgit.
342 Usually, for passing options to dpkg-genchanges, you should use
343 .BR --ch: \fIoption\fR.
345 See notes above regarding ssh and dgit.
347 NB that --gpg:option is not supported (because debsign does not
348 have that facility). But see -k.
350 .BR -d "\fIdistro\fR | " --distro= \fIdistro\fR
351 Specifies that the suite to be operated on is part of distro
353 This overrides the default value found from the git config option
354 .BR dgit-suite. \fIsuite\fR .distro .
355 The only effect is that other configuration variables (used
356 for accessing the archive and dgit-repos) used are
357 .BR dgit-distro. \fIdistro\fR .* .
359 If your suite is part of a distro that dgit already knows about, you
360 can use this option to make dgit work even if your dgit doesn't know
361 about the suite. For example, specifying
363 will work when the suite is an unknown suite in the Debian archive.
365 To define a new distro it is necessary to define methods and URLs
366 for fetching (and, for dgit push, altering) a variety of information both
367 in the archive and in dgit-repos. How to do this is not yet
368 documented, and currently the arrangements are unpleasant. See
372 Specifies the .changes file which is to be uploaded. By default
373 dgit push looks for single .changes file in the parent directory whose
374 filename suggests it is for the right package and version - or,
375 if there is a _multi.changes file, dgit uses that.
379 pathname contains slashes, the directory part is also used as
381 .BR --build-products-dir ;
382 otherwise, the changes file is expected in that directory (by
386 .BI --build-products-dir= directory
387 Specifies where to find the built files to be uploaded.
388 By default, dgit looks in the parent directory
391 .BI --existing-package= package
392 dgit push needs to canonicalise the suite name. Sometimes, dgit
393 lacks a way to ask the archive to do this without knowing the
394 name of an existing package. Without --new we can just use the
395 package we are trying to push. But with --new that will not work, so
398 or use the value of this option. This option is not needed with the
399 default mechanisms for accessing the archive.
402 Print a usage summary.
404 .BI --initiator-tempdir= directory
405 dgit rpush uses a temporary directory on the invoking (signing) host.
406 This option causes dgit to use
408 instead. Furthermore, the specified directory will be emptied,
409 removed and recreated before dgit starts, rather than removed
410 after dgit finishes. The directory specified must be an absolute
414 Do not delete the destination directory if clone fails.
415 .SH WORKFLOW - SIMPLE
416 It is always possible with dgit to clone or fetch a package, make
417 changes in git (using git-commit) on the suite branch
418 .RB ( "git checkout dgit/" \fIsuite\fR)
419 and then dgit push. You can use whatever gitish techniques you like
420 to construct the commit to push; the only requirement is that it is a
421 descendant of the state of the archive, as provided by dgit in the
422 remote tracking branch
423 .BR remotes/dgit/dgit/ \fIsuite\fR.
425 If you are lucky the other uploaders have also used dgit and
426 integrated the other relevant git history; if not you can fetch it
427 into your tree and cherry-pick etc. as you wish.
428 .SH WORKFLOW - INTEGRATING BETWEEN DGIT AND OTHER GIT HISTORY
429 If you are the maintainer of a package dealing with uploads made
430 without dgit, you will probably want to merge the synthetic commits
431 (made by dgit to represent the uploads) into your git history.
432 Normally you can just merge the dgit branch into your own master, or
433 indeed if you do your work on the dgit local suite branch
435 you can just use dgit pull.
437 However the first time dgit is used it will generate a new origin
438 commit from the archive which won't be linked into the rest of your
439 git history. You will need to merge this.
441 If last upload was in fact made with git, you should usually proceed
442 as follows: identify the commit which was actually used to build the
443 package. (Hopefully you have a tag for this.) Check out the dgit
445 .RB ( "git checkout dgit/" \fIsuite\fR)
446 and merge that other commit
447 .RB ( "git merge debian/" \fIversion\fR).
448 Hopefully this merge will be trivial because the two trees should
449 be the same. The resulting branch head can be merged into your
451 .RB ( "git checkout master && git merge dgit/" \fIsuite\fR).
453 If last upload was not made with git, a different approach is required
454 to start using dgit. First, do
456 (or clone) to obtain a git history representation of what's in the
457 archive and record it in the
458 .BI remotes/dgit/dgit/ suite
459 tracking branch. Then somehow, using your other git history
460 plus appropriate diffs and cherry picks from the dgit remote tracking
461 branch, construct a git commit whose tree corresponds to the tree to use for the
462 next upload. If that commit-to-be-uploaded is not a descendant of the
463 dig remote tracking branch, check it out and say
464 .BR "git merge -s ours remotes/dgit/dgit/" \fIsuite\fR;
465 that tells git that we are deliberately throwing away any differences
466 between what's in the archive and what you intend to upload.
469 to actually upload the result.
