Guide for Debian Maintainers

Osamu Aoki

March 26, 2019

 Guide for Debian Maintainers
by Osamu Aoki

Copyright © 2014-2017 Osamu Aoki

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated
documentation files (the ”Software”), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the
rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit
persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the
Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ”AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IM-
PLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS
FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR
COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER
IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION
WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
This guide was made using the following previous documents as its reference:

• “Making a Debian Package (AKA the Debmake Manual)”, copyright © 1997 Jaldhar Vyas.
• “The New-Maintainer’s Debian Packaging Howto”, copyright © 1997 Will Lowe.
• “Debian New Maintainers’ Guide”, copyright © 1998-2002 Josip Rodin, 2005-2017 Osamu Aoki, 2010
Craig Small, and 2010 Raphaël Hertzog.

The latest version of this guide should be available:

• in the debmake-doc package and

• at the Debian Documentation web site.

i
Contents

1 Overview 1

2 Prerequisites 3
2.1 People around Debian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2 How to contribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.3 Social dynamics of Debian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.4 Technical reminders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.5 Debian documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.6 Help resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.7 Archive situation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.8 Contribution approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.9 Novice contributor and maintainer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

3 Tool Setups 9
3.1 Email address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.2 mc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.3 git . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.4 quilt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.5 devscripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.6 pbuilder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.7 git-buildpackage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.8 HTTP proxy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.9 Private Debian repository . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

4 Simple Example 15
4.1 Big picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
4.2 What is debmake? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
4.3 What is debuild? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
4.4 Step 1: Get the upstream source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.5 Step 2: Generate template files with debmake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4.6 Step 3: Modification to the template files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4.7 Step 4: Building package with debuild . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.8 Step 3 (alternative): Modification to the upstream source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4.8.1 Patch by diff -u . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.8.2 Patch by dquilt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
4.8.3 Patch by dpkg-source --commit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

5 Basics 31
5.1 Packaging workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
5.1.1 The debhelper package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5.2 Package name and version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5.3 Native Debian package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
5.4 debian/rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
5.4.1 dh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
5.4.2 Simple debian/rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5.4.3 Customized debian/rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5.4.4 Variables for debian/rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
5.4.5 Reproducible build . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
5.5 debian/control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
5.5.1 Split of a Debian binary package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
5.5.1.1 debmake -b . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
5.5.1.2 Package split scenario and examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
5.5.1.3 The library package name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
5.5.2 Substvar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

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5.5.3 binNMU safe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

5.6 debian/changelog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
5.7 debian/copyright . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
5.8 debian/patches/* . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
5.8.1 dpkg-source -x . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
5.8.2 dquilt and dpkg-source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
5.9 debian/upstream/signing-key.asc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
5.10 debian/watch and DFSG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
5.11 Other debian/* Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
5.12 Customization of the Debian packaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
5.13 Recording in VCS (standard) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
5.14 Recording in VCS (alternative) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
5.15 Building package without extraneous contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
5.15.1 Fix by debian/rules clean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
5.15.2 Fix using VCS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
5.15.3 Fix by extend-diff-ignore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
5.15.4 Fix by tar-ignore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
5.16 Upstream build systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
5.16.1 Autotools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
5.16.2 CMake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
5.16.3 Python distutils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
5.17 Debugging information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
5.17.1 New -dbgsym package (Stretch 9.0 and after) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
5.18 Library package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
5.18.1 Library symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
5.18.2 Library transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
5.19 debconf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
5.20 Multiarch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
5.20.1 The multiarch library path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
5.20.2 The multiarch header file path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
5.20.3 The multiarch *.pc file path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5.21 Compiler hardening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5.22 Continuous integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5.23 Bootstrapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5.24 Bug reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

6 debmake options 62
6.1 Shortcut options (-a, -i) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
6.1.1 Python module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
6.2 Upstream snapshot (-d, -t) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
6.3 debmake -cc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
6.4 debmake -k . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
6.5 debmake -j . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
6.6 debmake -x . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
6.7 debmake -P . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
6.8 debmake -T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

7 Tips 66
7.1 debdiff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
7.2 dget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
7.3 debc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
7.4 piuparts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
7.5 debsign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
7.6 dput . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
7.7 bts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
7.8 git-buildpackage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
7.8.1 gbp import-dscs --debsnap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
7.9 Upstream git repository . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
7.10 chroot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

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7.11 New Debian revision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

7.12 New upstream release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
7.12.1 uupdate + tarball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
7.12.2 uscan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
7.12.3 gbp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
7.12.4 gbp + uscan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
7.13 3.0 source format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
7.14 CDBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
7.15 Build under UTF-8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
7.16 UTF-8 conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
7.17 Upload orig.tar.gz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
7.18 Skipped uploads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
7.19 Advanced packaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
7.20 Other distros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
7.21 Debug . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

8 More Examples 78
8.1 Cherry-pick templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
8.2 No Makefile (shell, CLI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
8.3 Makefile (shell, CLI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
8.4 setup.py (Python3, CLI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
8.5 Makefile (shell, GUI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
8.6 setup.py (Python3, GUI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
8.7 Makefile (single-binary package) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
8.8 Makefile.in + configure (single-binary package) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
8.9 Autotools (single-binary package) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
8.10 CMake (single-binary package) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
8.11 Autotools (multi-binary package) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
8.12 CMake (multi-binary package) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
8.13 Internationalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
8.14 Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

A debmake(1) manpage 126

A.1 NAME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
A.2 SYNOPSIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
A.3 DESCRIPTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
A.3.1 optional arguments: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
A.4 EXAMPLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
A.5 HELPER PACKAGES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
A.6 CAVEAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
A.7 DEBUG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
A.8 AUTHOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
A.9 LICENSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
A.10 SEE ALSO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

iv
 Abstract
This “Guide for Debian Maintainers” (2019-03-26) tutorial guide describes the building of the Debian package
to ordinary Debian users and prospective developers using the debmake command.
This guide focuses on the modern packaging style and comes with many simple examples.
• POSIX shell script packaging
• Python3 script packaging

• C with Makefile/Autotools/CMake
• multiple binary packages with shared library etc.
This “Guide for Debian Maintainers” can be considered as the successor to the “Debian New Maintainers’
Guide”.
Preface

If you are a somewhat experienced Debian user 1 , you may have encountered following situations:

• You wish to install a certain software package not yet found in the Debian archive.
• You wish to update a Debian package with the newer upstream release.
• You wish to fix bugs of a Debian package with some patches.
If you wanted to create a Debian package to fulfill these wishes and to share your work with the community,
you are the target audience of this guide as a prospective Debian maintainer. 2 Welcome to the Debian community.
Debian has many social and technical rules and conventions to follow since it is a large volunteer organization
with history. Debian also has developed a huge array of packaging tools and archive maintenance tools to build
consistent sets of binary packages addressing many technical objectives:
• packages build across many architectures (Section 5.4.4)

• reproducible build (Section 5.4.5)

• clean build under clearly specified package dependencies and patches (Section 5.5, Section 5.8, Section 7.10)
• optimal splits into multiple binary packages (Section 5.5.1)

• smooth library transitions (Section 5.18.2)

• interactive installation customization (Section 5.19)
• multiarch support (Section 5.20)
• security enhancement using specific compiler flags (Section 5.21)

• continuous integration (Section 5.22)

• boot strapping (Section 5.23)
• …
These make it somewhat overwhelming for many new prospective Debian maintainers to get involved with
Debian. This guide tries to provide entry points for them to get started. It describes the following:
• What you should know before getting involved with Debian as a prospective maintainer.
• What it looks like to make a simple Debian package.
• What kind of rules exist for making the Debian package.

• Tips for making the Debian package.

• Examples of making Debian packages for several typical scenarios.
1 You do need to know a little about Unix programming but you certainly don’t need to be a wizard. You can learn about the basic handling

of a Debian system from the Debian Reference. It contains some pointers to learn about Unix programming, too.
2 If you are not interested in sharing the Debian package, you can certainly work around your local situation by compiling and installing

the fixed upstream source package into /usr/local/.

vi
PREFACE

The author felt limitations of updating the original “New Maintainers’ Guide” with the dh-make package and
decided to create an alternative tool and its matching document to address modern requirements. The result is the
debmake (version: 4.3.1) package and this updated “Guide for Debian Maintainers” in the debmake-doc (version:
1.14-1) package.
Many chores and tips have been integrated into the debmake command making this guide simple. This guide
also offers many packaging examples.

Caution

It takes many hours to properly create and maintain Debian packages. The De-
bian maintainer must be both technically competent and diligent to take up
this challenge.

Some important topics are explained in detail. Some of them may look irrelevant to you. Please be patient.
Some corner cases are skipped. Some topics are only covered by the external pointers. These are intentional choices
to keep this guide simple and maintainable.

vii
Chapter 1

Overview

The Debian packaging of the package-1.0.tar.gz, containing a simple C source following the GNU Coding Stan-
dards and FHS, can be done with the debmake command as follows.

