---
name: "dpatch.make"
section: "7"
platform: "linux"
package: "dpatch"
version: "2.0.41"
release: "Debian 11 (Bullseye)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/dpatch.make"
---

# dpatch.make(7)

simplistic wrapper around dpatch(1) for make(1).

## NAME

dpatch.make - simplistic wrapper around [**dpatch**(1)](/dpatch/1.md) for [**make**(1)](/make/1.md).

## SYNOPSIS

**include** */usr/share/dpatch/dpatch.make*

## DESCRIPTION

For backwards compatibility and ease of use, *dpatch.make* is provided along with [**dpatch**(1)](/dpatch/1.md). Its purpose is to implement generic **patch** and **unpatch** rules that can be reused in *debian/rules* scripts.

## WARNING

**dpatch** is deprecated, please switch to the \`3.0 (quilt)' Debian source package format instead. See *http://wiki.debian.org/Projects/DebSrc3.0#FAQ* for a short guide on how to do it.

## USAGE

Using *dpatch.make* is rather straightforward: one has to include the file in *debian/rules*, change the appropriate targets to depend on **patch** and **unpatch**, and that is all it takes.

Figuring out what the appropriate target is, requires some thought. Generally, one has a **build** target, or **config.status**, or **configure** (or any of these with a **-stamp** suffix). Most of the time these are called first during the build, so one of these (the one that exists, and is not depended upon by another one) has to be modified to depend on the **patch** target in *dpatch.make*.

Doing the same for the **clean** target is easier. One only has to rename the old rule to, say, **clean-patched**, then make a new one that has **clean-patched** and **unpatch** in its list of prerequisites.

## CUSTOMISATION

There are a few variables which are used by *dpatch.make*, which can be set before including it, in order to change the systems behaviour a little.

These variables are:

**DEB\_SOURCE\_PACKAGE**

This is the name of the source package, used when creating the stamp file. By default, it is empty.

**DPATCH\_STAMPDIR**

This is the directory where stamp files will be put. Default is *debian/patched*.

**DPATCH\_STAMPFN**

The name of the stamp file, which contains the patch descriptions and other possible meta-data. Default value is *patch-stamp*.

**DPATCH\_PREDEPS**

A list of make targets to call before applying the dpatch.

**DPATCH\_WORKDIR**

The target directory to apply patches to. By default, it is the current directory.

**PATCHLIST**

The list of patches to apply. This is an alternative to *debian/patches/00list* - that is, if this variable is not empty, the contents of *00list* will be ignored, and this variable will be used instead.

## EXAMPLE

```
 include /usr/share/dpatch/dpatch.make
 build: build-stamp
 build-stamp: patch-stamp
	${MAKE}
	touch build-stamp
 clean: clean1 unpatch
 clean1:
	${MAKE} clean
	rm -rf debian/files debian/substvars debian/imaginary-package
 .PHONY: patch unpatch ...
	.
	.
	.
```

## SIDE EFFECTS

Using *dpatch.make* instead of calling dpatch directly has one side effect: it will create a file called *patch-stamp* containing some meta-information extracted from the scriptlets.

Depending on a phony *patch* target directly from *build* target may cause *build* target to be reevaluated even when there is no change to be done. Instead, try making *build-stamp* depend on *patch-stamp* as specified in this example.

## AUTHOR

Originally by Gergely Nagy. Modified by Junichi Uekawa.

## SEE ALSO

[**dpatch**(1)](/dpatch/1.md),  [**dpatch**(7)](/dpatch/7.md),  [**dpatch-edit-patch**(1)](/dpatch-edit-patch/1.md),  [**dpatch-list-patch**(1)](/dpatch-list-patch/1.md),  [**dpatch-convert-diffgz**(1)](/dpatch-convert-diffgz/1.md)