---
name: "dh_debstd"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "debhelper"
version: "2.0.86"
release: "Debian 2.2 (Potato)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/dh_debstd"
---

# dh\_debstd(1)

mimic debstd with debhelper commands

## NAME

dh\_debstd - mimic debstd with debhelper commands

## SYNOPSIS

**dh\_debstd** *\[-v\] \[--no-act\] \[-m\] \[-c\] \[-u\] \[-s\] \[\[changelog\] file ...\]*

## DESCRIPTION

dh\_debstd is a program that mimics the behavior of debstd, by calling other debhelper commands. Its behavior is not a complete nor an exact copy of what debstd does, but it should be close enough to be usable.

dh\_debstd is not intended to really be used in building an official debian package. Instead, it is intended to help you convert your package that uses debstd over to debhelper. If you run dh\_debstd with the same parameters you passed to debstd, and use the --verbose and --no-act flags, you can see what debhelper commands dh\_debstd runs, and copy those commands into debian/rules to get a start on converting to debhelper.

See [**debstd**(1)](/debstd/1.md) for a complete description of what this program does.

## DEBHELPER STYLE OPTIONS

- **-v, --verbose**

  Verbose mode; show all commands that modify the package build directory.

- **--no-act**

  Do not really do anything. If used with -v, the result is that this command will output a list of what it would have done.

## DEBSTD STYLE OPTIONS

- **-m**

  Switch off automatic man page installation.

- **-c**

  Switch off automatic file compression.

- **-u**

  Enable generation of symlinks to [undocumented(7)](/undocumented/7.md) man page.

- **-s**

  Switch off md5sum file generation.

- **changelog**

  Install this file as the upstream changelog. Only happens if it's name contains "change", "news", or "history" (not case sensative).

- **file ...**

  Install these files as documentation.

## NOTES

Unlike debstd, dh\_debstd does not automatically modify maintainer scripts such as the postinst, posrm, etc. To get those scripts to be modified, you have to place "#DEBHELPER#" in them at the location you want debhelper to insert commands. To help you remember to do that, a warning message will be generated if dh\_debstd notices scripts without "#DEBHELPER#" in them.

## ENVIRONMENT

- *DH\_VERBOSE*

  Enables verbose mode

- *DH\_NO\_ACT*

  Enables no-act mode

## SEE ALSO

- **/usr/share/doc/debhelper/from-debstd**

  - [**debstd**(1)](/debstd/1.md)

  - [**debhelper**(1)](/debhelper/1.md)

  ## BUGS

It doesn't completly mimic debstd. Some things debstd handles are not supported by debhelper. Everything that is not supported will generate a warning message if you try to use it.

## AUTHOR

Joey Hess \<joeyh@debian.org\>