gitpkg1
Export a debian source package from nominated git revisions
Usage
gitpkg branch
[origbranch]
Overview
If gitpkg is run in a git(1) repo with a single 'branch' specified, then it will do a git-archive export of that branch to the DEB_DIR directory. If the package is Debian native it will simply create a source package from it. If the package has a Debian version, then an orig tarball will be expected to already exist for it. If an orig tarball does not already exist then what happens next depends on the value of the gitpkg.create-fake-orig configuration option (described below).
If gitpkg is invoked with two branches specified, then the first branch will be exported as the unpacked complete source, while the second branch will be exported for the orig.tar.gz. This allows all local changes to the source to be recorded in the resulting diff.gz if a pristine upstream branch exists in the repository. If an orig tarball already exists for the version at 'branch' then what happens next depends on the value of the gitpkg.force-overwrite-orig configuration option (described below).
The 'branch' should always have a debian/ dir and may be any tree-ish object that is accepted by git-archive(1). The 'origbranch', if supplied, should usually not have a debian/ dir.
Options
Almost all gitpkg configuration is handled using git-config(1) now. The following configuration options are supported:
gitpkg.deb-dir-
May be set to override the default destination directory for exported packages. Default is '../deb-packages'. Available to hook scripts as
DEB_DIR. This may be overridden on the command line with the--deb-dir=path option.
gitpkg.build-rootcmd-
May be set to override the default command used to get root for package build operations. Default is 'fakeroot'. Available to hook scripts as
BUILD_ROOTCMD.
gitpkg.prebuild-target-
May be set to a target or targets from debian/rules which will be called after the debian source tree is exported, but before the source package is built. Some packages may use this to generate autoconf files or the like, which should generally not be in the repo, but which should be in the distributed package. The target is invoked using the BUILD_ROOTCMD. A common use for this hook would be to call the package's 'clean' target. This hook is unset by default since gitpkg 0.18. Previous to that it defaulted to the clean target. Available to hook scripts as
PREBUILD_TARGET.
gitpkg.export-submodules-
If a git repository contains submodules, then the submodule managed directories will not be automatically exported by git-archive(1), so if we want them in the exported source package then we need to jump through some extra hoops to export the source from each and every submodule too. Since this may not be the correct action for every "superproject" repository (especially since
gitpkghas historically just ignored submodules prior to the 0.31 release) the option to export submodules must be explicitly enabled.If this option is set to 'true', then we will recursively export all submodules in the selected superproject revisions. If it is set to 'false', they will be treated as they were prior to gitpkg 0.31 and silently ignored. If this option is not set and there are submodules present in the revisions being exported, then the user will be prompted for the correct action to take.
At present this is an all or nothing selection, there is no way to selectively exclude only certain submodules from export, but if anyone ever has a real repo where that is the desired action then it should not be a difficult feature to add. As with everything git though, the range of possible use cases makes it folly to prematurely 'support' straw man use cases, and we should wait to see what other problems real use cases actually need solved.
Note that in a repo with submodules
gitpkgmust be run from a directory that is directly managed by the superproject, not one that belongs to a submodule. Anygitcommands run in directories that are managed by submodules will use the configuration for, and act on, only that submodule - and it is almost impossible to know or be sure which (of possibly many) containing superproject is the one the user really wanted to export. See the details of thegitpkg.allow-subproject-exportoption below for more on this.Available to hook scripts as
EXPORT_SUBMODULES.
gitpkg.allow-subproject-export-
If
gitpkgis invoked from a working directory that is managed by some submodule of a superproject then allgitcommands will operate on the submodule, not on its containing superproject - and it is almost impossible for us to know for sure whether the user has done this accidentally, intending to export the superproject, or deliberately, intending to export just the submodule package separately from the superproject it is a part of...So if we detect that
gitpkgis invoked from a directory which is managed by a submodule then we need the user to tell us what they really wanted to do, and we can't rely on the treeish selected for export to be in any way persistently unique to just a single repo somewhere in the superproject tree.If this option is not set, the user will be prompted to confirm whether they really intended to export just the submodule, with the option to abort and instead run
gitpkgfrom the desired superproject.If this option is set to 'true', then we will trust the user understands what they were doing, knows which subproject repo they invoked
gitpkgin, and intends to export just that submodule (and possibly any other submodules that it in turn is a superproject for). And if they ever get that wrong, they get to keep all the pieces.If this option is set to 'false', then we will consider it to always be an error to try and directly export the submodule it is set for and immediately fail out. Note that it must be set in the submodule configuration, as the superproject configuration will not be read.
