DH_MISSING(1)

📦
version 14.5ubuntu1 · 12 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

🎀 NAME 🎀

hi bestie, this is the DH_MISSING(1) page from the Debhelper manual 💖 and today's main character is dh_missing — the tool that checks for missing files. that's it. that's the whole job. and she is so good at it. ✨

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

dh_missing [-Xitem] [--sourcedir=dir] [debhelper options]

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

okay so here's the tea, bestie 🫖 — dh_missing takes the list of installed files and compares it against the files chillin' in your source directory. if any of the files (and symlinks, don't forget the symlinks 🪞) in the source directory did not get installed to somewhere, then she either:

  • warns on stderr about it, if you said --list-missing, or
  • fails, if you said --fail-missing 💀

now, the compat lore, and you need to know this fr fr:

  • in compat 11 and earlier, if you don't pass either of those options, dh_missing will silently do nothing. yes. nothing. ghosting you completely. 👻
  • in compat 12, --list-missing is the default ✨
  • in compat 13 and later, --fail-missing is the default 🔥

this is highkey useful if you've got a big ol' package and you want to make sure you don't miss installing newly added files in new upstream releases. the way that one random new file sneaks in and nobody notices… not on your watch, queen 👑

and remember to test different kinds of builds (dpkg-buildpackage -A/-B/...) because you may get varying results when only a subset of the packages are built. it's giving "why does CI fail but my local build is fine" energy 😭 test them all, no cap.

🗂️ FILES 🗂️

debian/not-installed

list the files that are deliberately not installed in any binary package. paths listed in this file are ignored by dh_missing. 💜

however — and this is important, bestie — it is not a method to exclude files from being installed by any of the debhelper tools. if you want a tool to not install a given file, please use its --exclude option (where available). don't be out here using the wrong file for the wrong job 🙈

dh_missing will expand wildcards in this file (since debhelper 11.1) 🦋 wildcards without matches will be ignored.

supports substitution variables in compat 13 and later, as documented in debhelper(7). ✨

👑 OPTIONS 👑

  • --list-missing — warn on stderr about source files that weren't installed to somewhere. it's giving "hey bestie, just so you know…" 📢

note that many dh-tools acting on a path will mark the path as installed even if it has been excluded via -X or --exclude. this is also seen when a dh-tool is acting on a directory and exclusion is used to ignore some files in the directory. in either case, this will make dh_missing silently assume the excluded files have been handled. 🤫 so yes, she trusts you. maybe too much.

this is the default in compat 12.

  • --fail-missing — this option is like --list-missing, except if a file was missed, it will not only list the missing files, but also fail with a nonzero exit code. 💀 full main character meltdown. extremely iconic. extremely effective.

this is the default in compat 13 and later. 🔥

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

debhelper(7) 🌈

this program is a part of debhelper. 🫶

💖 AUTHOR 💖

Michael Stapelberg <stapelberg@debian.org> — thank you for your service, king 👑

and that's the whole page, bestie!! mwah 😘 this was version 14.5ubuntu1, dated 2026-09-21 — go forth and don't miss your files, periodt 💅✨🎀

📦 where this page comes from