DH_INSTALLCATALOGS(1)

💖 dh_installcatalogs — install and register SGML Catalogs 💖

okay bestie, gather round, because this little debhelper program is the one that handles your SGML catalogs and honestly? it's giving ✨infrastructure✨

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

dh_installcatalogs [debhelper options] [-n]

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so like, dh_installcatalogs is a debhelper program, and what it does is install and register SGML catalogs. that's the whole vibe. it plays nice with the Debian XML/SGML policy — fully compliant, no notes, we love a well-behaved tool 💅

your catalogs get registered in a supercatalog, and that supercatalog lives at /etc/sgml/package.cat. yes, the supercatalog. very main character energy fr fr.

this command also automatically adds maintainer script snippets for registering and unregistering the catalogs and supercatalogs — unless you pass -n, in which case it minds its own business 🙈. those snippets get inserted into the maintainer scripts and the triggers file by dh_installdeb; peep dh_installdeb(1) if you want the full explanation of how Debhelper maintainer script snippets work, iykyk.

also important: a dependency on sgml-base gets added to ${misc:Depends}, so bestie, please, please make sure your package actually uses that variable in debian/control. otherwise that dependency is just out there floating in the void 😭

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🎀 FILES 🎀

debian/package.sgmlcatalogs

this file lists the catalogs to be installed per package. each line in it should be in the form "source dest" where:

• source — where the catalog lives in the source tree 🏠
• dest — the destination location for the catalog under the package build area

and dest? she should start with /usr/share/sgml/. like, that's the address, no negotiating 🫶

substitution variables are supported in compat 13 and later, as documented over in debhelper(7). slay.

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

• -n, --no-scripts — do not modify postinst/postrm/prerm scripts, and do not add an activation trigger. hand off, no touchy 🙅‍♀️

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💀 NOTES 💀

heads up bestie, this command is not idempotent. 😭

you need to call dh_prep(1) between invocations of this command. otherwise? it may cause multiple instances of the same text to be added to maintainer scripts. and then your maintainer scripts are just... repeating themselves. a whole echo chamber. not the vibe.

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• debhelper(7)
• /usr/share/doc/sgml-base-doc/

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Adam Di Carlo <aph@debian.org>

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okay that's the whole page, no cap. this one ships as version 14.5ubuntu1, dated 2026-09-21, brought to you by the fine folks behind DH_INSTALLCATALOGS(1) — go forth and register those catalogs, you absolute icon 🧚💖