In theory we could make this option indicate the root of the superproject that should be exported, but that just replaces an 'obvious' failure mode with a somewhat more insidious one that assumes an immutable relationship between them, with a silent awkward failure if that ever changes.
If some subproject really can or should be exported as a package independently of the superproject it is a submodule of, then best practice is probably to be exporting it (and actively working on it) from its own independent working directory, with only selected versions checked out for read-only use as a submodule. Especially in the case of Debian packages, where managing them as a submodule of a superproject would mean that you have debian directories and control files nested in the superproject source.
Available to hook scripts as
ALLOW_SUBPROJECT_EXPORT. Though it's probably of little use to them, as it won't be set unless we are running in a submodule, and none of them will be run before the usual decision to abort execution.
gitpkg.orig-compressor-
May be set to override the default compression for an exported package.orig.tar. Default is 'gzip'. For format 3.0 packages, valid values also include xz and bzip2. Available to hook scripts as
ORIG_COMPRESSOR.
gitpkg.orig-compress-level-
An optional compression level to use with
gitpkg.orig-compressor. 1 is usually the fastest and 9 is usually the smallest, with the precise details of everything between being up to the chosen compressor. Default is unset (which will use whatever the compressor default is). Available to hook scripts asORIG_COMPRESS_LEVEL.
gitpkg.orig-gz-opts
gitpkg.orig-xz-opts
gitpkg.orig-bz2-opts
May be set to pass arbitrary options verbatim to gzip, xz or bzip2 when compressing the orig tarball. If not specified explicitly, gitpkg.orig-gz-opts will default to include the --no-name option so that no timestamp is included in the resulting file, making the output reproducible. No default options are used for the other compressors. To pass multiple options to a compressor you must set this option for it multiple times (ie. using git config --add for each option to use).
gitpkg.deb-compressor-
May be set to override the default compression used by dpkg-source(1) for exported packages. Default (if unset) is to use whatever
dpkg-sourcewants to use. For format 3.0 packages, valid values also include xz and bzip2. Available to hook scripts asDEB_COMPRESSOR.
gitpkg.deb-compress-level-
An optional compression level to use with
gitpkg.deb-compressor. 1 is usually the fastest and 9 is usually the smallest, with the precise details of everything between being up to the chosen compressor. Default is unset (which will use whatever thedpkg-sourcedefault is, currently '9'). Available to hook scripts asDEB_COMPRESS_LEVEL.
gitpkg.dpkg-source-
May be set to pass arbitrary options verbatim to dpkg-source(1) when building the source package. Use with caution and at your own risk. To pass multiple options to
dpkg-sourceyou must set this option multiple times (ie. using git config --add for each option) due to the otherwise amusing quoting requirements for options such as "--format=3.0 (native)". Default is empty. Available to hook scripts as the indexed arrayDPKG_SOURCE_OPTS. Do not use this to set the dpkg-source(1)-Zor-zoptions, they should instead be set using thedeb-compressoranddeb-compress-leveloptions respectively. This may be overridden on the command line with the--dpkg-source=arg option, which likewise must be passed multiple times to set multiple options.
gitpkg.create-fake-orig-
Sometimes both upstream source and debian support really are intermingled into a single branch of the repo but you'd still like to make a 'non-native' package from it.
gitpkgcan fake an orig tarball from such a tree out of everything but the contents of the debian/ directory. Setting this option to 'true' makes that behaviour the default if a single treeish is passed togitpkgand no corresponding orig tarball is found. Setting this option to 'false' will makegitpkgfail, reporting an error, if a single treeish is passed and no orig tarball with the correct version already exists for it (and none was retrieved by a hook script prior to it being needed). If this option is unset then the user will be prompted for the correct thing to do if this situation arises. Default is unset. Available to hook scripts asCREATE_FAKE_ORIG.
gitpkg.force-overwrite-orig-
This option controls the behaviour of
gitpkgif an 'origbranch' treeish is specified and the corresponding orig.tar for the 'branch' already exists. If this is set to 'true', then the orig.tar will be overwritten with the repo source (to reuse an existing orig.tar simply callgitpkgwith only the single debian 'branch' treeish you wish to export). If this is set to 'false', then it is a hard error to attempt to export the upstream source again when the orig.tar already exists, andgitpkgwill terminate and scold you if you try. If unset you will be prompted about whether to overwrite it or not, and the build will continue using whichever of the two you selected. Default is unset. Available to hook scripts asFORCE_OVERWRITE_ORIG.
gitpkg.keep-unpacked-source-
This option controls whether or not the unpacked source directory is kept after the package export and exit hook have successfully completed. If this is set to 'true', the unpacked source will be retained. If set to 'false' or unset then that directory will be removed as the final operation before
gitpkgexits if all prior operations completed successfully. Default is unset. Available to hook scripts asKEEP_UNPACKED_SOURCE. This may be overridden on the command line with the--keep-unpacked-source=bool option (where 'no' or 'false' will not keep it, and any other value, including nothing, will).