$ tar -xvzf package-1.0.tar.gz

$ cd package-1.0
$ debmake
... Make manual adjustments of generated configuration files
$ debuild

If manual adjustments of generated configuration files are skipped, the generated binary package lacks mean-
ingful package description but still functions well under the dpkg command to be used for your local deployment.

Caution
The debmake command only provides good template files. These template files
must be manually adjusted to their perfection to comply with the strict quality re-
quirements of the Debian archive, if the generated package is intended for gen-
eral consumption.

If you are new to Debian packaging, do not worry about the details and just get the big picture instead.
If you have been exposed to Debian packaging, this looks very much like the dh_make command. This is
because the debmake command is intended to replace functions offered historically by the dh_make command. 1
The debmake command is designed with the following features:

• modern packaging style

– debian/copyright: DEP-5 compliant

– debian/control: substvar support, multiarch support, multi binary packages, …
– debian/rules: dh syntax, compiler hardening options, …

• flexibility

– many options (Section 5.5.1.1, Chapter 6, Appendix A)

• sane default actions

– execute non-stop with clean results

– generate the multiarch package, unless the -m option is explicitly specified.
– generate the non-native Debian package with the “3.0 (quilt)” format, unless the -n option is explicitly
specified.
1 The deb-make command was popular before the dh_make command. The current debmake package starts its version from 4.0 to avoid

version overlaps with the obsolete debmake package, which provided the deb-make command.

1
CHAPTER 1. OVERVIEW

• extra utility

– verification of the debian/copyright file against the current source (Section 6.4)

The debmake command delegates most of the heavy lifting to its back-end packages: debhelper, dpkg-dev,
devscripts, pbuilder, etc.

Tip

Make sure to protect the arguments of the -b, -f, -l, and -w options from shell
interference by quoting them properly.

Tip

The non-native Debian package is the normal Debian package.

Tip

The detailed log of all the package build examples in this document can be ob-
tained by following the instructions in Section 8.14.

Note

The generation of the debian/copyright file, and the outputs from the -c (Sec-
tion 6.3) and -k (Section 6.4) options involve heuristic operations on the copyright
and license information. They may produce some erroneous results.

2
Chapter 2

Prerequisites

Here are the prerequisites which you need to understand before you to get involved with Debian.

2.1 People around Debian

There are several types of people interacting around Debian with different roles:

• upstream author: the person who made the original program.

• upstream maintainer: the person who currently maintains the program.
• maintainer: the person making the Debian package of the program.

• sponsor: a person who helps maintainers to upload packages to the official Debian package archive (after
checking their contents).
• mentor: a person who helps novice maintainers with packaging etc.
• Debian Developer (DD): a member of the Debian project with full upload rights to the official Debian
package archive.
• Debian Maintainer (DM): a person with limited upload rights to the official Debian package archive.
Please note that you can’t become an official Debian Developer (DD) overnight, because it takes more than
technical skill. Please do not be discouraged by this. If it is useful to others, you can still upload your package
either as a maintainer through a sponsor or as a Debian Maintainer.
Please note that you do not need to create any new packages to become an official Debian Developer. Con-
tributing to the existing packages can provide a path to becoming an official Debian Developer too. There are many
packages waiting for good maintainers (see Section 2.8).

2.2 How to contribute

Please refer to the following to learn how to contribute to Debian:

• How can you help Debian? (official)

• The Debian GNU/Linux FAQ, Chapter 13 - ”Contributing to the Debian Project” (semi-official)
• Debian Wiki, HelpDebian (supplemental)

• Debian New Member site (official)

• Debian Mentors FAQ (supplemental)

3
CHAPTER 2. PREREQUISITES 2.3. SOCIAL DYNAMICS OF DEBIAN

2.3 Social dynamics of Debian

Please understand Debian’s social dynamics to prepare yourself for interactions with Debian:

• We all are volunteers.

– You can’t impose on others what to do.

– You should be motivated to do things by yourself.

• Friendly cooperation is the driving force.

– Your contribution should not over-strain others.

– Your contribution is valuable only when others appreciate it.

• Debian is not your school where you get automatic attention of teachers.

– You should be able to learn many things by yourself.

– Attention from other volunteers is a very scarce resource.

• Debian is constantly improving.

– You are expected to make high quality packages.

– You should adapt yourself to change.

Since we focus only on the technical aspects of the packaging in the rest of this guide, please refer to the
following to understand the social dynamics of Debian:
• Debian: 17 years of Free Software, “do-ocracy”, and democracy (Introductory slides by the ex-DPL)

2.4 Technical reminders

Here are some technical reminders to accommodate other maintainers to work on your package easily and effec-
tively to maximize the output of Debian as a whole.
• Make your package easy to debug.

– Keep your package simple.

– Don’t over-engineer your package.

• Keep your package well-documented.

– Use readable code style.

– Make comments in code.
– Format code consistently.
– Maintain the git repository 1 of the package.

Note

Debugging of software tends to consume more time than writing the initial working
software.

1 The overwhelming number of Debian maintainers use git over other VCS systems such as hg, bzr, etc.

4
CHAPTER 2. PREREQUISITES 2.5. DEBIAN DOCUMENTATION

2.5 Debian documentation

Please make yourself ready to read the pertinent part of the official Debian documentation together with this guide
as needed to generate perfect Debian packages:
• “Debian Policy Manual”

– “must follow” rules (https://www.debian.org/doc/devel-manuals#policy)

• “Debian Developer’s Reference”

– “best practice” document (https://www.debian.org/doc/devel-manuals#devref)

If this guide contradicts the official Debian documentation, the official Debian documentation is correct. Please
file a bug report on the debmake-doc package using the reportbug command.
Here are alternative tutorial documents, which you may read along with this guide:
• “Debian New Maintainers’ Guide” (older)

– https://www.debian.org/doc/devel-manuals#maint-guide
– https://packages.qa.debian.org/m/maint-guide.html

• “Debian Packaging Tutorial”

– https://www.debian.org/doc/devel-manuals#packaging-tutorial
– https://packages.qa.debian.org/p/packaging-tutorial.html

• “Ubuntu Packaging Guide” (Ubuntu is Debian based.)

– http://packaging.ubuntu.com/html/

Tip

When reading these tutorials, you should consider using the debmake command
in place of the dh_make command for better template files.

2.6 Help resources

Before you decide to ask your question in some public place, please do your part of the effort, i.e., read the fine
documentation:
• package information available through the aptitude, apt-cache, and dpkg commands.
• files in /usr/share/doc/package for all pertinent packages.
• contents of man command for all pertinent commands.

• contents of info command for all pertinent commands.

• contents of [email protected] mailing list archive.
• contents of [email protected] mailing list archive.

Your desired information can be found effectively by using a well-formed search string such as “keyword
site:lists.debian.org” to limit the search domain of the web search engine.
Making a small test package is a good way to learn details of the packaging. Inspecting existing well maintained
packages is the best way to learn how other people make packages.
If you still have questions about the packaging, you can ask them interactively:

5
CHAPTER 2. PREREQUISITES 2.7. ARCHIVE SITUATION

• [email protected] mailing list. (This mailing list is for the novice.)

• [email protected] mailing list. (This mailing list is for the expert.)

• IRC such as #debian-mentors.
• Teams focusing on a specific set of packages. (Full list at https://wiki.debian.org/Teams)

• Language-specific mailing lists.

– debian-devel-{french,italian,portuguese,spanish}@lists.debian.org
– [email protected] (This mailing list is for general (Simplified) Chinese discussion.)
– [email protected]

The more experienced Debian developers will gladly help you, if you ask properly after making your required
efforts.

Caution

Debian development is a moving target. Some information found on the web may
be outdated, incorrect, and non-applicable. Please use it carefully.

2.7 Archive situation

Please realize the situation of the Debian archive.
• Debian already has packages for most kinds of programs.

• The number of packages already in the Debian archive is several tens of times greater than that of active
maintainers.
• Unfortunately, some packages lack an appropriate level of attention by the maintainer.
Thus, contributions to packages already in the archive are far more appreciated (and more likely to receive
sponsorship for uploading) by other maintainers.

Tip

The wnpp-alert command from the devscripts package can check for installed
packages up for adoption or orphaned.

