What is dhmk?
-------------

dhmk is yet another debhelper command sequencer. Unlike dh(1), it uses make(1)
to execute all commands. The perl part (dhmk.pl) is used to support dh(1)
addons and dynamically calculate override_* targets.

dhmk aims to mimic the most useful features of dh(1) adding a couple of its
own. Some highlights include:

1) Unlike dh(1), dhmk sequencer is based on the traditional debian/rules
layout. It means that progress tracking revolves around standard
targets/actions (configure, build, install, binary etc.) rather than on
per-(command+package) basis (i.e. debian/*.debhelper.log files) basis.
"per-(command+package)" tracking gets complicated giving not too much real
benefit, but makes it hard to fix bugs like #510855.

2) Like dh(1), dhmk supports override_{dh_command} targets.

3) dhmk should support most of dh(1) addons.

4) Like dh(1), dhmk supports passing of additional options to all dh_commands.

5) In addition to dh(1) addons, dhmk is extendable with makefile snippets as well.

Altering default dhmk action sequences
--------------------------------------

1) If override_{dh_command} target exists in debian/rules, it will be executed
instead of the default dh_command command whenever the latter appears in the
action sequence (as dh(1) would do).

2) In order to override the whole action (configure, build, install etc.), just
create a respective custom make target manually. The dhmk sequence is still
accessible via debian/dhmk_{action} target.

3) In order to enable a dh(1) addon, append --with=addon (or --with addon) to
the "dh" variable *before* including dhmk.mk.

4) In order to pass additional options to all dh_commands (dh(1) way), append
them to "dh" variable (preferably after --) *before* including dhmk.mk.
The command line interface is compatible with dh compat level 7 or higher.

Extending dhmk with makefile snippets (templating recommendations)
------------------------------------------------------------------

dhmk sequences can be extented by include'ing additional makefile snippets in
debian/rules.

1) Snippets may hook to the pre_{action}_{dh_command} target in order to do
additional work *before* dh_command runs at the specific action.

2) Snippets may hook to the pre_{action}_{dh_command} target in order to do
additional work *after* dh_command runs at the specific action.

3) Snippets may hook to the pre_{action} target in order to do additional work
at the beginning of the specific action sequence.

4) Snippets may hook to the post_{action} target in order to do additional work
at the end of the specific action sequence.

5) Snippets may alter the contents of the "{action}_{dh_command}" variable in
order to change command line (including the command itself) of the specified
dh_command whenever it runs during the specified action. Snippets should
preferably NOT use override_{dh_command} targets.