Script hooks
User defined scripts can be invoked from a number of points during the package build process. They are sourced into gitpkg as bash shell snippets, in most cases in a subshell, so they can read state variables and perform external actions, but cannot alter the running configuration once a build is in progress. If a hook returns with a non-zero status, then gitpkg will be terminated. (Hooks that do terminate gitpkg should take some care not to leave too much of a mess, but also should leave enough clues intact for the user to diagnose and fix whatever the problem was. Useful and informative error messages should be barked to stderr before exiting in this way.)
Hook scripts may be installed on the host system outside of the repo tree, or sourced from version controlled files in the repo itself. Both methods have advantages and risks for different use cases. Hook scripts are activated by the local admin, by setting each relevant git-config(1) option with the path to the script to be executed. Paths may be absolute or relative to the directory which that hook is called from. If a hook is set, the script must exist when it is called. Care should be taken to only enable them for use by trusted source trees when hooking into files in the repo itself. Usually you should enable them on a per-repo basis with git-config(1) rather than at a --global or --system level.
A brief admonition against getting hooked:
You should avoid complicated in-package hook arrangements becoming essential for exporting your package source. If you need them to create a particular package correctly, and need strict version binding with the source being released, and they aren't useful to any other package at all ... then you're quite probably doing something, or several things, quite wrong. Else you're in such deep shit working around some broken build system that you don't need me to tell you about it. Either way, local admin has to enable your hooks before they can run, so if you want to be friendly to others (and yourself), then keep the 'normal' packaging work strictly inside the usual package building tools, and leave the gitpkg hooks free for other local admins to wrap whatever automation it is they need around things. If a particular version of the package source needs some particular actions performed on it prior to the first source package build, then the PREBUILD_TARGET option from above is most probably what you want rather than one of these hooks. Other people can use that again later without needing to have gitpkg around. The aim is for this to Help You. For some values of All Of You. So do be careful to avoid letting it screw other people over if the hook isn't called, and/or let them know what they need to do instead if it isn't. Ok then, there's the barb to watch out for, so back to the point again:
Hook points
The available hook points are listed below in roughly the order that they would usually be invoked:
gitpkg.package-config-hook-
This hook runs in the top level directory of the repo
gitpkgwas invoked in, prior to any operations taking place, with all git-config(1) sourced options available to it. No detailed information about the package itself is available in the hook environment yet, not even its name or version, only the tree-ish(es) thatgitpkgwas passed by the user, but the hook may run its own self-checks based on the current (possibly 'dirty') contents of the working tree thatgitpkgwas invoked in.This hook is able to modify the
gitpkgconfiguration variables for subsequent operations. It can perform operations on the repo if needed, but since it needs to be committed to the repo before it will ever be called, that may not be so useful here in practice. Basically, it can do anything it pleases, it's just a shell script, nothing else has really begun yet, and it has been sourced into the topmost shell level ofgitpkg.Its operation is different from the
admin-config-hookin only one respect, the path to this hookmustbe relative to the TLD of the repo, and the revision of the file that will be sourced is checked out from the 'branch' tree-ish thatgitpkgwas requested to export. The file must exist in that version at the path given.Available to hook scripts as
PACKAGE_CONFIG_HOOK.
gitpkg.admin-config-hook-
This hook is run after the
package-config-hookreturns, and differs from it in operation only by reading a static file from the current filesystem rather than extracting a version controlled one from the repo being exported.This can be used by the local admin to override any package specific options, that may have been set by the
package-config-hook, with site specific configuration. This is a policy control, not a security one. Security was all over when you let thepackage-config-hookrun, this just lets you override it without having to fake up a new commit changing the package hook.This is the last hook to run that is able to modify the
gitpkgconfiguration and set environment options that will be visible to later hooks. Available to hook scripts asADMIN_CONFIG_HOOK. This may be overridden on the command line with the--admin-config-hook=path option.
gitpkg.pre-export-hook-
This hook runs in the top level directory of the repo, after the package name and version have been determined, and with the final package configuration including any tweaking by the previous hooks. It cannot alter any configuration options, only act upon them or terminate
gitpkg.This can be used to do things like invoke pristine-tar or prefetch an existing orig tarball from some foreign source. It may perform operations on the repo if any such are desired, or any other last minute check that needs to be done before we actually get about the task of exporting the source we want packaged.