2.8 Contribution approaches

Here is pseudo-Python code for your contribution approaches to Debian with a program:

if exist_in_debian(program):
if is_team_maintained(program):
join_team(program)
if is_orphaned(program) # maintainer: Debian QA Group
adopt_it(program)
elif is_RFA(program) # Request for Adoption
adopt_it(program)
else:
if need_help(program):
contact_maintainer(program)

6
CHAPTER 2. PREREQUISITES 2.8. CONTRIBUTION APPROACHES

triaging_bugs(program)
preparing_QA_or_NMU_uploads(program)
else:
leave_it(program)
else: # new packages
if not is_good_program(program):
give_up_packaging(program)
elif not is_distributable(program):
give_up_packaging(program)
else: # worth packaging
if is_ITPed_by_others(program):
if need_help(program):
contact_ITPer_for_collaboration(program)
else:
leave_it_to_ITPer(program)
else: # really new
if is_applicable_team(program):
join_team(program)
if is_DFSG(program) and is_DFSG(dependency(program)):
file_ITP(program, area="main") # This is Debian
elif is_DFSG(program):
file_ITP(program, area="contrib") # This is not Debian
else: # non-DFSG
file_ITP(program, area="non-free") # This is not Debian
package_it_and_close_ITP(program)

Here:
• For exist_in_debian(), and is_team_maintained(); check:
– the aptitude command
– Debian packages web page
– Teams
• For is_orphaned(), is_RFA(), and is_ITPed_by_others(); check:
– The output of the wnpp-alert command.
– Work-Needing and Prospective Packages
– Debian Bug report logs: Bugs in pseudo-package wnpp in unstable
– Debian Packages that Need Lovin’
– Browse wnpp bugs based on debtags
• For is_good_program(), check:
– The program should be useful.
– The program should not introduce security and maintenance concerns to the Debian system.
– The program should be well documented and its code needs to be understandable (i.e. not obfuscated).
– The program’s authors agree with the packaging and are amicable to Debian. 2
• For is_it_DFSG(), and is_its_dependency_DFSG(); check:
– Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG).
• For is_it_distributable(), check:
– The software must have a license and it should allow its distribution.
You either need to file an ITP or adopt a package to start working on it. See the “Debian Developer’s Refer-
ence”:
• 5.1. New packages.
• 5.9. Moving, removing, renaming, orphaning, adopting, and reintroducing packages.
2 This is not the absolute requirement. The hostile upstream may become a major resource drain for us all. The friendly upstream can be
consulted to solve any problems with the program.

7
CHAPTER 2. PREREQUISITES 2.9. NOVICE CONTRIBUTOR AND MAINTAINER

2.9 Novice contributor and maintainer

The novice contributor and maintainer may wonder what to learn to start your contribution to Debian. Here are my
suggestions depending on your focus:
• Packaging

– Basics of the POSIX shell and make.

– Some rudimentary knowledge of Perl and Python.

• Translation

– Basics of how the PO based translation system works.

• Documentation

– Basics of text markups (XML, ReST, Wiki, …).

The novice contributor and maintainer may wonder where to start your contribution to Debian. Here are my
suggestions depending on your skills:
• POSIX shell, Perl, and Python skills:

– Send patches to the Debian Installer.

– Send patches to the Debian packaging helper scripts such as devscripts, pbuilder, etc. mentioned in
this document.

• C and C++ skills:

– Send patches to the packages with the required and important priorities.

• Non-English skills:

– Send patches to the PO file of the Debian Installer.

– Send patches to the PO file of the packages with the required and important priorities.

• Documentation skills:

– Update contents on Debian Wiki.

– Send patches to the existing Debian Documentation.

These activities should give you good exposure to the other Debian people to establish your credibility.
The novice maintainer should avoid packaging programs with the high security exposure:

• setuid or setgid program

• daemon program
• program installed in the /sbin/ or /usr/sbin/ directories
When you gain more experience in packaging, you’ll be able to package such programs.

8
Chapter 3

Tool Setups

The build-essential package must be installed in the build environment.

The devscripts package should be installed in the maintainer environment.
Although this is not necessarily an absolute requirement, it is a good idea to install and set up all of the popular
set of packages mentioned in this chapter in the maintainer environment. This enables us to share the common
baseline working environment.
Please install the tools mentioned in the Overview of Debian Maintainer Tools in the “Debian Developer’s
Reference”, as needed, too.

Caution
Tool setups presented here are only meant as an example and may not be up-to-
date with the latest packages on the system. Debian development is a moving
target. Please make sure to read the pertinent documentation and update the
configuration as needed.

3.1 Email address

Various Debian maintenance tools recognize your email address and name to use by the shell environment variables
$DEBEMAIL and $DEBFULLNAME.
Let’s setup these packages by adding the following lines to ~/.bashrc 1 .
Add to the ~/.bashrc file

DEBEMAIL="[email protected]"
DEBFULLNAME="Firstname Lastname"
export DEBEMAIL DEBFULLNAME

3.2 mc
The mc command offers very easy ways to manage files. It can open the binary deb file to check its content by
pressing the Enter key over the binary deb file. It uses the dpkg-deb command as its back-end. Let’s set it up to
support easy chdir as follows.
Add to the ~/.bashrc file

# mc related
export HISTCONTROL=ignoreboth
. /usr/lib/mc/mc.sh

1 This assumes you are using Bash as your login shell. If you use some other login shell such as Z shell, use their corresponding configuration

files instead of ~/.bashrc.

9
CHAPTER 3. TOOL SETUPS 3.3. GIT

3.3 git
Nowadays, the git command is the essential tool to manage the source tree with history.
The global user configuration for the git command such as your name and email address can be set in ~/.gitconfig
as follows.

$ git config --global user.name "Name Surname"

$ git config --global user.email [email protected]

If you are too accustomed to the CVS or Subversion commands, you may wish to set several command aliases
as follows.

$ git config --global alias.ci "commit -a"

$ git config --global alias.co checkout

You can check your global configuration as follows.

$ git config --global --list

Tip

It is essential to use some GUI git tools like gitk or gitg to work effectively with
the history of the git repository.

3.4 quilt
The quilt command offers a basic method for recording modifications. For the Debian packaging, it should be
customized to record modifications in the debian/patches/ directory instead of its default patches/ directory.
In order to avoid changing the behavior of the quilt command itself, let’s create an alias dquilt for the Debian
packaging by adding the following lines to the ~/.bashrc file. The second line provides the same shell completion
feature of the quilt command to the dquilt command.
Add to the ~/.bashrc file

alias dquilt="quilt --quiltrc=${HOME}/.quiltrc-dpkg"

complete -F _quilt_completion $_quilt_complete_opt dquilt

Then let’s create ~/.quiltrc-dpkg as follows.

d=.
while [ ! -d $d/debian -a `readlink -e $d` != / ];
do d=$d/..; done
if [ -d $d/debian ] && [ -z $QUILT_PATCHES ]; then
# if in Debian packaging tree with unset $QUILT_PATCHES
QUILT_PATCHES="debian/patches"
QUILT_PATCH_OPTS="--reject-format=unified"
QUILT_DIFF_ARGS="-p ab --no-timestamps --no-index --color=auto"
QUILT_REFRESH_ARGS="-p ab --no-timestamps --no-index"
QUILT_COLORS="diff_hdr=1;32:diff_add=1;34:" + \
"diff_rem=1;31:diff_hunk=1;33:diff_ctx=35:diff_cctx=33"
if ! [ -d $d/debian/patches ]; then mkdir $d/debian/patches; fi
fi

See quilt(1) and How To Survive With Many Patches or Introduction to Quilt on how to use the quilt command.
See Section 4.8 for example usages.

10
CHAPTER 3. TOOL SETUPS 3.5. DEVSCRIPTS

3.5 devscripts
The debsign command, included in the devscripts package, is used to sign the Debian package with your private
GPG key.
The debuild command, included in the devscripts package, builds the binary package and checks it with the
lintian command. It is useful to have verbose outputs from the lintian command.
You can set these up in ~/.devscripts as follows.

DEBUILD_DPKG_BUILDPACKAGE_OPTS="-i -I -us -uc"

DEBUILD_LINTIAN_OPTS="-i -I --show-overrides"
DEBSIGN_KEYID="Your_GPG_keyID"

The -i and -I options in DEBUILD_DPKG_BUILDPACKAGE_OPTS for the dpkg-source command help

rebuilding of Debian packages without extraneous contents (see Section 5.15).
Currently, an RSA key with 4096 bits is a good idea. See Creating a new GPG key.

3.6 pbuilder
2
The pbuilder package provides a clean room (chroot) build environment.
Let’s customize it with several helper packages.
• The cowbuilder package to boost the chroot creation speed.
• The lintian package to find bugs in the package.

• The bash, mc, and vim packages in case build fails.

• The ccache package to boost the gcc speed. (optional)
• The libeatmydata1 package to boost the dpkg speed. (optional)

• The parallel make to boost the build speed. (optional)

Warning

The optional customization may cause negative effects. In case of doubts, dis-
able them.

Let’s create ~/.pbuilderrc as follows (all optional features are disabled).

AUTO_DEBSIGN="${AUTO_DEBSIGN:-no}"
PDEBUILD_PBUILDER=cowbuilder
HOOKDIR="/var/cache/pbuilder/hooks"
MIRRORSITE="http://deb.debian.org/debian/"
#APTCACHE=/var/cache/pbuilder/aptcache
APTCACHE=/var/cache/apt/archives
#BUILDRESULT=/var/cache/pbuilder/result/
BUILDRESULT=../
EXTRAPACKAGES="ccache lintian libeatmydata1"

# enable to use libeatmydata1 for pbuilder

#export LD_PRELOAD=${LD_PRELOAD+$LD_PRELOAD:}libeatmydata.so

# enable ccache for pbuilder

#export PATH="/usr/lib/ccache${PATH+:$PATH}"
#export CCACHE_DIR="/var/cache/pbuilder/ccache"
2 The sbuild package provides an alternative chroot platform.

