---
name: "dh_python3"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "dh-python"
version: "6.20250414"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/dh_python3"
---

# dh\_python3(1)

calculates Python dependencies, adds maintainer scripts to byte compile files, etc.

## NAME

dh\_python3 - calculates Python dependencies, adds maintainer scripts to byte compile files, etc.

## SYNOPSIS

dh\_python3 -p PACKAGE \[-V \[X.Y\]\[-\]\[A.B\]\] DIR \[-X REGEXPR\]

## DESCRIPTION

### QUICK GUIDE FOR MAINTAINERS

- •

  build depend on dh-python

- •

  build-depend on python3 (Python application) or python3-all (Python module) or python3-all-dev (Python extension),

- •

  if necessary, describe supported Python 3 versions via X-Python3-Version field in debian/control,

- •

  build module/application using its standard build system (pybuild wrapper recommended, see pybuild.1 for more details), remember to build extensions for all supported Python 3 versions (loop over **py3versions -vr**),

- •

  install files to the *standard* locations, add *--install-layout=deb* to setup.py's install command if your package is using distutils,

- •

  add *python3* to dh's --with option, or:

- •

  *include /usr/share/cdbs/1/class/python-distutils.mk* in debian/rules and depend on *cdbs (\>= 0.4.90)*, or:

- •

  call **dh\_python3** in the *binary-\** target,

- •

  add *${python3:Depends}* to Depends

### NOTES

### dependencies

dh\_python3 tries to translate Python dependencies from *Requires-Dist* entries in *dist-info* or *requires.txt* contents in *egg-info* to Debian dependencies. In many cases, this works without any additional configuration because dh\_python3 comes with a build-in mapping of Python module names to Debian packages that is periodically regenerated from the Debian archive. By default, the version information in the Python dependencies is discarded. If you want dh\_python3 to generate more strict dependencies (e.g. to avoid ABI problems), or if the automatic mapping does not work correctly for your package, you have to provide dh\_python3 with additional rules for the translation of Python module to Debian package dependencies.

For a package *python3-foo* that depends on a package *python3-bar*, there are two files that may provide such rules:

- 1\.

  If the *python3-foo* source package ships with a *debian/py3dist-overrides* file, this file is used by dh\_python3 during the build of *python3-foo*.

- 2\.

  If the *python3-bar* source package ships with a *debian/python3-bar.pydist* file (and uses dh\_python3), this file will be included in the binary package as */usr/share/python3/dist/python3-bar*. During the build of *python3-foo*, dh\_python3 will then find and use the file.

Both files have the same format described in */usr/share/doc/dh-python/README.PyDist*. If all you want is to generate versioned dependencies (and assuming that the *python3-bar* package provides the *pybar* Python module), in most cases it will be sufficient to put the line **pybar python3-bar; PEP440** into either of the above files.

### private dirs

*/usr/share/foo*, */usr/share/games/foo*, */usr/lib/foo* and */usr/lib/games/foo* private directories are scanned for Python files by default (where *foo* is binary package name). If your package ships Python files in some other directory, add another dh\_python3 call in debian/rules with directory name as an argument - you can use different set of options in this call. If you need to change options (f.e. a list of supported Python 3 versions) for a private directory that is checked by default, invoke dh\_python3 with --skip-private option and add another call with a path to this directory and new options.

### debug packages

In binary packages which name ends with *-dbg*, all files in */usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/* directory that have extensions different than *so* or *h* are removed by default. Use --no-dbg-cleaning option to disable this feature.

### pyinstall files

Files listed in debian/pkg.pyinstall file will be installed as public modules (i.e. into .../dist-packages/ directory) for all requested Python versions.

Syntax: **path/to/file \[NAMESPACE\] \[VERSION\_RANGE\]**

debian directory is automatically removed from the path, so you can place your files in debian/ directory and install them from this location (if you want to install them in "debian" namespace, set NAMESPACE to debian). If NAMESPACE is set, all listed files will be installed in .../dist-packages/NAMESPACE/ directory.

- **Examples:**

  - •

    **foo.py** installs .../dist-packages/foo.py for all supported Python versions

  - •

    **foo/bar.py 3.3-** installs .../dist-packages/foo/bar.py for versions \>= 3.3

  - •

    **foo/bar.py spam** installs .../dist-packages/spam/bar.py

  - •

    **debian/\*.py spam.egg 3.2** installs .../python3.2/dist-packages/spam/egg/\*.py files

### pyremove files

If you want to remove some public modules (i.e. files in .../dist-packages/ directory) installed by build system (from all supported Python versions or only from a subset of these versions), add them to debian/pkg.pyremove file.