Available to hook scripts as
PRE_EXPORT_HOOK.
gitpkg.deb-export-hook-
This hook runs in the top level directory of the exported debian source, immediately after the source has been exported from the requested tree-ish, and immediately prior to the
PREBUILD_TARGETbeing invoked (if provided). It cannot alter any configuration options, only act upon them or terminategitpkg. If this hook terminatesgitpkg, the exported source directory will be left on the system for the user to inspect. Subsequent invocations ofgitpkgfor the same release version will overwrite it though. Available to hook scripts asDEB_EXPORT_HOOK.
gitpkg.orig-export-hook-
This hook runs in the top level directory of the exported 'upstream' source, immediately after the source has been exported from the provided tree-ish, and prior to it being compressed into a tarball. It cannot alter any configuration options, only act upon them or terminate
gitpkg. If this hook terminatesgitpkg, the exported source directory will be left on the system for the user to inspect. Subsequent invocations ofgitpkgfor the same release version will overwrite it though.This hook is
onlyinvoked if the upstream 'origbranch' actually is exported from the repository. If an existing orig.tar is found or has been created by some earlier hook (and it is not being overwritten, seeforce-overwrite-origabove), then the operations this hook would perform are presumed to have already happened for this tarball and it is skipped.It is not safe to assume that this hook will be executed before or after
deb-export-hook, and it may in fact be run in parallel with it at some point in the future. They both will be entered afterpre-export-hookreturns, andexit-hookwill not begin until (at least) after both have returned. What else happens in the middle of all that we make no firm promises about at this stage.Available to hook scripts as
ORIG_EXPORT_HOOK.
gitpkg.exit-hook-
This hook runs in the directory where the package .dsc was deposited by dpkg-source(1), after all internal
gitpkgoperations have successfully completed. It's too late to alter any configuration options, or even to terminategitpkgreally. You can pretty much do what you like from this one, anything that goes wrong from here on is your own doing. Available to hook scripts asEXIT_HOOK. This may be overridden on the command line with the--exit-hook=path option.
Hook Environment
The following variables are made available for hook scripts, in addition to those already listed as shadowing a git-config option from above. Not all of them are valid/useful at all hook points, see the hook documentation above for the exceptions applying to specific hooks.
GITPKG_HOOK_API-
Permits hook scripts to query what interfaces are available to them. Has only two numeric components separated by a '.' of which the number to the right of point will get incremented every time we add some new variable a hook might access, or add some new knob it might tweak where existing interfaces have not have changed. If we do screw up and need to change some current interface, the number to the left will get bumped. The current API version is 0.3
Available in API version 0.1
These variables have been available to hooks since gitpkg version 0.13
GITPKG_TREEISH-
The user-passed debian 'branch' tree-ish that gitpkg was invoked to export.
GITPKG_ORIG_TREEISH-
The 'origbranch' tree-ish that gitpkg was invoked with. This will be empty if only a single 'branch' tree-ish was specified.
DEB_SOURCE-
The name of the source package to create, without any versioning. As seen in the Source: field of dpkg-parsechangelog(1).
DEB_VERSION-
The version of the source package to create, without any epoch. As seen in the name of the .diff.gz and .dsc files.
UPSTREAM_VERSION-
The version of the source package to create, without any debian version. As seen in the name of the orig tarball. For native packages this will be the same as
DEB_VERSION.
DEB_ORIG-
The full versioned filename of the orig tarball to use or create. This variable is empty for native packages without a Debian version part.
DEB_DSC-
The full filename of the package .dsc that will be or has been created.
DEB_PACKAGE-
The directory name of the debianised source tree to pass to dpkg-source(1).
REPO_DIR-
An absolute path to the top level directory of the git repo we are exporting from. Usually, if you need to look out of the tree that you were dropped in, you're probably doing something (at the) wrong (time), but there are exceptions, and being able to query
git-configoptions is one of them. That's mostly what this one is for right now. See therepo-config-helperdocumented below. Be careful if you do use it for much else.
Available in API version 0.2
These variables have been available to hooks since gitpkg version 0.24
GITPKG_AOPTS-
An associative array containing the command line options not parsed by
gitpkgitself which can be used to override the behaviour of a hook. The array is keyed on the names of the options with the '--' removed. If an option was passed multiple times, only the last value passed will be stored in this array. For example:$ gitpkg --my-option=foo --option2 --opt=oops --opt='bar baz' Will give: ${GITPKG_AOPTS[my-option]} = 'foo' ${GITPKG_AOPTS[option2]} = '' ${GITPKG_AOPTS[opt]} = 'bar baz'
GITPKG_IOPTS-
An indexed array containing the command line options not parsed by
gitpkgitself which can be used to override the behaviour of a hook. The array contains the literal option strings passed and so can be used to access options which are intended to be passed multiple times. For example:$ gitpkg --my-option=foo --option2 --opt=oops --opt='bar baz' Will give: ${GITPKG_IOPTS[0]} = '--my-option=foo' ${GITPKG_IOPTS[1]} = '--option2' ${GITPKG_IOPTS[2]} = '--opt=oops' ${GITPKG_IOPTS[3]} = '--opt=bar baz'There are convenience functions in
repo-config-helper(see below for details) which can be used to inspect this array and obtain all the value(s) for a specific option.