11
CHAPTER 3. TOOL SETUPS 3.6. PBUILDER

#BINDMOUNTS="${CCACHE_DIR}"

# parallel make
#DEBBUILDOPTS=-j8

Note

A symlink from /root/.pbuilderrc to /home/<user>/.pbuilderrc may help for the

consistent experience.

Note

Due to Bug #606542, you may need to manually install packages listed in EX-
TRAPACKAGES into the chroot. See Section 7.10.

Note

Install libeatmydata1 (>=82-2) both inside and outside of the chroot or disable to
use libeatmydata1. This may cause a race condition with some build systems.

Note

The parallel make may fail for some existing packages and may make the build
log difficult to read.

Let’s create a hook scripts as follows.

/var/cache/pbuilder/hooks/A10ccache

#!/bin/sh
set -e
# increase the ccache caching size
ccache -M 4G
# output the current statistics
ccache -s

/var/cache/pbuilder/hooks/B90lintian

#!/bin/sh
set -e
apt-get -y --allow-downgrades install lintian
echo "+++ lintian output +++"
su -c "lintian -i -I --show-overrides /tmp/buildd/*.changes; :" -l pbuilder
echo "+++ end of lintian output +++"

/var/cache/pbuilder/hooks/C10shell

12
CHAPTER 3. TOOL SETUPS 3.7. GIT-BUILDPACKAGE

#!/bin/sh
set -e
apt-get -y --allow-downgrades install vim bash mc
# invoke shell if build fails
cd /tmp/buildd/*/debian/..
/bin/bash < /dev/tty > /dev/tty 2> /dev/tty

Note

All these scripts need to be set world executable: “-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root”.

Note

The ccache cache directory /var/cache/pbuilder/ccache needs to be set world

writable: “-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root” for the pbuilder command. You should be
aware of associated security concerns.

3.7 git-buildpackage
You may wish to set several global configurations in ~/.gbp.conf

# Configuration file for "gbp <command>"

[DEFAULT]
# the default build command:
builder = git-pbuilder -i -I -us -uc
# use pristine-tar:
pristine-tar = True
# Use color when on a terminal, alternatives: on/true, off/false or auto
color = auto

Tip

The gbp command is the alias of the git-buildpackage command.

3.8 HTTP proxy

You should set up a local HTTP caching proxy to save the bandwidth for the Debian package repository access.
There are several choices:

• Simple HTTP caching proxy using the squid package.

• Specialized HTTP caching proxy using the apt-cacher-ng package.

13
CHAPTER 3. TOOL SETUPS 3.9. PRIVATE DEBIAN REPOSITORY

3.9 Private Debian repository

You can set up a private Debian package repository with the reprepro package.

14
Chapter 4

Simple Example

There is an old Latin saying: “Longum iter est per praecepta, breve et efficax per exempla” (“It’s a long way
by the rules, but short and efficient with examples”).
Here is an example of creating a simple Debian package from a simple C source using the Makefile as its build
system.
Let’s assume this upstream tarball to be debhello-0.0.tar.gz.
This type of source is meant to be installed as a non-system file as:

$ tar -xzmf debhello-0.0.tar.gz

$ cd debhello-0.0
$ make
$ make install

Debian packaging requires changing this “make install” process to install files to the target system image
location instead of the normal location under /usr/local.

Note

Examples of creating a Debian package from other complicated build systems

are described in Chapter 8.

4.1 Big picture

The big picture for building a single non-native Debian package from the upstream tarball debhello-0.0.tar.gz can
be summarized as:
• The maintainer obtains the upstream tarball debhello-0.0.tar.gz and untars its contents to the debhello-0.0
directory.
• The debmake command debianizes the upstream source tree by adding template files only in the debian
directory.

– The debhello_0.0.orig.tar.gz symlink is created pointing to the debhello-0.0.tar.gz file.

– The maintainer customizes template files.

• The debuild command builds the binary package from the debianized source tree.

– debhello-0.0-1.debian.tar.xz is created containing the debian directory.

Big picture of package building

15
CHAPTER 4. SIMPLE EXAMPLE 4.2. WHAT IS DEBMAKE?

$ tar -xzmf debhello-0.0.tar.gz

$ cd debhello-0.0
$ debmake
... manual customization
$ debuild
...

Tip

The debuild command in this and following examples may be substituted by

equivalent commands such as the pdebuild command.

Tip

If the upstream tarball in the .tar.xz format is available, use it instead of the one
in the .tar.gz and .tar.bz2 formats. The xz compression format offers the better
compression than the gzip and bzip2 compressions.

4.2 What is debmake?

The debmake command is the helper script for the Debian packaging.
• It always sets most of the obvious option states and values to reasonable defaults.

• It generates the upstream tarball and its required symlink if they are missing.
• It doesn’t overwrite the existing configuration files in the debian/ directory.
• It supports the multiarch package.

• It creates good template files such as the debian/copyright file compliant with DEP-5.
These features make Debian packaging with debmake simple and modern.

Note

The debmake command isn’t the only way to make a Debian package. Many
packages are packaged using only a text editor while imitating how other similar
packages are packaged.

4.3 What is debuild?

Here is a summary of commands similar to the debuild command.
• The debian/rules file defines how the Debian binary package is built.
• The dpkg-buildpackage command is the official command to build the Debian binary package. For normal
binary build, it executes roughly:

– “dpkg-source --before-build” (apply Debian patches, unless they are already applied)
– “fakeroot debian/rules clean”

16
CHAPTER 4. SIMPLE EXAMPLE 4.4. STEP 1: GET THE UPSTREAM SOURCE

– “dpkg-source --build” (build the Debian source package)

– “fakeroot debian/rules build”
– “fakeroot debian/rules binary”
– “dpkg-genbuildinfo” (generate a *.buildinfo file)
– “dpkg-genchanges” (generate a *.changes file)
– “fakeroot debian/rules clean”
– “dpkg-source --after-build” (unapply Debian patches, if they are applied during --before-build)
– “debsign” (sign the *.dsc and *.changes files)
* If you followed Section 3.5 to set the -us and -uc options, this step is skipped and you must run
the debsign command manually.

• The debuild command is a wrapper script of the dpkg-buildpackage command to build the Debian binary
package under the proper environment variables.
• The pdebuild command is a wrapper script to build the Debian binary package under the proper chroot
environment with the proper environment variables.
• The git-pbuilder command is another wrapper script to build the Debian binary package under the proper
chroot environment with the proper environment variables. This provides an easier command line UI to
switch among different build environments.

Note

See dpkg-buildpackage(1) for exact details.

4.4 Step 1: Get the upstream source

Let’s get the upstream source.
Download debhello-0.0.tar.gz

$ wget http://www.example.org/download/debhello-0.0.tar.gz
...
$ tar -xzmf debhello-0.0.tar.gz
$ tree
.
├── debhello-0.0
│ ├── LICENSE
│ ├── Makefile
│ └── src
│ └── hello.c
└── debhello-0.0.tar.gz

2 directories, 4 files

Here, the C source hello.c is a very simple one.

hello.c

$ cat debhello-0.0/src/hello.c
#include <stdio.h>
int
main()
{
printf("Hello, world!\n");

17
CHAPTER 4. SIMPLE EXAMPLE 4.5. STEP 2: GENERATE TEMPLATE FILES …

return 0;
}

Here, the Makefile supports GNU Coding Standards and FHS. Notably:
• build binaries honoring $(CPPFLAGS), $(CFLAGS), $(LDFLAGS), etc.
• install files with $(DESTDIR) defined to the target system image

• install files with $(prefix) defined, which can be overridden to be /usr

Makefile

$ cat debhello-0.0/Makefile
prefix = /usr/local

all: src/hello

src/hello: src/hello.c
@echo "CFLAGS=$(CFLAGS)" | \
fold -s -w 70 | \
sed -e 's/^/# /'
$(CC) $(CPPFLAGS) $(CFLAGS) $(LDCFLAGS) -o $@ $^

install: src/hello
install -D src/hello \
$(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/bin/hello

clean:
-rm -f src/hello

distclean: clean

uninstall:
-rm -f $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/bin/hello

.PHONY: all install clean distclean uninstall

Note

The echo of the $(CFLAGS) variable is used to verify the proper setting of the
build flag in the following example.

4.5 Step 2: Generate template files with debmake

Tip

If the debmake command is invoked with the -T option, more verbose comments
are generated for the template files.

The output from the debmake command is very verbose and explains what it does as follows.

