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 Cleans the current working tree (according to the --clean= option in
114 Print a usage summary.
116 \fBdgit sbuild\fR ...
117 Constructs the source package, uses
119 to do a binary build, and uses mergechanges to merge the source and
120 binary changes files. Options and argumments after sbuild will be
121 passed on to sbuild. Changes files matching
122 .IB package _ version _*.changes
123 in the parent directory will be removed; the output is left in
124 .IR package \fB_\fR version \fB_multi.changes\fR.
126 Tagging, signing and actually uploading should be left to dgit push.
128 \fBdgit git-build\fR ...
131 with some suitable options. Options and argumments after git-build
132 will be passed on to git-buildpackage.
134 Tagging, signing and actually uploading should be left to dgit push.
136 \fBdgit push\fR [\fIsuite\fP]
137 Does an `upload', pushing the current HEAD to the archive (as a source
138 package) and to dgit-repos (as git commits). The package must already
139 have been built ready for upload, with the .dsc and .changes
140 left in the parent directory.
142 In more detail: dgit push checks that the current HEAD corresponds to
143 the .dsc. It then pushes the HEAD to the suite's dgit-repos branch,
144 makes a signed git tag, edits the .dsc to contain the dgit metadata
145 field, runs debsign to sign the upload (.dsc and .changes), pushes the
146 signed tag, and finally uses dput to upload the .changes to the
149 dgit push always uses the package, suite and version specified in the
150 debian/changelog and the .dsc, which must agree. If the command line
151 specifies a suite then that must match too.
153 If dgit push fails while uploading, it is fine to simply retry the
154 dput on the .changes file at your leisure.
156 \fBdgit rpush\fR \fIbuild-host\fR\fB:\fR\fIbuild-dir\fR [\fIpush args...\fR]
157 Pushes the contents of the specified directory on a remote machine.
158 This is like running dgit push on build-host with build-dir as the
159 current directory; however, signing operations are done on the
160 invoking host. This allows you to do a push when the system which has
161 the source code and the build outputs has no access to the key.
163 However, the build-host must be able to ssh to the dgit repos. If
164 this is not already the case, you must organise it separately, for
165 example by the use of ssh agent forwarding.
167 The remaining arguments are treated just as dgit push would handle
170 build-host and build\-dir can be passed as separate
171 arguments; this is assumed to be the case if the first argument
172 contains no : (except perhaps on in [ ], to support IPv6 address
175 You will need similar enough versions of dgit on the build-host and
176 the invocation host. The build-host needs gnupg installed, with your
177 public key in its keyring (but not your private key, obviously).
180 Looks to see if the tree is one which dpkg-source cannot properly
181 represent. If it isn't, dgit will fix it up for you (in quilt terms,
182 by making a new debian/ patch containing your unquilty changes) and
183 make a commit of the changes it has made.
185 This is normally done automatically by dgit build and dgit push.
188 Prints version information and exits.
192 Go through the motions, fetching all information needed, but do not
193 actually update the output(s). For push, dgit does
194 the required checks and leaves the new .dsc in a temporary file,
195 but does not sign, tag, push or upload.
198 Go through many more of the motions: do everything that doesn't
199 involve either signing things, or making changes on the public
205 for signing the tag and the upload.
208 does not sign tags or uploads (meaningful only with push).
212 Specifies that we should process source package
214 rather than looking in debian/control or debian/changelog.
215 Valid with dgit fetch and dgit pull, only.
217 .BR --clean=git | -wg
218 The source tree should be cleaned, before building a source package
219 with one of the build options, using
220 .BR "git clean -xdf" .
221 This will delete all files which are not tracked by git.
223 .BR --clean=none | -wn
224 Do not clean the tree before building a source package. If there are
225 files which are not in git, a subsequent dgit push will fail.
227 .BR --clean=dpkg-source | -wd
228 Use dpkg-buildpackage to do the clean, so that the source package
229 is cleaned by dpkg-source running the package's clean target.
230 This is the default. It requires the package's build dependencies.
233 The package may be new in this suite. Without this, dgit will
237 Do not complain if the working tree does not match your git HEAD.
238 This can be useful with build, if you plan to commit later. (dgit
239 push will still ensure that the .dsc you upload and the git tree
240 you push are identical, so this option won't make broken pushes.)