Available in API version 0.3
A range of new support functions were added to repo-config-helper in gitpkg version 0.30
- require_bash_version()
- trim_array()
- have_commandline_option()
- have_any_of_these_commandline_options()
- extract_values_for()
- extract_value_for()
- extract_bool_for()
- get_option_values()
- get_option_value()
- get_bool_value()
These are described in more detail in the Hook Library Helpers section below.
Hook Library
There are some canned hook scripts for various tasks available in /usr/share/gitpkg/hooks which currently include:
cowpoke-exit-hook-
A simple exit hook which sends the exported package off for building using cowpoke(1). To enable it:
$ git config gitpkg.exit-hook /usr/share/gitpkg/hooks/cowpoke-exit-hook
Additional git-config(1) configuration options:
gitpkg-cowpoke-exit-hook.ask-first-
If 'true' and no cowpoke-specific command line option was passed, then prompt for confirmation before calling
cowpoke. Use of a cowpoke option on the command-line is an implicit acknowledgement that the caller knows and intends that the exported source package will be sent to cowpoke to be built, and so will skip this confirmation nagging.Default is to just go ahead and do it if this hook is set.
gitpkg-cowpoke-exit-hook.options-
May include any other options that you wish to pass verbatim to cowpoke(1). To pass multiple options, set this multiple times, once for each option. This may be overridden on the command line with the
--cowpoke=arg option, which likewise must be passed multiple times to set multiple options.You can use
--cowpoke=(or equivalently, either--cowpokeor--no-cowpoke) to override and clear all configured.optionswithout needing to pass some arbitrary new one. This will not override any other--cowpoke=arg options which are passed on the command line. As a multi-valued option, all empty values which are passed for it will simply be ignored aside from causing the configuration file defaults to be ignored.
gitpkg-cowpoke-exit-hook.arch-
The default Debian architecture(s) to build for. Setting this option to <arch> is equivalent to using
--arch=<arch> in.optionsabove, except using--archon the command line will only override any architectures set with this option, and--cowpoke=--arch=<arch> will not override architectures set with this option. To build for multiple architectures set this (or use--archon the command line) multiple times, once for each <arch>.If no arch is set or passed on the command line it will default to whatever is configured in
cowpoke.conf, which in turn will default to what dpkg-architecture(1) returns forDEB_BUILD_ARCHon the machine that is runninggitpkg.
gitpkg-cowpoke-exit-hook.dist-
The default Debian distribution(s) to build for. Setting this option to <dist> is equivalent to using
--dist=<dist> in.optionsabove, except using--diston the command line will only override any distributions set with this option, and--cowpoke=--dist=<dist> will not override distributions set with this option. To build for multiple distributions set this (or use--diston the command line) multiple times, once for each <dist>.If no dist is set or passed on the command line it will default to whatever is configured in
cowpoke.conf, and if not set there it will default to whatever cowbuilder is locally configured for on the remote machine.The <dist> name used here may also be a locally defined identifier for any specially configured cowpoke chroot that is available, such as those set up for building backports or using extra packages only available from a local repository. See the cowpoke(1) description of its
--distoption for details of that.
gitpkg-cowpoke-exit-hook.dpkg-bp-
Additional options for use by dpkg-buildpackage(1). Setting this option is equivalent to using
--dpkg-bp=option in.optionsabove, except using--dpkg-bpon the command line will only override the configuration that was set with this option, and--cowpoke=--dpkg-bp=option will not override the configuration that is set with this option. To pass multiple options todpkg-buildpackageset this (or use--dpkg-bpon the command line) multiple times, once for each option.These options will be appended to any that are specified in DEBBUILDOPTS in the build host's pbuilderrc. To clear any already preset options, first pass it with an empty argument (i.e. --dpkg-bp= --dpkg-bp=option ...).
gitpkg-cowpoke-exit-hook.source-changes-
If set to '
true', 'yes', 'signed', or set without a value (or to an empty string), then it is equivalent to adding the cowpoke(1) option--sign-source-changesto.optionsabove, except it is independent of the options that would be overridden by--cowpokeon the command line. The valuesignedhas no additional special effect for this hook, it is supported for equivalence with the values accepted for.source-changesin thedpkg-buildpackage-exit-hook.If set to '
false' or 'no', it is the equivalent of adding the cowpoke(1) option--no-sign-source-changes.The default if this option is not set at all is defer to
SIGN_SOURCE_CHANGESin thecowpoke.conf, or if it is not set to the pbuilder(8) configurationSOURCE_ONLY_CHANGESsetting.All other values passed with this option are an error.