18
CHAPTER 4. SIMPLE EXAMPLE 4.5. STEP 2: GENERATE TEMPLATE FILES …

$ cd debhello-0.0
$ debmake
I: set parameters
I: sanity check of parameters
I: pkg="debhello", ver="0.0", rev="1"
I: *** start packaging in "debhello-0.0". ***
I: provide debhello_0.0.orig.tar.gz for non-native Debian package
I: pwd = "/path/to"
I: $ ln -sf debhello-0.0.tar.gz debhello_0.0.orig.tar.gz
I: pwd = "/path/to/debhello-0.0"
I: parse binary package settings:
I: binary package=debhello Type=bin / Arch=any M-A=foreign
I: analyze the source tree
I: build_type = make
I: scan source for copyright+license text and file extensions
I: 100 %, ext = c
I: check_all_licenses
I: ..
I: check_all_licenses completed for 2 files.
I: bunch_all_licenses
I: format_all_licenses
I: make debian/* template files
I: single binary package
I: debmake -x "1" ...
I: creating => debian/control
I: creating => debian/copyright
I: substituting => /usr/share/debmake/extra0/rules
I: creating => debian/rules
I: substituting => /usr/share/debmake/extra0/changelog
I: creating => debian/changelog
I: substituting => /usr/share/debmake/extra1/compat
I: creating => debian/compat
I: substituting => /usr/share/debmake/extra1/watch
I: creating => debian/watch
I: substituting => /usr/share/debmake/extra1/README.Debian
I: creating => debian/README.Debian
I: substituting => /usr/share/debmake/extra1source/local-options
I: creating => debian/source/local-options
I: substituting => /usr/share/debmake/extra1source/format
I: creating => debian/source/format
I: substituting => /usr/share/debmake/extra1patches/series
I: creating => debian/patches/series
I: run "debmake -x2" to get more template files
I: $ wrap-and-sort

The debmake command generates all these template files based on command line options. Since no options
are specified, the debmake command chooses reasonable default values for you:
• The source package name: debhello

• The upstream version: 0.0

• The binary package name: debhello
• The Debian revision: 1

• The package type: bin (the ELF binary executable package)

• The -x option: -x1 (default for the single binary package)
Let’s inspect generated template files.
The source tree after the basic debmake execution.

19
CHAPTER 4. SIMPLE EXAMPLE 4.5. STEP 2: GENERATE TEMPLATE FILES …

$ cd ..
$ tree
.
├── debhello-0.0
│ ├── LICENSE
│ ├── Makefile
│ ├── debian
│ │ ├── README.Debian
│ │ ├── changelog
│ │ ├── compat
│ │ ├── control
│ │ ├── copyright
│ │ ├── patches
│ │ │ └── series
│ │ ├── rules
│ │ ├── source
│ │ │ ├── format
│ │ │ └── local-options
│ │ └── watch
│ └── src
│ └── hello.c
├── debhello-0.0.tar.gz
└── debhello_0.0.orig.tar.gz -> debhello-0.0.tar.gz

5 directories, 15 files

The debian/rules file is the build script provided by the package maintainer. Here is its template file generated
by the debmake command.
debian/rules (template file):

$ cat debhello-0.0/debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
# You must remove unused comment lines for the released package.
#export DH_VERBOSE = 1
#export DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS = hardening=+all
#export DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wall -pedantic
#export DEB_LDFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wl,--as-needed

%:
dh $@

#override_dh_auto_install:
# dh_auto_install -- prefix=/usr

#override_dh_install:
# dh_install --list-missing -X.pyc -X.pyo

This is essentially the standard debian/rules file with the dh command. (There are some commented out
contents for you to customize it.)
The debian/control file provides the main meta data for the Debian package. Here is its template file generated
by the debmake command.
debian/control (template file):

$ cat debhello-0.0/debian/control
Source: debhello
Section: unknown
Priority: optional
Maintainer: "Firstname Lastname" <[email protected]>
Build-Depends: debhelper (>=11~)
Standards-Version: 4.1.4
Homepage: <insert the upstream URL, if relevant>

20
CHAPTER 4. SIMPLE EXAMPLE 4.5. STEP 2: GENERATE TEMPLATE FILES …

Package: debhello
Architecture: any
Multi-Arch: foreign
Depends: ${misc:Depends}, ${shlibs:Depends}
Description: auto-generated package by debmake
This Debian binary package was auto-generated by the
debmake(1) command provided by the debmake package.

Warning

If you leave “Section: unknown” in the template debian/control file unchanged,

the lintian error may cause the build to fail.

Since this is the ELF binary executable package, the debmake command sets “Architecture: any” and “Multi-
Arch: foreign”. Also, it sets required substvar parameters as “Depends: ${shlibs:Depends}, ${misc:Depends}”.
These are explained in Chapter 5.

Note

Please note this debian/control file uses the RFC-822 style as documented in
5.2 Source package control files — debian/control of the “Debian Policy Manual”.
The use of the empty line and the leading space are significant.

The debian/copyright file provides the copyright summary data of the Debian package. Here is its template
file generated by the debmake command.
debian/copyright (template file):

$ cat debhello-0.0/debian/copyright
Format: https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/
Upstream-Name: debhello
Source: <url://example.com>
#
# Please double check copyright with the licensecheck(1) command.

Files: Makefile
src/hello.c
Copyright: __NO_COPYRIGHT_NOR_LICENSE__
License: __NO_COPYRIGHT_NOR_LICENSE__

#----------------------------------------------------------------------------...
# Files marked as NO_LICENSE_TEXT_FOUND may be covered by the following
# license/copyright files.

#----------------------------------------------------------------------------...
# License file: LICENSE
License:
.
All files in this archive are licensed under the MIT License as below.
.
Copyright 2015 Osamu Aoki <[email protected]>
.
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"),
to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation
the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,
and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

21
CHAPTER 4. SIMPLE EXAMPLE 4.6. STEP 3: MODIFICATION TO THE …

.
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included
in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS
OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY
CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,
TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE
SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

4.6 Step 3: Modification to the template files

Some manual modification is required to make the proper Debian package as a maintainer.
In order to install files as a part of the system files, the $(prefix) value of /usr/local in the Makefile should
be overridden to be /usr. This can be accommodated by the following the debian/rules file with the over-
ride_dh_auto_install target setting “prefix=/usr”.
debian/rules (maintainer version):

$ vim debhello-0.0/debian/rules
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ cat debhello-0.0/debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
export DH_VERBOSE = 1
export DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS = hardening=+all
export DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wall -pedantic
export DEB_LDFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wl,--as-needed

%:
dh $@

override_dh_auto_install:
dh_auto_install -- prefix=/usr

Exporting the DH_VERBOSE environment variable in the debian/rules file as above forces the debhelper
tool to make a fine grained build report.
Exporting DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTION as above sets the hardening options as described in the “FEA-
TURE AREAS/ENVIRONMENT” in dpkg-buildflags(1). 1
Exporting DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND as above forces the C compiler to emit all the warnings.
Exporting DEB_LDFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND as above forces the linker to link only when the library is
actually needed. 2
The dh_auto_install command for the Makefile based build system essentially runs “$(MAKE) install DEST-
DIR=debian/debhello”. The creation of this override_dh_auto_install target changes its behavior to “$(MAKE)
install DESTDIR=debian/debhello prefix=/usr”.
Here are the maintainer versions of the debian/control and debian/copyright files.
debian/control (maintainer version):

$ vim debhello-0.0/debian/control
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ cat debhello-0.0/debian/control
Source: debhello
Section: devel
Priority: optional
1 This is a cliché to force a read-only relocation link for the hardening and to prevent the lintian warning “W: debhello: hardening-no-relro

usr/bin/hello”. This is not really needed for this example but should be harmless. The lintian tool seems to produce a false positive warning
for this case which has no linked library.
2 This is a cliché to prevent overlinking for the complex library dependency case such as Gnome programs. This is not really needed for

this simple example but should be harmless.

22
CHAPTER 4. SIMPLE EXAMPLE 4.6. STEP 3: MODIFICATION TO THE …

Maintainer: Osamu Aoki <[email protected]>

Build-Depends: debhelper (>=11~)
Standards-Version: 4.3.0
Homepage: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debmake-doc

Package: debhello
Architecture: any
Multi-Arch: foreign
Depends: ${misc:Depends}, ${shlibs:Depends}
Description: example package in the debmake-doc package
This is an example package to demonstrate Debian packaging using
the debmake command.
.
The generated Debian package uses the dh command offered by the
debhelper package and the dpkg source format `3.0 (quilt)'.

debian/copyright (maintainer version):

$ vim debhello-0.0/debian/copyright
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ cat debhello-0.0/debian/copyright
Format: https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/
Upstream-Name: debhello
Source: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debmake-doc

Files: *
Copyright: 2015 Osamu Aoki <[email protected]>
License: Expat
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"),
to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation
the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,
and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
.
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included
in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS
OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY
CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,
TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE
SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

There are several other template files under the debian/ directory. These also need to be updated.
Template files under debian/. (v=0.0):

$ tree debhello-0.0/debian
debhello-0.0/debian
├── README.Debian
├── changelog
├── compat
├── control
├── copyright
├── patches
│ └── series
├── rules
├── source
│ ├── format
│ └── local-options
└── watch

23
CHAPTER 4. SIMPLE EXAMPLE 4.7. STEP 4: BUILDING PACKAGE WITH DEBUILD

2 directories, 10 files

Tip

Configuration files used by the dh_* commands from the debhelper package
usually treat # as the start of a comment line.

4.7 Step 4: Building package with debuild

You can create a non-native Debian package using the debuild command or its equivalents (see Section 4.3) in this
source tree. The command output is very verbose and explains what it does as follows.