242 This option may not work properly on `3.0 (quilt)' packages, as in
243 that case dgit needs to use and perhaps commit parts of your working
247 Do not fix up source format `3.0 (quilt)' metadata. If you use this
248 option and the package did in fact need fixing up, dgit push will
252 Prints debugging information to stderr. Repeating the option produces
253 more output (currently, up to -DD is meaningfully different).
256 Specifies a git configuration option. dgit itself is also controlled
257 by git configuration options.
259 .RI \fB-v\fR version "|\fB_\fR | " \fB--since-version=\fR version |\fB_\fR
262 option to pass to dpkg-genchanges, during builds. Changes (from
263 debian/changelog) since this version will be included in the built
264 changes file, and hence in the upload. If this option is not
265 specified, dgit will query the archive and use the latest version
266 uploaded to the intended suite.
270 inhibits this, so that no -v option will be passed to dpkg-genchanges
271 (and as a result, only the last stanza from debian/changelog will
272 be used for the build and upload).
274 .RI \fB-m\fR maintaineraddress
275 Passed to dpkg-genchanges (eventually).
277 .RI \fB--ch:\fR option
278 Specifies a single additional option to pass, eventually, to
281 .RI \fB--curl=\fR program |\fB--dput=\fR program |...
282 Specifies alternative programs to use instead of
287 .BR dpkg-buildpackage ,
288 .BR dpkg-genchanges ,
296 For dpkg-buildpackage, dpkg-genchanges, mergechanges and sbuild,
297 this applies only when the program is invoked directly by dgit.
299 For dgit, specifies the command to run on the remote host when dgit
300 rpush needs to invoke a remote copy of itself. (dgit also reinvokes
301 itself as the EDITOR for dpkg-source --commit; this is done using
302 argv[0], and is not affected by --dgit=).
304 For ssh, the default value is taken from the
308 environment variables, if set (see below). And, for ssh, when accessing the
309 archive and dgit-repos, this command line setting is overridden by the
311 .BI dgit-distro. distro .ssh
314 (which can in turn be overridden with -c). Also, when dgit is using
315 git to access dgit-repos, only git's idea of what ssh to use (eg,
319 .RI \fB--curl:\fR option |\fB--dput:\fR option |...
320 Specifies a single additional option to pass to
325 .BR dpkg-buildpackage ,
326 .BR dpkg-genchanges ,
332 Can be repeated as necessary.
334 For dpkg-buildpackage, dpkg-genchanges, mergechanges and sbuild,
335 this applies only when the program is invoked directly by dgit.
336 Usually, for passing options to dpkg-genchanges, you should use
337 .BR --ch: \fIoption\fR.
339 See notes above regarding ssh and dgit.
341 NB that --gpg:option is not supported (because debsign does not
342 have that facility). But see -k.
344 .BR -d "\fIdistro\fR | " --distro= \fIdistro\fR
345 Specifies that the suite to be operated on is part of distro
347 This overrides the default value found from the git config option
348 .BR dgit-suite. \fIsuite\fR .distro .
349 The only effect is that other configuration variables (used
350 for accessing the archive and dgit-repos) used are
351 .BR dgit-distro. \fIdistro\fR .* .
353 If your suite is part of a distro that dgit already knows about, you
354 can use this option to make dgit work even if your dgit doesn't know
355 about the suite. For example, specifying
357 will work when the suite is an unknown suite in the Debian archive.
359 To define a new distro it is necessary to define methods and URLs
360 for fetching (and, for dgit push, altering) a variety of information both
361 in the archive and in dgit-repos. How to do this is not yet
362 documented, and currently the arrangements are unpleasant. See
366 Specifies the .changes file which is to be uploaded. By default
367 dgit push looks for single .changes file in the parent directory whose
368 filename suggests it is for the right package and version - or,
369 if there is a _multi.changes file, dgit uses that.
373 pathname contains slashes, the directory part is also used as
375 .BR --build-products-dir ;
376 otherwise, the changes file is expected in that directory (by
380 .BI --build-products-dir= directory
381 Specifies where to find the built files to be uploaded.
382 By default, dgit looks in the parent directory
385 .BI --existing-package= package
386 dgit push needs to canonicalise the suite name. Sometimes, dgit
387 lacks a way to ask the archive to do this without knowing the
388 name of an existing package. Without --new we can just use the
389 package we are trying to push. But with --new that will not work, so
392 or use the value of this option. This option is not needed with the
393 default mechanisms for accessing the archive.