This setting may be overridden on the command line with
--sign-source-changes[=arg] where legal values for arg and their actions are the same as described above. Using--no-sign-source-changeshas the equivalent effect to using--sign-source-changes=no.
gitpkg-cowpoke-exit-hook.sign-key-
May be set to the fingerprint of the key to sign packages with. This will override the
SIGN_KEYIDspecified for a chroot in the cowpoke configuration files. If you use different keys to sign packages built in different chroots, then you should probably configure the signing key ID incowpoke.confinstead, but for individual builds you can override it on the command line with the--sign=keyid option.The
--no-signoption will cancel the use of any keyid that was set with.sign-keyin the git config, or by a previous command-line option, but this just meansgitpkgwill not pass a keyid tocowpoke, it does not override cowpoke's own configuration which may still specify a default key to use for the given arch/dist. To also override anySIGN_KEYIDthat is set incowpoke.confyou can instead use--sign=(with an empty argument), which will be passed through to cowpoke and clear the signing keyid, preventing cowpoke from offering the option of signing the packages after they are built.
gitpkg-cowpoke-exit-hook.upload-to-
The dput(1) HOSTNAME to upload packages to. This will override the
UPLOAD_QUEUEspecified for a chroot in the cowpoke configuration files. If you use different upload queues for packages built in different chroots, then you should configure this incowpoke.confinstead, but for individual builds you can override the upload queue on the command line with the--upload=queue option.The
--no-uploadoption will cancel the use of any upload queue that was set with.upload-toin the git config, or by a previous command-line option, but this just meansgitpkgwill not pass an upload queue tocowpoke, it does not override cowpoke's own configuration which may still specify a default queue to use for the given arch/dist. To also override anyUPLOAD_QUEUEthat is set incowpoke.confyou can instead use--upload=(with an empty argument), which will be passed through to cowpoke and clear the upload queue, preventing cowpoke from offering the option of uploading the packages after they are signed.
gitpkg-cowpoke-exit-hook.return-dir-
This may be set to a filesystem path on the local host (absolute or relative to the directory which gitpkg(1) was invoked from) where the packages built by cowpoke will be copied to once the build is completed. It may be specified on (or overridden by) the command line with the
--return[=path] option. If no path is specified, the (cowpoke) default is the current directory.The
--no-returnoption will cancel a.return-dirset in the git config, or by a previous command-line option, but this just meansgitpkgwill not pass a return dir tocowpoke, it does not override cowpoke's own configuration which may still specify aRETURN_DIR. Becausecowpokerecognises--return(with no value assignment) as a discrete option, to override and clearRETURN_DIRthat is set incowpoke.conffrom here you must pass the empty assignment verbatim in the.optionsconfiguration, or on the command line with--cowpoke=--return=which will bypass the normalgitpkghandling of the--returnoption.
dpkg-buildpackage-exit-hook-
A simple exit hook to build binary packages locally with dpkg-buildpackage(1). To enable it:
$ git config gitpkg.exit-hook /usr/share/gitpkg/hooks/dpkg-buildpackage-exit-hook
Additional git-config(1) configuration options:
gitpkg-dpkg-buildpackage-exit-hook.ask-first-
If 'true' and no dpkg-buildpackage-specific command line option was passed, then prompt for confirmation before calling
dpkg-buildpackage. Use of a dpkg-buildpackage option on the command-line is an implicit acknowledgement that the caller knows and intends that the exported source package will be built with dpkg-buildpackage(1) and so will skip this confirmation nagging.Default is to just do it if this hook is set.
gitpkg-dpkg-buildpackage-exit-hook.options-
May include any other options that you wish to pass verbatim to
dpkg-buildpackage. To pass multiple options, set this multiple times, once for each option. This may be overridden on the command line with the--dpkg-bp=arg option, which likewise must be passed multiple times to set multiple options.You can use
--dpkg-bp=(or equivalently, either--dpkg-bpor--no-dpkg-bp) to override and clear all configured.optionswithout needing to pass some arbitrary new one. This will not override any other--dpkg-bp=arg options which are passed on the command line. As a multi-valued option, all empty values which are passed for it will simply be ignored aside from causing the configuration file defaults to be ignored.