471 You may use any suitable git workflow with dgit, provided you
472 satisfy dgit's requirements:
474 dgit maintains a pseudo-remote called
476 with one branch per suite. This remote cannot be used with
481 repository for each package contains one ref per suite named
482 \fBrefs/dgit/\fR\fIsuite\fR. These should be pushed to only by
483 dgit. They are fast forwarding. Each push on this branch
484 corresponds to an upload (or attempted upload).
486 However, it is perfectly fine to have other branches in dgit-repos;
487 normally the dgit-repos repo for the package will be accessible via
488 the remote name `origin'.
490 dgit push will also (by default) make signed tags called
492 and push them to dgit-repos, but nothing depends on these tags
495 dgit push can operate on any commit which is a descendant of the
496 current dgit/suite tip in dgit-repos.
498 Uploads made by dgit contain an additional field
500 in the source package .dsc. (This is added by dgit push.)
501 This specifies a commit (an ancestor of the dgit/suite
502 branch) whose tree is identical to the unpacked source upload.
504 Uploads not made by dgit are represented in git by commits which are
505 synthesised by dgit. The tree of each such commit corresponds to the
506 unpacked source; there is an origin commit with the contents, and a
507 psuedo-merge from last known upload - that is, from the contents of
508 the dgit/suite branch.
510 dgit expects repos that it works with to have a
512 remote. This refers to the well-known dgit-repos location
513 (currently, the dgit-repos project on Alioth). dgit fetch updates
514 the remote tracking branch for dgit/suite.
516 dgit does not (currently) represent the orig tarball(s) in git. The
517 orig tarballs are downloaded (by dgit clone) into the parent
518 directory, as with a traditional (non-gitish) dpkg-source workflow.
519 You need to retain these tarballs in the parent directory for dgit
522 To a user looking at the archive, changes pushed using dgit look like
523 changes made in an NMU: in a `3.0 (quilt)' package the delta from the
524 previous upload is recorded in a new patch constructed by dpkg-source.
525 .SH READ-ONLY DISTROS
526 Distros which do not maintain a set of dgit history git repositories
527 can still be used in a read-only mode with dgit. Currently Ubuntu
528 is configured this way.
529 .SH PACKAGE SOURCE FORMATS
530 If you are not the maintainer, you do not need to worry about the
531 source format of the package. You can just make changes as you like
532 in git. If the package is a `3.0 (quilt)' package, the patch stack
533 will usually not be represented in the git history.
535 If you are the maintainer of a non-native package, you currently have
536 two sensible options:
538 Firstly, you can regard your git history as primary, and the archive
539 as an export format. For example, you could maintain topic branches
540 in git and a fast-forwarding release branch; or you could do your work
541 directly in a merging way on the
543 branches. If you do this you should probably use a `1.0' format
544 source package if you can. In the archive, the delta between upstream
545 will be represented in the single Debian patch.
547 Secondly, you can use `3.0 (quilt)', and regard your quiltish patch
548 stack in the archive as primary. You will have to use other tools
549 besides dgit to import and export this patch stack. But see below:
550 .SH FORMAT 3.0 (QUILT)
551 For a format `3.0 (quilt)' source package, dgit may have to make a
552 commit on your current branch to contain metadata used by quilt and
555 This is because (i) the `3.0 (quilt)' source format cannot represent
556 certain trees, and (ii) packing up a tree in `3.0 (quilt)' and then
557 unpacking it does not always yield the same tree. Instead,
558 dpkg-source insists on the trees having extra quilty metadata and
559 patch files in the debian/ and .pc/ directories, which dpkg-source
562 dgit will automatically work around this braindamage for you when
563 building and pushing. The only thing you need to know is that dgit
564 build, sbuild, etc., may make a new commit on your HEAD. If you're
565 not a quilt user this commit won't contain any changes to files you
568 You can explicitly request that dgit do just this fixup, by running
571 We recommend against the use of `3.0 (quilt)'.
572 .SH FILES IN THE SOURCE PACKAGE BUT NOT IN GIT
573 This section is mainly of interest to maintainers who want to use dgit
574 with their existing git history for the Debian package.
576 Some developers like to have an extra-clean git tree which lacks files
577 which are normally found in source tarballs and therefore in Debian
578 source packages. For example, it is conventional to ship ./configure
579 in the source tarball, but some people prefer not to have it present
580 in the git view of their project.
582 dgit requires that the source package unpacks to exactly the same
583 files as are in the git commit on which dgit push operates. So if you
584 just try to dgit push directly from one of these extra-clean git
585 branches, it will fail.
587 As the maintainer you therefore have the following options:
590 Persuade upstream that the source code in their git history and the
591 source they ship as tarballs should be identical. Of course simply
592 removing the files from the tarball may make the tarball hard for
595 One answer is to commit the (maybe autogenerated)
596 files, perhaps with some simple automation to deal with conflicts and
597 spurious changes. This has the advantage that someone who clones
598 the git repository finds the program just as easy to build as someone
599 who uses the tarball.