396 Print a usage summary.
398 .BI --initiator-tempdir= directory
399 dgit rpush uses a temporary directory on the invoking (signing) host.
400 This option causes dgit to use
402 instead. Furthermore, the specified directory will be emptied,
403 removed and recreated before dgit starts, rather than removed
404 after dgit finishes. The directory specified must be an absolute
408 Do not delete the destination directory if clone fails.
409 .SH WORKFLOW - SIMPLE
410 It is always possible with dgit to clone or fetch a package, make
411 changes in git (using git-commit) on the suite branch
412 .RB ( "git checkout dgit/" \fIsuite\fR)
413 and then dgit push. You can use whatever gitish techniques you like
414 to construct the commit to push; the only requirement is that it is a
415 descendant of the state of the archive, as provided by dgit in the
416 remote tracking branch
417 .BR remotes/dgit/dgit/ \fIsuite\fR.
419 If you are lucky the other uploaders have also used dgit and
420 integrated the other relevant git history; if not you can fetch it
421 into your tree and cherry-pick etc. as you wish.
422 .SH WORKFLOW - INTEGRATING BETWEEN DGIT AND OTHER GIT HISTORY
423 If you are the maintainer of a package dealing with uploads made
424 without dgit, you will probably want to merge the synthetic commits
425 (made by dgit to represent the uploads) into your git history.
426 Normally you can just merge the dgit branch into your own master, or
427 indeed if you do your work on the dgit local suite branch
429 you can just use dgit pull.
431 However the first time dgit is used it will generate a new origin
432 commit from the archive which won't be linked into the rest of your
433 git history. You will need to merge this.
435 If last upload was in fact made with git, you should usually proceed
436 as follows: identify the commit which was actually used to build the
437 package. (Hopefully you have a tag for this.) Check out the dgit
439 .RB ( "git checkout dgit/" \fIsuite\fR)
440 and merge that other commit
441 .RB ( "git merge debian/" \fIversion\fR).
442 Hopefully this merge will be trivial because the two trees should
443 be the same. The resulting branch head can be merged into your
445 .RB ( "git checkout master && git merge dgit/" \fIsuite\fR).
447 If last upload was not made with git, a different approach is required
448 to start using dgit. First, do
450 (or clone) to obtain a git history representation of what's in the
451 archive and record it in the
452 .BI remotes/dgit/dgit/ suite
453 tracking branch. Then somehow, using your other git history
454 plus appropriate diffs and cherry picks from the dgit remote tracking
455 branch, construct a git commit whose tree corresponds to the tree to use for the
456 next upload. If that commit-to-be-uploaded is not a descendant of the
457 dig remote tracking branch, check it out and say
458 .BR "git merge -s ours remotes/dgit/dgit/" \fIsuite\fR;
459 that tells git that we are deliberately throwing away any differences
460 between what's in the archive and what you intend to upload.
463 to actually upload the result.
465 You may use any suitable git workflow with dgit, provided you
466 satisfy dgit's requirements:
468 dgit maintains a pseudo-remote called
470 with one branch per suite. This remote cannot be used with
475 repository for each package contains one ref per suite named
476 \fBrefs/dgit/\fR\fIsuite\fR. These should be pushed to only by
477 dgit. They are fast forwarding. Each push on this branch
478 corresponds to an upload (or attempted upload).
480 However, it is perfectly fine to have other branches in dgit-repos;
481 normally the dgit-repos repo for the package will be accessible via
482 the remote name `origin'.
484 dgit push will also (by default) make signed tags called
486 and push them to dgit-repos, but nothing depends on these tags
489 dgit push can operate on any commit which is a descendant of the
490 current dgit/suite tip in dgit-repos.
492 Uploads made by dgit contain an additional field
494 in the source package .dsc. (This is added by dgit push.)
495 This specifies a commit (an ancestor of the dgit/suite
496 branch) whose tree is identical to the unpacked source upload.
498 Uploads not made by dgit are represented in git by commits which are
499 synthesised by dgit. The tree of each such commit corresponds to the
500 unpacked source; there is an origin commit with the contents, and a
501 psuedo-merge from last known upload - that is, from the contents of
502 the dgit/suite branch.