gitpkg-dpkg-buildpackage-exit-hook.source-changes-
If '
true' or 'yes' then a <package>_source.changes file, suitable for a "source only" upload, will be generated (independently of any changes file thatdpkg-buildpackagecreates according to the options passed to it). If the-ucor--unsigned-changesoption was passed todpkg-buildpackagethen this changes file will not be signed either.If set to the special value '
signed' then the <package>_source.changes file, and any.dscor.buildinfofiles referenced by it, will be signed regardless of any-uc,-us,-uioptions being used to suppress signing of the files created bydpkg-buildpackage. This makes it possible to do a full binary build, creating source and.debfiles for inspection and testing, but then sign only the files needed to do a source only upload to another build farm.If set without a value (or to an empty string), then the behaviour is the same as if it was set to '
signed' and--dpkg-bp=-uc --dpkg-bp=-us were passed. i.e. Only the <package>_source.changes file (and the files referenced by it) will be signed, not the binary files created by the build. This is probably what most people want when exporting a package with the intent of doing a "source only" upload.The default if unset is the same as setting this option to '
false' or 'no', no <package>_source.changes file will be created by this hook and the behaviour is simply what would be expected from dpkg-buildpackage(1) with any otherwise configured options passed to it.All other values passed with this option are an error.
This setting may be overridden on the command line with
--sign-source-changes[=arg] where legal values for arg and their actions are the same as described above. Using--no-sign-source-changeshas the equivalent effect to using--sign-source-changes=no.
gitpkg-dpkg-buildpackage-exit-hook.sign-key-
May be set to the fingerprint of the key to use for signing exported and built package files. If not set then the signing key derived by (or set in other configuration for) dpkg-buildpackage(1) will be used when signing binary changes files, with the defaults for debsign(1) being used in the case where a "source only upload" changes is being signed.
Since those two tools don't use the same configuration, that may not be the same key for all users on all machines, but we do respect and use
DEB_SIGN_KEYIDfrom the environment (if it is set with no other overriding configuration), when callingdebsign, as it would otherwise ignore that configuration option fromdpkg-buildpackage. The usual debsign default is insteadDEBSIGN_KEYIDand set in thedevscripts.conffile.You can override the signing key on the command line with the
--sign=keyid option. The--no-signoption will cancel the use of any keyid that was set with.sign-keyin the git config, or by a previous command-line option, but this just meansgitpkgwill not pass a keyid to dpkg-buildpackage(1) and it will revert to its own determination of what key should be used for signing. To actually not sign a package you'll want to use something like--dpkg-bp=-uc --dpkg-bp=-us to explicitly disable signing.
gitpkg-dpkg-buildpackage-exit-hook.build-log-
If set 'false' don't save a log of the build process, the default is to record one. This may be overridden on the command line with the
--build-log[=bool-value] or--no-build-logoption.
pristine-tar-pre-export-hook-
A hook to extract an orig tarball using pristine-tar. Which orig to extract is determined by the package version of the 'branch' tree-ish. To enable it:
$ git config gitpkg.pre-export-hook /usr/share/gitpkg/hooks/pristine-tar-pre-export-hook
If a pristine-tar branch is not found in the repo, then gitpkg will be terminated.
quilt-patches-deb-export-hook-
This hook reads a list of revision ranges suitable for git-format-patch(1) from the file debian/source/git-patches, one per line, and exports them to the debian/patches directory in a form suitable for (format 3.0) quilt packages. It is not required for creating such packages, but permits you to separate out individual patches however you please from the default single patch that is otherwise created by
dpkg-source.To enable it:
$ git config gitpkg.deb-export-hook /usr/share/gitpkg/hooks/quilt-patches-deb-export-hook
The contents of debian/source/git-patches may include comments (on any line beginning with a #), empty lines, and expressions of a range of commits. The revision ranges may include
$DEB_VERSION,$UPSTREAM_VERSION,$DEB_REFor$UPSTREAM_REF. The first pair will be substituted with the version of the package being exported, the second pair with those version strings after mangling bysanitise_git_refto remap them to a legal git refname. Using the sanitised versions is to be preferred in most cases. For example:# Export all commits between these two treeishes, # based on the version of the package being exported. upstream/$UPSTREAM_REF..patches/$DEB_REF
debcherry-deb-export-hook-
This hook invokes git-debcherry(1) to find and export patches to the upstream source in a form suitable for use with (format 3.0) quilt packages. It allows for a more natural (and automatic) workflow than the quilt-patches hook above by searching for patches made to the packaging branch that have not yet been applied upstream.
