DH_INSTALLTMPFILES(1)

💖 dh_installtmpfiles — bestie edition 💖

okay so this is a page from the Debhelper manual, section 1. it's called dh_installtmpfiles and honestly? she's a little icon. let's get into it 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

dh_installtmpfiles — install tmpfiles.d configuration files 💅

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

dh_installtmpfiles [debhelper options][--name=name]

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so dh_installtmpfiles is a debhelper program, and her whole job is installing the tmpfiles.d configuration files that the package maintainer supplies (think stuff for systemd-tmpfiles, iykyk). 🎀

she's also out here finding the tmpfiles.d configuration files that a package installs, and generating postinst code blocks so those tmpfiles.d configs get activated when the package is installed. those little snippets get added to the maintainer scripts by dh_installdeb(1). slay. ✨

in compat 14+, the tmpfiles.d files are copied into the postrm script, and they get used with systemd-tmpfiles --remove after the package is removed, and --purge when the package is purged. meaning: you can use the tmpfiles.d mechanism to clean up files that aren't needed anymore after a package has been removed or purged. lowkey so useful. 🌸

also, dh_installtmpfiles will add dependencies for any installed tmpfiles configuration files via ${misc:Depends}. she's thorough like that. 💖

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

• --name=name — this option controls two things at once, periodt: the prefix used for looking up maintainer-provided tmpfiles.d configuration files (the ones mentioned down in the FILES section), and the base name used for the installed version of the file. one flag, two jobs, main character energy 👑

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✨ FILES ✨

• debian/package.tmpfiles — if this exists, it gets installed into usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/ in the package build directory. 🦋
• debian/package.tmpfile — deprecated name for debian/package.tmpfiles. ⚠️ yeah she's old, don't use her.

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✨ NOTES ✨

🚨 okay bestie this one matters: this command is not idempotent. dh_prep(1) should be called between invocations of this command, with the same arguments. otherwise, it may cause multiple instances of the same text to be added to maintainer scripts. no cap, that gets messy fast. 💀

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✨ SEE ALSO ✨

• debhelper(7)

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and that's the whole vibe check, bestie 🌈 go forth and install those tmpfiles 💜

this page is from Debhelper, version 14.5ubuntu1, dated 2026-09-21. mwah, take care of her 🎀✨