$ cd debhello-0.0
$ debuild
dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc -ui -i
...
fakeroot debian/rules clean
dh clean
...
debian/rules build
dh build
dh_update_autotools_config
dh_autoreconf
dh_auto_configure
dh_auto_build
make -j4 "INSTALL=install --strip-program=true"
make[1]: Entering directory '/path/to/debhello-0.0'
# CFLAGS=-g -O2 -fdebug-prefix-map=/build/debmake-doc-1.14=.
# -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security
cc -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g -O2 -fdebug-prefix-map=/build/debmake-d...
...
fakeroot debian/rules binary
dh binary
...
Now running lintian debhello_0.0-1_amd64.changes ...
...
W: debhello: binary-without-manpage usr/bin/hello
Finished running lintian.

...

You can verify that CFLAGS is updated properly with -Wall and -pedantic by the DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND
variable.
The manpage should be added to the package as reported by the lintian package, as shown in later examples
(see Chapter 8). Let’s move on for now.
Let’s inspect the result.
The generated files of debhello version 0.0 by the debuild command:

$ cd ..
$ tree -FL 1
.
├── debhello-0.0/
├── debhello-0.0.tar.gz
├── debhello-dbgsym_0.0-1_amd64.deb
├── debhello_0.0-1.debian.tar.xz

24
CHAPTER 4. SIMPLE EXAMPLE 4.7. STEP 4: BUILDING PACKAGE WITH DEBUILD

├── debhello_0.0-1.dsc
├── debhello_0.0-1_amd64.build
├── debhello_0.0-1_amd64.buildinfo
├── debhello_0.0-1_amd64.changes
├── debhello_0.0-1_amd64.deb
└── debhello_0.0.orig.tar.gz -> debhello-0.0.tar.gz

1 directory, 9 files

You see all the generated files.

• The debhello_0.0.orig.tar.gz is a symlink to the upstream tarball.

• The debhello_0.0-1.debian.tar.xz contains the maintainer generated contents.
• The debhello_0.0-1.dsc is the meta data file for the Debian source package.
• The debhello_0.0-1_amd64.deb is the Debian binary package.

• The debhello-dbgsym_0.0-1_amd64.deb is the Debian debug symbol binary package. See Section 5.17.1.
• The debhello_0.0-1_amd64.build file is the build log file.
• The debhello_0.0-1_amd64.buildinfo file is the meta data file generated by dpkg-genbuildinfo(1).

• The debhello_0.0-1_amd64.changes is the meta data file for the Debian binary package.
The debhello_0.0-1.debian.tar.xz contains the Debian changes to the upstream source as follows.
The compressed archive contents of debhello_0.0-1.debian.tar.xz:

$ tar -tzf debhello-0.0.tar.gz

debhello-0.0/
debhello-0.0/Makefile
debhello-0.0/src/
debhello-0.0/src/hello.c
debhello-0.0/LICENSE
$ tar --xz -tf debhello_0.0-1.debian.tar.xz
debian/
debian/README.Debian
debian/changelog
debian/compat
debian/control
debian/copyright
debian/patches/
debian/patches/series
debian/rules
debian/source/
debian/source/format
debian/watch

The debhello_0.0-1_amd64.deb contains the binary files to be installed to the target system.
The debhello-debsym_0.0-1_amd64.deb contains the debug symbol files to be installed to the target system..
The binary package contents of all binary packages:

$ dpkg -c debhello-dbgsym_0.0-1_amd64.deb
drwxr-xr-x root/root ... ./
drwxr-xr-x root/root ... ./usr/
drwxr-xr-x root/root ... ./usr/lib/
drwxr-xr-x root/root ... ./usr/lib/debug/
drwxr-xr-x root/root ... ./usr/lib/debug/.build-id/
drwxr-xr-x root/root ... ./usr/lib/debug/.build-id/8f/
-rw-r--r-- root/root ... ./usr/lib/debug/.build-id/8f/6eac00576c538d13e7aea9...
drwxr-xr-x root/root ... ./usr/share/
drwxr-xr-x root/root ... ./usr/share/doc/

25
CHAPTER 4. SIMPLE EXAMPLE 4.8. STEP 3 (ALTERNATIVE): MODIFICATION …

lrwxrwxrwx root/root ... ./usr/share/doc/debhello-dbgsym -> debhello

$ dpkg -c debhello_0.0-1_amd64.deb
drwxr-xr-x root/root ... ./
drwxr-xr-x root/root ... ./usr/
drwxr-xr-x root/root ... ./usr/bin/
-rwxr-xr-x root/root ... ./usr/bin/hello
drwxr-xr-x root/root ... ./usr/share/
drwxr-xr-x root/root ... ./usr/share/doc/
drwxr-xr-x root/root ... ./usr/share/doc/debhello/
-rw-r--r-- root/root ... ./usr/share/doc/debhello/README.Debian
-rw-r--r-- root/root ... ./usr/share/doc/debhello/changelog.Debian.gz
-rw-r--r-- root/root ... ./usr/share/doc/debhello/copyright

The generated dependency list of all binary packages.

The generated dependency list of all binary packages (v=0.0):

$ dpkg -f debhello-dbgsym_0.0-1_amd64.deb pre-depends \

depends recommends conflicts breaks
Depends: debhello (= 0.0-1)
$ dpkg -f debhello_0.0-1_amd64.deb pre-depends \
depends recommends conflicts breaks
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.2.5)

Caution

Many more details need to be addressed before uploading the package to the
Debian archive.

Note
If manual adjustments of auto-generated configuration files by the debmake com-
mand are skipped, the generated binary package may lack meaningful package
description and some of the policy requirements may be missed. This sloppy
package functions well under the dpkg command, and may be good enough for
your local deployment.

4.8 Step 3 (alternative): Modification to the upstream source

The above example did not touch the upstream source to make the proper Debian package.
An alternative approach as the maintainer is to change the upstream source by modifying the upstream Makefile
to set the $(prefix) value to /usr.
The packaging is practically the same as the above step-by-step example except for two points in Section 4.6:
• Store the maintainer modifications to the upstream source as the corresponding patch files in the debian/-
patches/ directory and list their filenames in the debian/patches/series file as indicated in Section 5.8. There
are several ways to generate patch files. A few examples are given in these sections:

– Section 4.8.1
– Section 4.8.2
– Section 4.8.3

• The maintainer modification to the debian/rules file doesn’t have the override_dh_auto_install target as
follows:

26
CHAPTER 4. SIMPLE EXAMPLE 4.8. STEP 3 (ALTERNATIVE): MODIFICATION …

debian/rules (alternative maintainer version):

$ cd debhello-0.0
$ vim debian/rules
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ cat debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
export DH_VERBOSE = 1
export DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS = hardening=+all
export DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wall -pedantic
export DEB_LDFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wl,--as-needed

%:
dh $@

This alternative approach to Debian packaging using a series of patch files may be less robust for future upstream
changes but more flexible coping with the difficult upstream source. (See Section 7.13.)

Note

For this particular packaging case, the above Section 4.6 using the debian/rules
file is the better approach. But let’s keep on with this approach as a leaning
process.

Tip

For more complicated packaging cases, both Section 4.6 and Section 4.8 ap-
proaches need to be deployed.

4.8.1 Patch by diff -u

Here is an example to create 000-prefix-usr.patch by the diff command.

$ cp -a debhello-0.0 debhello-0.0.orig
$ vim debhello-0.0/Makefile
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ diff -Nru debhello-0.0.orig debhello-0.0 >000-prefix-usr.patch
$ cat 000-prefix-usr.patch
diff -Nru debhello-0.0.orig/Makefile debhello-0.0/Makefile
--- debhello-0.0.orig/Makefile 2019-03-26 17:03:03.049996643 +0000
+++ debhello-0.0/Makefile 2019-03-26 17:03:03.121995074 +0000
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-prefix = /usr/local
+prefix = /usr

all: src/hello

$ rm -rf debhello-0.0
$ mv -f debhello-0.0.orig debhello-0.0

Please note that the upstream source tree is restored to the original state and the patch file is available as 000-
prefix-usr.patch.
This 000-prefix-usr.patch is edited to be DEP-3 conformant and moved to the right location as below.

27
CHAPTER 4. SIMPLE EXAMPLE 4.8. STEP 3 (ALTERNATIVE): MODIFICATION …

$ cd debhello-0.0
$ echo '000-prefix-usr.patch' >debian/patches/series
$ vim ../000-prefix-usr.patch
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ mv -f ../000-prefix-usr.patch debian/patches/000-prefix-usr.patch
$ cat debian/patches/000-prefix-usr.patch
From: Osamu Aoki <[email protected]>
Description: set prefix=/usr patch
diff -Nru debhello-0.0.orig/Makefile debhello-0.0/Makefile
--- debhello-0.0.orig/Makefile
+++ debhello-0.0/Makefile
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-prefix = /usr/local
+prefix = /usr

all: src/hello

4.8.2 Patch by dquilt

Here is an example to create 000-prefix-usr.patch by the dquilt command which is a simple wrapper of the quilt
program. The syntax and function of the dquilt command is the same as the quilt(1) command, except for the fact
that the patch is stored in the debian/patches/ directory.