602 Have separate git branches which do contain the extra files, and after
603 regenerating the extra files (whenever you would have to anyway),
604 commit the result onto those branches.
607 Provide source packages which lack the files you don't want
608 in git, and arrange for your package build to create them as needed.
609 This may mean not using upstream source tarballs and makes the Debian
610 source package less useful for people without Debian build
613 Of course it may also be that the differences are due to build system
614 bugs, which cause unintended files to end up in the source package.
615 dgit will notice this and complain. You may have to fix these bugs
616 before you can unify your existing git history with dgit's.
618 dgit looks at the following git config keys to control its behaviour.
619 You may set them with git-config (either in system-global or per-tree
620 configuration), or provide
622 on the dgit command line.
624 .BI dgit-suite. suite .distro
626 .BI dgit.default.distro
628 .BI dgit-distro. distro .username
630 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-url
632 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-user
634 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-host
636 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-proto
638 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-path
640 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-check
642 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-create
644 .BI dgit-distro. distro .upload-host
646 .BI dgit-distro. distro .mirror
648 .BI dgit-distro. distro .archive-query
650 .BI dgit-distro. distro .archive-query-default-component
652 .BI dgit-distro. distro .sshpsql-user
654 .BI dgit-distro. distro .sshpsql-host
656 .BI dgit-distro. distro .sshpsql-dbname
658 .BI dgit-distro. distro .ssh
660 .BI dgit-distro. distro .keyid
664 .BR dgit-distro. \fIdistro\fR . *
665 .SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
667 .BR DGIT_SSH ", " GIT_SSH
668 specify an alternative default program (and perhaps arguments) to use
669 instead of ssh. DGIT_SSH is consulted first and may contain arguments;
670 if it contains any whitespace will be passed to the shell. GIT_SSH
671 specifies just the program; no arguments can be specified, so dgit
672 interprets it the same way as git does.
674 also the --ssh= and --ssh: options.
676 .BR gpg ", " dpkg- "..., " debsign ", " git ", " curl ", " dput ", " LWP::UserAgent
677 and other subprograms and modules used by dgit are affected by various
678 environment variables. Consult the documentaton for those programs
681 We should be using some kind of vhost/vpath setup for the git repos on
682 alioth, so that they can be moved later if and when this turns out to
685 dgit push should perhaps do `git push origin', or something similar,
688 Debian does not have a working rmadison server, so to find out what
689 version of a package is in the archive, or to canonicalise suite
690 names, we ssh directly into the ftpmaster server and run psql there to
693 The mechanism for checking for and creating per-package repos on
694 alioth is a hideous bodge. One consequence is that dgit currently
695 only works for people with push access.
697 Debian Maintainers are currently not able to push, as there is not
698 currently any mechanism for determining and honouring the archive's
699 ideas about access control. Currently only DDs can push.
701 dgit's representation of format `3.0 (quilt)' source packages does not
702 represent the patch stack. Currently the patch series representation
703 cannot round trip through the archive. Ideally dgit would represent a
704 quilty package with an origin commit of some kind followed by the
705 patch stack as a series of commits followed by a pseudo-merge (to make
706 the branch fast-forwarding). This would also mean a new `dgit
707 rebase-prep' command or some such to turn such a fast-forwarding
708 branch back into a rebasing patch stack, and a `force' option to dgit
709 push (perhaps enabled automatically by a note left by rebase-prep)
710 which will make the required pseudo-merge.
712 If the dgit push fails halfway through, it should be restartable and
713 idempotent. However this is not true for the git tag operation.
714 Also, it would be good to check that the proposed signing key is
715 available before starting work.
717 dgit's handling of .orig.tar.gz is not very sophisticated. Ideally
718 the .orig.tar.gz could be transported via the git repo as git tags.
719 Doing this is made more complicated by the possibility of a `3.0
720 (quilt)' package with multiple .orig tarballs.
722 dgit's build functions, and dgit push, should not make any changes to
723 your current HEAD. Sadly this is necessary for packages in the `3.0
724 (quilt)' source format. This is ultimately due to design problems in
725 quilt and dpkg-source.
727 There should be an option which arranges for the `3.0 (quilt)'
728 autocommit to not appear on your HEAD, but instead only in the
729 remote tracking suite branch.
731 The option parser requires values to be cuddled to the option name.
733 dgit assumes knowledge of the archive database. (The information dgit
734 needs is not currently available via any public online service with a
735 well-defined interface, let alone a secure one.)
737 --dry-run does not always work properly, as not doing some of the git
738 fetches may result in subsequent actions being different. Doing a
739 non-dry-run dgit fetch first will help.
745 \fBgit-buildpackage\fP(1),
746 \fBdpkg-buildpackage\fP(1),
748 https://wiki.debian.org/Alioth
~ianmdlvl / dgit.git / blob