504 dgit expects repos that it works with to have a
506 remote. This refers to the well-known dgit-repos location
507 (currently, the dgit-repos project on Alioth). dgit fetch updates
508 the remote tracking branch for dgit/suite.
510 dgit does not (currently) represent the orig tarball(s) in git. The
511 orig tarballs are downloaded (by dgit clone) into the parent
512 directory, as with a traditional (non-gitish) dpkg-source workflow.
513 You need to retain these tarballs in the parent directory for dgit
516 To a user looking at the archive, changes pushed using dgit look like
517 changes made in an NMU: in a `3.0 (quilt)' package the delta from the
518 previous upload is recorded in a new patch constructed by dpkg-source.
519 .SH READ-ONLY DISTROS
520 Distros which do not maintain a set of dgit history git repositories
521 can still be used in a read-only mode with dgit. Currently Ubuntu
522 is configured this way.
523 .SH PACKAGE SOURCE FORMATS
524 If you are not the maintainer, you do not need to worry about the
525 source format of the package. You can just make changes as you like
526 in git. If the package is a `3.0 (quilt)' package, the patch stack
527 will usually not be represented in the git history.
529 If you are the maintainer of a non-native package, you currently have
530 two sensible options:
532 Firstly, you can regard your git history as primary, and the archive
533 as an export format. For example, you could maintain topic branches
534 in git and a fast-forwarding release branch; or you could do your work
535 directly in a merging way on the
537 branches. If you do this you should probably use a `1.0' format
538 source package if you can. In the archive, the delta between upstream
539 will be represented in the single Debian patch.
541 Secondly, you can use `3.0 (quilt)', and regard your quiltish patch
542 stack in the archive as primary. You will have to use other tools
543 besides dgit to import and export this patch stack. But see below:
544 .SH FORMAT 3.0 (QUILT)
545 For a format `3.0 (quilt)' source package, dgit may have to make a
546 commit on your current branch to contain metadata used by quilt and
549 This is because (i) the `3.0 (quilt)' source format cannot represent
550 certain trees, and (ii) packing up a tree in `3.0 (quilt)' and then
551 unpacking it does not always yield the same tree. Instead,
552 dpkg-source insists on the trees having extra quilty metadata and
553 patch files in the debian/ and .pc/ directories, which dpkg-source
556 dgit will automatically work around this braindamage for you when
557 building and pushing. The only thing you need to know is that dgit
558 build, sbuild, etc., may make a new commit on your HEAD. If you're
559 not a quilt user this commit won't contain any changes to files you
562 You can explicitly request that dgit do just this fixup, by running
565 We recommend against the use of `3.0 (quilt)'.
566 .SH FILES IN THE SOURCE PACKAGE BUT NOT IN GIT
567 This section is mainly of interest to maintainers who want to use dgit
568 with their existing git history for the Debian package.
570 Some developers like to have an extra-clean git tree which lacks files
571 which are normally found in source tarballs and therefore in Debian
572 source packages. For example, it is conventional to ship ./configure
573 in the source tarball, but some people prefer not to have it present
574 in the git view of their project.
576 dgit requires that the source package unpacks to exactly the same
577 files as are in the git commit on which dgit push operates. So if you
578 just try to dgit push directly from one of these extra-clean git
579 branches, it will fail.
581 As the maintainer you therefore have the following options:
584 Persuade upstream that the source code in their git history and the
585 source they ship as tarballs should be identical. Of course simply
586 removing the files from the tarball may make the tarball hard for
589 One answer is to commit the (maybe autogenerated)
590 files, perhaps with some simple automation to deal with conflicts and
591 spurious changes. This has the advantage that someone who clones
592 the git repository finds the program just as easy to build as someone
593 who uses the tarball.
596 Have separate git branches which do contain the extra files, and after
597 regenerating the extra files (whenever you would have to anyway),
598 commit the result onto those branches.
601 Provide source packages which lack the files you don't want
602 in git, and arrange for your package build to create them as needed.
603 This may mean not using upstream source tarballs and makes the Debian
604 source package less useful for people without Debian build
607 Of course it may also be that the differences are due to build system
608 bugs, which cause unintended files to end up in the source package.
609 dgit will notice this and complain. You may have to fix these bugs
610 before you can unify your existing git history with dgit's.