$ cd debhello-0.0
$ dquilt new 000-prefix-usr.patch
Patch debian/patches/000-prefix-usr.patch is now on top
$ dquilt add Makefile
File Makefile added to patch debian/patches/000-prefix-usr.patch
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ head -1 Makefile
prefix = /usr
$ dquilt refresh
Refreshed patch debian/patches/000-prefix-usr.patch
$ dquilt header -e --dep3
... edit the DEP-3 patch header with editor
$ tree -a
.
├── .pc
│ ├── .quilt_patches
│ ├── .quilt_series
│ ├── .version
│ ├── 000-prefix-usr.patch
│ │ ├── .timestamp
│ │ └── Makefile
│ └── applied-patches
├── LICENSE
├── Makefile
├── debian
│ ├── README.Debian
│ ├── changelog
│ ├── compat
│ ├── control
│ ├── copyright
│ ├── patches
│ │ ├── 000-prefix-usr.patch
│ │ └── series
│ ├── rules
│ ├── source
│ │ ├── format
│ │ └── local-options
│ └── watch

28
CHAPTER 4. SIMPLE EXAMPLE 4.8. STEP 3 (ALTERNATIVE): MODIFICATION …

└── src
└── hello.c

6 directories, 20 files
$ cat debian/patches/series
000-prefix-usr.patch
$ cat debian/patches/000-prefix-usr.patch
Description: set prefix=/usr patch
Author: Osamu Aoki <[email protected]>
Index: debhello-0.0/Makefile
===================================================================
--- debhello-0.0.orig/Makefile
+++ debhello-0.0/Makefile
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-prefix = /usr/local
+prefix = /usr

all: src/hello

Here, Makefile in the upstream source tree doesn’t need to be restored to the original state. The dpkg-source
command invoked by the Debian packaging procedure in Section 4.7, understands the patch application state
recorded by the dquilt program in the .pc/ directory. As long as all the changes are committed by the dquilt
command, the Debian source package can be built from the modified source tree.

Note
If the .pc/ directory is missing, the dpkg-source command assumes that no patch
was applied. That’s why the more primitive patch generation methods like in
Section 4.8.1 without generating the .pc/ directory require the upstream source
tree to be restored.

4.8.3 Patch by dpkg-source --commit

Here is an example to create 000-prefix-usr.patch by the “dpkg-source --commit” command.
Let’s edit the upstream source.

$ cd debhello-0.0
$ vim Makefile
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ head -n1 Makefile
prefix = /usr

Let’s commit it.

$ dpkg-source --commit . 000-prefix-usr.patch

... editor to edit the DEP-3 patch header
...

Let’s see the result.

$ cat debian/patches/series
000-prefix-usr.patch
$ cat debian/patches/000-prefix-usr.patch
Description: set prefix=/usr patch
Author: Osamu Aoki <[email protected]>
Index: debhello-0.0/Makefile

--- debhello-0.0.orig/Makefile
+++ debhello-0.0/Makefile

29
CHAPTER 4. SIMPLE EXAMPLE 4.8. STEP 3 (ALTERNATIVE): MODIFICATION …

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-prefix = /usr/local
+prefix = /usr

all: src/hello

$ tree -a
.
├── .pc
│ ├── .quilt_patches
│ ├── .quilt_series
│ ├── .version
│ ├── 000-prefix-usr.patch
│ │ ├── .timestamp
│ │ └── Makefile
│ └── applied-patches
├── LICENSE
├── Makefile
├── debian
│ ├── README.Debian
│ ├── changelog
│ ├── compat
│ ├── control
│ ├── copyright
│ ├── patches
│ │ ├── 000-prefix-usr.patch
│ │ └── series
│ ├── rules
│ ├── source
│ │ ├── format
│ │ └── local-options
│ └── watch
└── src
└── hello.c

6 directories, 20 files

Here, the dpkg-source command performs exactly the same as what the sequences of the dquilt command did
in Section 4.8.2.

30
Chapter 5

Basics

A broad overview is presented here for the basic rules of Debian packaging focusing on the non-native Debian
package in the “3.0 (quilt)” format.

Note

Some details are intentionally skipped for clarity. Please read the manpages
of the dpkg-source(1), dpkg-buildpackage(1), dpkg(1), dpkg-deb(1), deb(5),
etc.

The Debian source package is a set of input files used to build the Debian binary package and is not a single
file.
The Debian binary package is a special archive file which holds a set of installable binary data with its associated
information.
A single Debian source package may generate multiple Debian binary packages defined in the debian/control
file.
The non-native Debian package in the “3.0 (quilt)” format is the most normal Debian source package format.

Note

There are many wrapper scripts. Use them to streamline your workflow but make
sure to understand the basics of their internals.

5.1 Packaging workflow

The Debian packaging workflow to create a Debian binary package involves generating several specifically named
files (see Section 5.2) as defined in the “Debian Policy Manual”.
The oversimplified method for the Debian packaging workflow can be summarized in 5 steps as follows.
1. The upstream tarball is downloaded as the package-version.tar.gz file.
2. The upstream tarball is untarred to create many files under the package-version/ directory.

3. The upstream tarball is copied (or symlinked) to the particular filename packagename_version.orig.tar.gz.

• the character separating package and version is changed from - (hyphen) to _ (underscore)
• .orig is added in the file extension.

4. The Debian package specification files are added to the upstream source under the package-version/debian/
directory.

• Required specification files under the debian/ directory:

31
CHAPTER 5. BASICS 5.1. PACKAGING WORKFLOW

debian/rules The executable script for building the Debian package (see Section 5.4)
debian/control The package configuration file containing the source package name, the source build
dependencies, the binary package name, the binary dependencies, etc. (see Section 5.5)
debian/changelog The Debian package history file defining the upstream package version and the
Debian revision in its first line (see Section 5.6)
debian/copyright The copyright and license summary (see Section 5.7)
• Optional specification files under the debian/* (see Section 5.11):
• The debmake command invoked in the package-version/ directory provides the initial set of these
template configuration files.
– Required specification files are generated even with the -x0 option.
– The debmake command does not overwrite any existing configuration files.
• These files must be manually edited to their perfection according to the “Debian Policy Manual” and
“Debian Developer’s Reference”.

5. The dpkg-buildpackage command (usually from its wrapper debuild or pdebuild) is invoked in the package-
version/ directory to make the Debian source and binary packages by invoking the debian/rules script.

• The current directory is set as: $(CURDIR)=/path/to/package-version/

• Create the Debian source package in the “3.0 (quilt)” format using dpkg-source(1)
– package_version.orig.tar.gz (copy or symlink of package-version.tar.gz)
– package_version-revision.debian.tar.xz (tarball of package-version/debian/*)
– package_version-revision.dsc
• Build the source using “debian/rules build” into $(DESTDIR)
– DESTDIR=debian/binarypackage/ (single binary package)
– DESTDIR=debian/tmp/ (multi binary package)
• Create the Debian binary package using dpkg-deb(1), dpkg-genbuildinfo(1), and dpkg-genchanges(1).
– binarypackage_version-revision_arch.deb
– … (There may be multiple Debian binary package files.)
– package_version-revision_arch.changes

6. Check the quality of the Debian package with the lintian command. (recommended)

• Follow the rejection guidelines from ftp-master.

– REJECT-FAQ
– NEW checklist
– Lintian Autorejects (lintian tag list)

7. Sign the package_version-revision.dsc and package_version-revision_arch.changes files with the debsign

command using your private GPG key.

8. Upload the set of the Debian source and binary package files with the dput command to the Debian archive.
Here, please replace each part of the filename as:
• the package part with the Debian source package name
• the binarypackage part with the Debian binary package name

• the version part with the upstream version

• the revision part with the Debian revision
• the arch part with the package architecture

32
CHAPTER 5. BASICS 5.2. PACKAGE NAME AND VERSION

Tip

Many patch management and VCS usage strategies for the Debian packaging
are practiced. You don’t need to use all of them.

Tip

There is very extensive documentation in Chapter 6. Best Packaging Practices

in the “Debian Developer’s Reference”. Please read it.

5.1.1 The debhelper package

Although a Debian package can be made by writing a debian/rules script without using the debhelper package, it
is impractical to do so. There are too many modern “Policy” required features to be addressed, such as application
of the proper file permissions, use of the proper architecture dependent library installation path, insertion of the
installation hook scripts, generation of the debug symbol package, generation of package dependency information,
generation of the package information files, application of the proper timestamp for reproducible build, etc.
Debhelper package provides a set of useful scripts in order to simplify Debian’s packaging workflow and
reduce the burden of package maintainers. When properly used, they will help packagers handle and implement
“Policy” required features automatically.
The modern Debian packaging workflow can be organized into a simple modular workflow by:

• using the dh command to invoke many utility scripts automatically from the debhelper package, and
• configuring their behavior with declarative configuration files in the debian/ directory.
You should almost always use debhelper as your package’s build dependency. This document also assumes
that you are using a fairly contemporary version of debhelper to handle packaging works in the following contents.