To enable it:
$ git config gitpkg.deb-export-hook /usr/share/gitpkg/hooks/debcherry-deb-export-hook
In order to use this hook, a
${DEB_ORIG}.commitfile must be created which contains the treeish of the exported upstream source in the repository. This will be created automatically (if this hook is enabled) when you export an upstream tarball by passing both branch and origbranch togitpkg, or if you use thepristine-tar-pre-export-hook, which determines an appropriate commit corresponding to the tarball. If your upstream tarball is created using some other mechanism you will need to ensure that file is created yourself.If using this hook, you may wish to document that in your repository with something similar to the text in /usr/share/doc/gitpkg/examples/README.debcherry-export as a convenience to other users. Your package will still be exportable without this hook enabled, it just won't have the upstream patches individually separated out into a quilt series.
Hook Library Helpers
These are additional shell code snippet files which are also found in /usr/share/gitpkg/hooks, for operations which may usefully be shared by several hook scripts. Usually these would be sourced by other scripts rather than being hooked to directly.
repo-config-helper-
This file provides functions for querying configuration options which may be set in the project
git-config, or overridden by command line arguments.repo_config()-
Provides a simple wrapper around `git config`, which ensures it is called from the repo tree where any repo-specific config options may be stored. Useful to scripts which aren't called from inside the repo tree, but which do have git-config(1) options of their own to query.
sanitise_git_ref()-
Remaps character strings that are illegal to use in a git refname.
require_bash_version()-
Allows a hook script to assert a minimum bash version needed to provide all the functionality its implementation requires.
trim_array()-
Removes all empty elements from an array. This can be useful for, among other things, filtering option values where an empty value should not propagate as an argument word.
have_commandline_option()-
A Simple true or false test of whether some
--option or its counterpart--no-option were passed on the command line, which evaluates tofalseif neither of them were.
have_any_of_these_commandline_options()-
Convenience function to call
have_commandline_optionfor multiple options, returningtrueif any of them were passed, orfalseif none of them were.
extract_values_for()-
This is a refinement of the older (and now deprecated)
extract_values_for_option()function which is much cleaner to use, but depends on functionality that was introduced inbashversion 4.3 (which has been available since Jessie, so it shouldn't practically limit backports of thisgitpkgrelease).It is designed to query multi-valued command line options, filling an array with all of the values passed to
gitpkgfor some option which were recorded inGITPKG_IOPTS(or any similar array).
extract_value_for()-
More suited for single-valued options, this sets a variable to the value of the final overriding instance of a command line option.
extract_bool_for()-
Like
extract_value_for(), but intended for options where all values are expected to be either true or false.
get_option_values()-
Fill a multi-valued array with optional hard-coded default values, overriding those defaults with a (multi-valued) configuration option from git-config, and overriding both of those if any values were passed for it on the command line.
get_option_value()-
Assign a single-valued variable with an optional hard-coded default value, overriding that default with a configuration option from git-config, and overriding both of those if a value was passed on the command line.
get_bool_value()-
Like
get_option_value()except all values set are either true or false.
See the content of that file itself for more detailed documentation on these functions, their operation, and calling conventions.
Interactiviy
If you intend to call gitpkg from your own scripts, then you should note that there are two situations when it may prompt interactively by default. There is no One True Sane Default for these cases, so it's better to just ask the user and continue than to make them start the whole process again in the likely case where they have called gitpkg directly. For details, see the gitpkg.force-overwrite-orig and gitpkg.create-fake-orig config options above. You should set both explicitly to the behaviour that you desire from them if gitpkg should never become interactive.
Workflow
Though gitpkg explicitly does not try to force any particular workflow procedure upon you in order to make full use of it, it probably is worth making quick mention of at least one simple way to manage Debian packages in git.
One common repo structure is to keep pristine upstream source on one branch, which is updated either directly from an upstream repo or by importing tar archives to it periodically, with the Debian patched source on another branch. In this situation the task of preparing a new upstream release from a tarball might look a bit like this:
Check out the upstream branch
$ cd myrepo
$ git checkout upstream
Remove all old upstream files from the repo
$ rm -rf $(all_files_except .git)
Unpack the new tarball in their place
$ tar zxf $new_upstream.tar.gz
Let git figure out what is renamed/new/gone by itself.
Make sure you don't have things like vim .swp files lurking
in the tree still at this point.
$ git add .
$ git commit -a
$ git tag v$upstream_version
Prepare the Debian branch
$ git checkout debian
$ git merge upstream
$ $(update changelog and other debian patches etc.)
$ git commit -a
$ git tag v${upstream_version}-$debian_version
Make a release
$ gitpkg v${upstream_version}-$debian_version v$upstream_version
$ cd ../deb-packages/mypackage && dpkg-buildpackage ...
Releases
9 releases since Debian 5.0 (Lenny); the text changed 6 times.