612 dgit looks at the following git config keys to control its behaviour.
613 You may set them with git-config (either in system-global or per-tree
614 configuration), or provide
616 on the dgit command line.
618 .BI dgit-suite. suite .distro
620 .BI dgit.default.distro
622 .BI dgit-distro. distro .username
624 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-url
626 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-user
628 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-host
630 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-proto
632 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-path
634 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-check
636 .BI dgit-distro. distro .git-create
638 .BI dgit-distro. distro .upload-host
640 .BI dgit-distro. distro .mirror
642 .BI dgit-distro. distro .archive-query
644 .BI dgit-distro. distro .archive-query-default-component
646 .BI dgit-distro. distro .sshpsql-user
648 .BI dgit-distro. distro .sshpsql-host
650 .BI dgit-distro. distro .sshpsql-dbname
652 .BI dgit-distro. distro .ssh
654 .BI dgit-distro. distro .keyid
658 .BR dgit-distro. \fIdistro\fR . *
659 .SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
661 .BR DGIT_SSH ", " GIT_SSH
662 specify an alternative default program (and perhaps arguments) to use
663 instead of ssh. DGIT_SSH is consulted first and may contain arguments;
664 if it contains any whitespace will be passed to the shell. GIT_SSH
665 specifies just the program; no arguments can be specified, so dgit
666 interprets it the same way as git does.
668 also the --ssh= and --ssh: options.
670 .BR gpg ", " dpkg- "..., " debsign ", " git ", " curl ", " dput ", " LWP::UserAgent
671 and other subprograms and modules used by dgit are affected by various
672 environment variables. Consult the documentaton for those programs
675 We should be using some kind of vhost/vpath setup for the git repos on
676 alioth, so that they can be moved later if and when this turns out to
679 dgit push should perhaps do `git push origin', or something similar,
682 Debian does not have a working rmadison server, so to find out what
683 version of a package is in the archive, or to canonicalise suite
684 names, we ssh directly into the ftpmaster server and run psql there to
687 The mechanism for checking for and creating per-package repos on
688 alioth is a hideous bodge. One consequence is that dgit currently
689 only works for people with push access.
691 Debian Maintainers are currently not able to push, as there is not
692 currently any mechanism for determining and honouring the archive's
693 ideas about access control. Currently only DDs can push.
695 dgit's representation of format `3.0 (quilt)' source packages does not
696 represent the patch stack. Currently the patch series representation
697 cannot round trip through the archive. Ideally dgit would represent a
698 quilty package with an origin commit of some kind followed by the
699 patch stack as a series of commits followed by a pseudo-merge (to make
700 the branch fast-forwarding). This would also mean a new `dgit
701 rebase-prep' command or some such to turn such a fast-forwarding
702 branch back into a rebasing patch stack, and a `force' option to dgit
703 push (perhaps enabled automatically by a note left by rebase-prep)
704 which will make the required pseudo-merge.
706 If the dgit push fails halfway through, it should be restartable and
707 idempotent. However this is not true for the git tag operation.
708 Also, it would be good to check that the proposed signing key is
709 available before starting work.
711 dgit's handling of .orig.tar.gz is not very sophisticated. Ideally
712 the .orig.tar.gz could be transported via the git repo as git tags.
713 Doing this is made more complicated by the possibility of a `3.0
714 (quilt)' package with multiple .orig tarballs.
716 dgit's build functions, and dgit push, should not make any changes to
717 your current HEAD. Sadly this is necessary for packages in the `3.0
718 (quilt)' source format. This is ultimately due to design problems in
719 quilt and dpkg-source.
721 There should be an option which arranges for the `3.0 (quilt)'
722 autocommit to not appear on your HEAD, but instead only in the
723 remote tracking suite branch.
725 The option parser requires values to be cuddled to the option name.
727 dgit assumes knowledge of the archive database. (The information dgit
728 needs is not currently available via any public online service with a
729 well-defined interface, let alone a secure one.)
731 --dry-run does not always work properly, as not doing some of the git
732 fetches may result in subsequent actions being different. Doing a
733 non-dry-run dgit fetch first will help.
739 \fBgit-buildpackage\fP(1),
740 \fBdpkg-buildpackage\fP(1),
742 https://wiki.debian.org/Alioth
~ianmdlvl / dgit.git / blob