---
name: "dh_movefiles"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "debhelper"
version: "13.24.2"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/dh_movefiles"
---

# dh\_movefiles(1)

move files out of debian/tmp into subpackages

## NAME

dh\_movefiles - move files out of debian/tmp into subpackages

## SYNOPSIS

**dh\_movefiles** \[*debhelper options*\] \[**--sourcedir=***dir*\] \[**-X***item*\] \[*file* ...\]

## DESCRIPTION

**dh\_movefiles** is a debhelper program that is responsible for moving files out of *debian/tmp* or some other directory and into other package build directories. This may be useful if your package has a *Makefile* that installs everything into *debian/tmp*, and you need to break that up into subpackages.

Note: **dh\_install** is a much better program, and you are recommended to use it instead of **dh\_movefiles**.

## FILES

- debian/*package*.files

  Lists the files to be moved into a package, separated by whitespace. The filenames listed should be relative to *debian/tmp/*. You can also list directory names, and the whole directory will be moved.

## OPTIONS

- **--sourcedir=***dir*

  Instead of moving files out of *debian/tmp* (the default), this option makes it move files out of some other directory. Since the entire contents of the sourcedir is moved, specifying something like **--sourcedir=/** is very unsafe, so to prevent mistakes, the sourcedir must be a relative filename; it cannot begin with a \`**/**'.

- **-Xitem**, **--exclude=item**

  Exclude files that contain **item** anywhere in their filename from being installed.

- *file* ...

  Lists files to move. The filenames listed should be relative to *debian/tmp/*. You can also list directory names, and the whole directory will be moved. It is an error to list files here unless you use **-p**, **-i**, or **-a** to tell **dh\_movefiles** which subpackage to put them in.

## NOTES

Note that files are always moved out of *debian/tmp* by default (even if you have instructed debhelper to use a compatibility level higher than one, which does not otherwise use debian/tmp for anything at all). The idea behind this is that the package that is being built can be told to install into *debian/tmp*, and then files can be moved by **dh\_movefiles** from that directory. Any files or directories that remain are ignored, and get deleted by **dh\_clean** later.

## SEE ALSO

[**debhelper**(7)](/debhelper/7.md)

This program is a part of debhelper.

## AUTHOR

Joey Hess \<joeyh@debian.org\>