DH_USRLOCAL(1)

💖 DH_USRLOCAL(1) 💖

okay bestie, so this is a page from the Debhelper manual, and it's all about dh_usrlocal — the little icon that migrates your usr/local directories into maintainer scripts. yes queen, let's get into it 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

dh_usrlocal — migrate usr/local directories to maintainer scripts 🦋

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

dh_usrlocal [debhelper options] [-n]

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👑 DESCRIPTION 👑

So like, dh_usrlocal is a debhelper program you use when you're building packages that are gonna provide a subdirectory inside /usr/local once they're installed. main character behavior, honestly 💅

Here's the tea: it goes looking through the package build directory for subdirectories of usr/local, and it removes them, swapping them out for maintainer script snippets instead (unless you pass -n, more on that below). Those snippets then create the directories at install time and remove them when the package gets removed — all done in a manner that's compliant with Debian policy. periodt. ✨

Those snippets get inserted into the maintainer scripts by dh_installdeb. If you want the whole explanation of what debhelper maintainer script snippets even are, go check out dh_installdeb(1). 📖

Now, concerning the DEB_RULES_REQUIRES_ROOT environment variable, because she's important:

• When DEB_RULES_REQUIRES_ROOT is not (effectively) binary-targets, the directories in /usr/local get handled as if they were owned by <code>root:root</code> (see below, bestie 👇).
• When DEB_RULES_REQUIRES_ROOT has an effective value of binary-targets, the owners, groups and permissions will be preserved — with the sole exception of where the directory is owned by root:root.

And if a directory is owned by root:root? Then ownership gets determined at install time. The ownership and permission bits will either be root:root mode 0755 or root:staff mode 02775. Which one you get depends on whether the system has /etc/staff-group-for-usr-local — as documented in the Debian Policy Manual §9.1.2 since version 4.1.4. no cap 📚

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

• -n, --no-scripts — Do not modify postinst/prerm scripts. she simply does not touch them 🙈

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⚠️ NOTES ⚠️

Heads up bestie, this command is not idempotent. 😭

dh_prep(1) should be called between invocations of this command. Otherwise, it may cause multiple instances of the same text to be added to maintainer scripts. not the duplicate snippets era 💀

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🎀 CONFORMS TO 🎀

Debian policy, version 2.2 🦋

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🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

• debhelper(7)

This program is a part of debhelper. 🫶

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🌈 AUTHOR 🌈

Andrew Stribblehill <ads@debian.org> 👑

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! this was dh_usrlocal from debhelper version 14.5ubuntu1, dated 2026-09-21. go forth and migrate those usr/local dirs responsibly, mwah 💖✨🎀