DH_AUTO_CLEAN(1)

✨ DH_AUTO_CLEAN(1) ✨

okay so bestie, we're doing dh_auto_clean(1) today — it's one of the debhelper girlies and honestly? she's the one who cleans up after the party 🧹✨

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🎀 NAME 🎀

dh_auto_clean — automatically cleans up after a build 💅

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

dh_auto_clean [build system options] [debhelper options] [-- params]

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so dh_auto_clean is a debhelper program, and her whole job is: she tries to automatically clean up after a package build. no cap. she does this by running the appropriate command for whatever build system she detects the package is using — she literally vibe checks your package and goes "oh you're that kind of project, say less" 🔍

for example, if there's a Makefile and it contains a distclean, realclean, or clean target, then this gets done by running make (or MAKE, if the environment variable is set 👀). and if there's a setup.py or Build.PL, it gets run to clean the package. slay.

she's intended to work for about 90% of packages. iconic honestly. BUT — and this is the important part, listen — if it doesn't work, or if she tries to use the wrong clean target, you're encouraged to skip using dh_auto_clean at all, and just run make clean manually. fr fr. no shame in it. if the shoe doesn't fit, don't wear it 🫶

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💖 OPTIONS 💖

see "BUILD SYSTEM OPTIONS" in debhelper(7) for a list of common build system selection and control options 👑

• -- params — pass params to the program that gets run, and they go in after the parameters that dh_auto_clean usually passes. so like, your extra stuff goes at the end of the line, not the front. periodt. ✨

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• debhelper(7)

this program is a part of debhelper. one big happy family 🫶

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org> — yes the legend herself wrote it, we stan 💜

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! this was Debhelper version 14.5ubuntu1, dated 2026-09-21 — go forth and clean up after yourself, mwah 💋✨