- **Examples:**

  - •

    **\*.pth** removes .pth files from .../dist-packages/

  - •

    **bar/baz.py 3.2** removes .../python3.2/dist-packages/bar/baz.py

### bcep files

Byte-compilation exception patterns can be described in these files. Use it if you want py3compile to skip specific files. This is the only way to skip .py files in …/dist-packages/ directory (as *--exclude* passed to py3compile in postinst is not used in rtupdate scripts and thus this option cannot be used for non-private modules).

**re\|-3.6\|/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/jinja2\|.\*/async(foo\|bar).py** will skip byte-compilation of *asyncfoo.py* and *asyncbar.py* in */usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/jinja2/* directory for each interpreter that doesn't support *async* keyword (introduced in Python 3.6).

If you want to skip byte-compilation in a subdirectory for all interpreters, use: **dir\|-4.0\|/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/foo/tests/**. VERSION\_RANGE (*-4.0* in the example) is described in *README.PyDist* file.

*debian/python3-foo.bcep* file from source package will be included in the binary package as */usr/share/python3/bcep/python3-foo.bcep*

### overriding supported / default Python versions

If you want to override system's list of supported Python versions or the default one (f.e. to build a package that includes symlinks for older version of Python or compile .py files only for given interpreter version), you can do that via *DEBPYTHON3\_SUPPORTED* and/or *DEBPYTHON3\_DEFAULT* env. variables.

Example: **3.2,3.3** limits the list of supported Python versions to Python 3.2 and Python 3.3.

## OPTIONS

- **--version**

  show program's version number and exit

- **-h, --help**

  show help message and exit

- **--no-guessing-deps**

  disable guessing dependencies

- **--no-dbg-cleaning**

  do not remove any files from debug packages

- **--no-ext-rename**

  do not add magic tags nor multiarch tuples to extension file names

- **--no-shebang-rewrite**

  do not rewrite shebangs

- **--skip-private**

  don't check private directories

- **-v, --verbose**

  turn verbose mode on

- **-i, --indep**

  act on architecture independent packages

- **-a, --arch**

  act on architecture dependent packages

- **-q, --quiet**

  be quiet

- **-p** *PACKAGE,* **--package=***PACKAGE*

  act on the package named PACKAGE

- **-N** *NO\_PACKAGE,* **--no-package=***NO\_PACKAGE*

  do not act on the specified package

- **--remaining-packages**

  Do not act on the packages which have already been acted on by this command earlier in the same override.

- **-V** *VERSION\_RANGE*

  specify list of supported Python 3 versions. See [py3compile(1)](/py3compile/1.md) for examples

- **-X** *REGEXPR,* **--exclude=***REGEXPR*

  exclude *.py* files that match given REGEXPR from byte-compilation, in a private dir. You may use this option multiple times to build up a list of things to exclude from byte-compilation. See also *bcep files*.

- **--compile-all**

  compile all files from given private directory in postinst/rtupdate not just the ones provided by the package (i.e. do not pass the --package parameter to py3compile/py3clean)

- **--accept-upstream-versions**

  accept upstream versions while translating Python dependencies into Debian ones

- **--depends=***DEPENDS*

  translate given requirements into Debian dependencies and add them to ${python3:Depends}. Use it for missing items in *requires.txt* / *Requires-Dist*.

- **--depends-section=***SECTION*

  translate requirements from given extra sections of *requres.txt* / *Requires-Dist* into Debian dependencies and add them to ${python3:Depends}. May be repeated for multiple sections.

- **--recommends=***RECOMMENDS*

  translate given requirements into Debian dependencies and add them to ${python3:Recommends}

- **--recommends-section=***SECTION*

  translate requirements from given extra sections of *requires.txt* / *Requires-Dist* into Debian dependencies and add them to ${python3:Recommends}. May be repeated for multiple sections.

- **--suggests=***SUGGESTS*

  translate given requirements into Debian dependencies and add them to ${python3:Suggests}

- **--suggests-section=***SECTION*

  translate requirements from given extra sections of *requires.txt* / *Requires-Dist* into Debian dependencies and add them to ${python3:Suggests}. May be repeated for multiple sections.

- **--requires=***FILENAME*

  translate requirements from given file(s) into Debian dependencies and add them to ${python3:Depends}

- **--shebang=***COMMAND*

  use given command as shebang in scripts

- **--ignore-shebangs**

  do not translate shebangs into Debian dependencies

## SEE ALSO

- •

  /usr/share/doc/python3/python-policy.txt.gz

- •

  /usr/share/doc/dh-python/README.PyDist

- •

  [pybuild(1)](/pybuild/1.md)

- •

  [py3compile(1)](/py3compile/1.md), [py3clean(1)](/py3clean/1.md)

- •

  [pycompile(1)](/pycompile/1.md), [pyclean(1)](/pyclean/1.md)

- •

   \<http://deb.li/dhp3\>  - most recent version of this document

## AUTHOR

Piotr Ożarowski, 2012-2013