.TH LIVE\-HELPER 7 "2008\-08\-11" "1.0" "live\-helper"

.SH NAME
live\-helper \- the Debian Live tool suite

.SH SYNOPSIS
\fBlh_\fR\fI*\fR [\fB\-h|\-\-help\fR] [\fB\-u|\-\-usage\fR] [\fB\-v|\-\-version\fR]

.SH DESCRIPTION
live\-helper is used to help you build a Debian Live system. The philosophy
behind live\-helper is to provide a collection of small, simple, and easily
understood tools that are used on a config directory to automate all aspects of
building a Debian Live image.

.SH LIVE\-HELPER COMMANDS
Here is the complete list of available live\-helper commands. See their man
pages for additional documentation.
.IP "\fIlh\fR(1)" 4
generic live\-helper wrapper
.IP "\fIlh_binary\fR(1)" 4
meta\-helper for lh_binary_*
.IP "\fIlh_binary_chroot\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_binary_debian-installer\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_binary_disk\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_binary_encryption\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_binary_grub\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_binary_includes\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_binary_iso\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_binary_linux-image\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_binary_local-hooks\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_binary_local-includes\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_binary_local-packageslists\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_binary_manifest\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_binary_md5sum\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_binary_memtest\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_binary_net\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_binary_rootfs\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_binary_syslinux\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_binary_tar\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_binary_usb-hdd\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_binary_yaboot\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_bootstrap\fR(1)" 4
meta\-helper for lh_bootstrap_*
.IP "\fIlh_bootstrap_cache\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_bootstrap_cdebootstrap\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_bootstrap_copy\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_bootstrap_debootstrap\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_build\fR(1)" 4
meta\-helper for lh_bootstrap, lh_chroot, lh_binary, and lh_source
.IP "\fIlh_chroot\fR(1)" 4
meta\-helper for lh_chroot_*
.IP "\fIlh_chroot_apt\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_chroot_cache\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_chroot_debianchroot\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_chroot_devpts\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_chroot_dpkg\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_chroot_hacks\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_chroot_hooks\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_chroot_hostname\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_chroot_hosts\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_chroot_interactive\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_chroot_linux-image\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_chroot_local-hooks\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_chroot_local-includes\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_chroot_local-packages\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_chroot_local-packageslists\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_chroot_local-preseed\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_chroot_localization\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_chroot_packages\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_chroot_packageslists\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_chroot_preseed\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_chroot_proc\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_chroot_resolv\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_chroot_sources\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_chroot_symlinks\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_chroot_sysfs\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_chroot_sysv-rc\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_chroot_sysvinit\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_chroot_tasks\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_clean\fR(1)" 4
clean up build directories
.IP "\fIlh_config\fR(1)" 4
create configuration directory
.IP "\fIlh_source\fR(1)" 4
meta\-helper for lh_source_*
.IP "\fIlh_source_debian\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_source_debian-live\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_source_disk\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_source_iso\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_source_md5sum\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_source_net\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_source_tar\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_source_usb-hdd\fR(1)" 4
.IP "\fIlh_testroot\fR(1)" 4
ensure that a system is built as root
.PP
If a program's name starts with "lh_", and the program is not on the above list,
then it is not part of the live\-helper package, but it should still work like
the other programs described on this page.

.SH LIVE\-HELPER CONFIG FILES
Many live\-helper commands make use of files in the \fIconfig/\fR directory to
control what they do. Besides the common \fIconfig/common\fR, which is used by
all live\-helper commands, some additional files can be used to configure the
behavior of specific live\-helper commands. These files are typically named
config/stage or config/stage_helper (where "stage" of course, is replaced with
the name of the stage that they belong to, and "helper" with the name of the
helper).
.PP
For example, lh_bootstrap_debootstrap uses files named config/bootstrap and
config/bootstrap_debootstrap to read the options it will use. See the man pages
of individual commands for details about the names and formats of the files they
use. Generally, these files contain variables with values assigned, one variable
per line. Some programs in live\-helper use pairs of values or slightly more
complicated variable assignments.
.PP
Note that live\-helper will respect environment variables which are present in
the context of the shell it is running. If variables can be read from config
files, then they override environment variables, and if command line options are
used, they override values from config files. If no value for a given variable
can be found and thus is unset, live\-helper will automatically set it to the
default value.
.PP
In some rare cases, you may want to have different versions of these files for
different architectures or distributions. If files named config/stage.arch or
config/stage_helper.arch, and config/stage.dist or config/stage_helper.dist
exist, where "arch" is the same as the output of "dpkg \-\-print\-architecture"
and "dist" is the same as the codename of the target distribution, then they
will be used in preference to other, more general files.
.PP
All config files are shell scripts which are sourced by a live\-helper program.
That means they have to follow the normal shell syntax. You can also put
comments in these files; lines beginning with "#" are ignored.

.SH SHARED LIVE\-HELPER OPTIONS
The following command line options are supported by all live\-helper programs.
.IP "\fB-h, --help\fR" 4
display help and exit.
.IP "\fB-u, --usage\fR" 4
show usage and exit.
.IP "\fB-v, --version\fR" 4
output version information and exit.

.SH COMMON LIVE\-HELPER OPTIONS
The following command line options are supported by some live\-helper programs.
See the man page of each program for a complete explanation of what each option
does.
.IP "\fB\-\-breakpoints\fR" 4
run with breakpoints.
.IP "\fB\-\-conffile\fR" 4
use custom configuration file.
.IP "\fB\-\-debug\fR" 4
show debug information.
.IP "\fB\-\-force\fR" 4
force helper execution, even if stage file exists.
.IP "\fB\-\-quiet\fR" 4
be quiet.
.IP "\fB\-\-verbose\fR" 4
be verbose.

.SH SEE ALSO
\fIlive\-initramfs\fR(7)
.PP
\fIlive\-initscripts\fR(7)
.PP
\fIlive\-webhelper\fR(7)

.SH BUGS
Report bugs against live\-helper
<\fIhttp://packages.qa.debian.org/live\-helper\fR>.

.SH HOMEPAGE
More information about the Debian Live project can be found at
<\fIhttp://debian\-live.alioth.debian.org/\fR> and
<\fIhttp://wiki.debian.org/DebianLive/\fR>.

.SH AUTHOR
live\-helper was written by Daniel Baumann <\fIdaniel@debian.org\fR> for the
Debian project.