5.2 Package name and version

If the upstream source comes as hello-0.9.12.tar.gz, you can take hello as the upstream source package name and
0.9.12 as the upstream version.
debmake is meant to provide template files for the package maintainer to work on. Comment lines started by
# contain the tutorial text. You must remove or edit such comment lines before uploading to the Debian archive.
The license extraction and assignment process involves a lot of heuristics; it may fail in some cases. It is highly
recommended to use other tools such as licensecheck from the devscripts package in conjunction with debmake.
There are some limitations for what characters may be used as a part of the Debian package. The most no-
table limitation is the prohibition of uppercase letters in the package name. Here is a summary as a set of regular
expressions:

• Upstream package name (-p): [-+.a-z0-9]{2,}

• Binary package name (-b): [-+.a-z0-9]{2,}
• Upstream version (-u): [0-9][-+.:~a-z0-9A-Z]*

• Debian revision (-r): [0-9][+.~a-z0-9A-Z]*

See the exact definition in Chapter 5 - Control files and their fields in the “Debian Policy Manual”.
debmake assumes relatively simple packaging cases. So all programs related to the interpreter are assumed to
be ”Architecture: all”. This is not always true.
You must adjust the package name and upstream version accordingly for the Debian packaging.

33
CHAPTER 5. BASICS 5.3. NATIVE DEBIAN PACKAGE

In order to manage the package name and version information effectively under popular tools such as the
aptitude command, it is a good idea to keep the length of package name to be equal or less than 30 characters; and
the total length of version and revision to be equal or less than 14 characters. 1
In order to avoid name collisions, the user visible binary package name should not be chosen from any generic
words.
If upstream does not use a normal versioning scheme such as 2.30.32 but uses some kind of date such as
11Apr29, a random codename string, or a VCS hash value as part of the version, make sure to remove them from
the upstream version. Such information can be recorded in the debian/changelog file. If you need to invent a
version string, use the YYYYMMDD format such as 20110429 as upstream version. This ensures that the dpkg
command interprets later versions correctly as upgrades. If you need to ensure a smooth transition to a normal
version scheme such as 0.1 in the future, use the 0~YYMMDD format such as 0~110429 as upstream version,
instead.
Version strings can be compared using the dpkg command as follows.

$ dpkg --compare-versions ver1 op ver2

The version comparison rule can be summarized as:

• Strings are compared from the head to the tail.

• Letters are larger than digits.

• Numbers are compared as integers.
• Letters are compared in ASCII code order.
There are special rules for period (.), plus (+), and tilde (~) characters, as follows.

0.0 < 0.5 < 0.10 < 0.99 < 1 < 1.0~rc1 < 1.0 < 1.0+b1 < 1.0+nmu1 < 1.1 < 2.0

One tricky case occurs when the upstream releases hello-0.9.12-ReleaseCandidate-99.tar.gz as the pre-release
of hello-0.9.12.tar.gz. You can ensure the Debian package upgrade to work properly by renaming the upstream
source to hello-0.9.12~rc99.tar.gz.

5.3 Native Debian package

The non-native Debian package in the “3.0 (quilt)” format is the most normal Debian source package format. The
debian/source/format file should have “3.0 (quilt)” in it as described in dpkg-source(1). The above workflow
and the following packaging examples always use this format.
A native Debian package is the rare Debian binary package format. It may be used only when the package is
useful and valuable only for Debian. Thus, its use is generally discouraged.

Caution
A native Debian package is often accidentally built when its upstream tarball is not
accessible from the dpkg-buildpackage command with its correct name pack-
age_version.orig.tar.gz . This is a typical newbie mistake caused by making a
symlink name with “-” instead of the correct one with “_”.

A native Debian package has no separation between the upstream code and the Debian changes and consists
only of the following:
• package_version.tar.gz (copy or symlink of package-version.tar.gz with debian/* files.)
• package_version.dsc
1 For more than 90% of packages, the package name is equal or less than 24 characters; the upstream version is equal or less than 10

characters and the Debian revision is equal or less than 3 characters.

34
CHAPTER 5. BASICS 5.4. DEBIAN/RULES

If you need to create a native Debian package, create it in the “3.0 (native)” format using dpkg-source(1).

Tip
Some people promote packaging even programs that have been written only for
Debian in the non-native package format. The required tarball without debian/*
files needs to be manually generated in advance before the standard workflow
in Section 5.1. a They claim that the use of non-native package format eases
communication with the downstream distributions.

a Use of the “debmake -t …” command can help this workflow. See Section 6.2.

Tip
There is no need to create the tarball in advance if the native package format is
used. The native Debian package can be created by setting the debian/source/-
format file to “3.0 (native)”, setting the debian/changelog file to have the version
without the Debian revision (1.0 instead of 1.0-1), and invoking the “dpkg-source
-b .” command within the source tree. The tarball containing the source is gen-
erated by this.

5.4 debian/rules
The debian/rules script is the executable script to build the Debian package.
• The debian/rules script re-targets the upstream build system (see Section 5.16) to install files in the $(DEST-
DIR) and creates the archive file of the generated files as the deb file.

– The deb file is used for the binary distribution and installed to the system using the dpkg command.

• The dh command is normally used as the front-end to the build system inside the debian/rules script.
• $(DESTDIR) path depends on the build type.

– $(DESTDIR)=debian/binarypackage (single binary package)

– $(DESTDIR)=debian/tmp (multiple binary package)

5.4.1 dh
The dh command from the debhelper package with help from its associated packages functions as the wrapper
to the typical upstream build systems and offers us uniform access to them by supporting all the Debian policy
stipulated targets of the debian/rules file.
• dh clean : clean files in the source tree.
• dh build : build the source tree
• dh build-arch : build the source tree for architecture dependent packages

• dh build-indep : build the source tree for architecture independent packages

• dh install : install the binary files to $(DESTDIR)
• dh install-arch : install the binary files to $(DESTDIR) for architecture dependent packages
• dh install-indep : install the binary files to $(DESTDIR) for architecture independent packages

• dh binary : generate the deb file

35
CHAPTER 5. BASICS 5.4. DEBIAN/RULES

• dh binary-arch : generate the deb file for architecture dependent packages

• dh binary-indep : generate the deb file for architecture independent packages

Note
For debhelper “compat >= 9”, the dh command exports compiler flags (CFLAGS,
CXXFLAGS, FFLAGS, CPPFLAGS and LDFLAGS) with values as returned
by dpkg-buildflags if they are not set previously. (The dh command calls
set_buildflags defined in the Debian::Debhelper::Dh_Lib module.)

5.4.2 Simple debian/rules

Thanks to this abstraction of the dh command 2 , the Debian policy compliant debian/rules file supporting all the
required targets can be written as simple as 3 :
Simple debian/rules:

#!/usr/bin/make -f
#export DH_VERBOSE = 1

%:
dh $@

Essentially, this dh command functions as the sequencer to call all required dh_* commands at the right mo-
ment.

Note

The debmake command sets the debian/control file with “Build-Depends: deb-
helper (>=9)” and the debian/compat file with “9”.

Tip

Setting “export DH_VERBOSE = 1” outputs every command that modifies files

on the build system. Also it enables verbose build logs for some build systems.

5.4.3 Customized debian/rules

Flexible customization of the debian/rules script is realized by adding appropriate override_dh_* targets and their
rules.
Whenever some special operation is required for a certain dh_foo command invoked by the dh command, any
automatic execution of it can be overridden by adding the makefile target override_dh_foo in the debian/rules
file.
The build process may be customized via the upstream provided interface such as arguments to the standard
source build system commands, such as:
• configure,
• Makefile,
2 This simplicity is available since version 7 of the debhelper package. This guide assumes the use of debhelper version 9 or newer.
3 The debmake command generates a bit more complicated debian/rules file. But this is the core part.

36
CHAPTER 5. BASICS 5.4. DEBIAN/RULES

• setup.py, or

• Build.PL.
If this is the case, you should add the override_dh_auto_build target and executing the “dh_auto_build --
arguments” command. This ensures passing arguments to the such build system after the default parameters that
dh_auto_build usually passes.

Tip

Please try not to execute the above build system commands directly if they are
supported by the dh_auto_build command.

The debmake command creates the initial template file taking advantage of the above simple debian/rules file
example while adding some extra customizations for package hardening, etc. You need to know how underlying
build systems work under the hood (see Section 5.16) to address their irregularities using package customization.

• See Section 4.6 for basic customization of the template debian/rules file generated by the debmake com-
mand.
• See Section 5.20 for multiarch customization.
• See Section 5.21 for hardening customization.

5.4.4 Variables for debian/rules

Some variable definitions useful for customizing debian/rules can be found in files under /usr/share/dpkg/. No-
tably:
pkg-info.mk DEB_SOURCE, DEB_VERSION, DEB_VERSION_EPOCH_UPSTREAM, DEB_VERSION_UPSTREAM
DEB_VERSION_UPSTREAM, and DEB_DISTRIBUTION variables. These are useful for backport sup-
port etc..

vendor.mk DEB_VENDOR and DEB_PARENT_VENDOR variables; and dpkg_vendor_derives_from macro.

These are useful for vendor support (Debian, Ubuntu, …).
architecture.mk Set DEB_HOST_* and DEB_BUILD_* variables. An alternative method of retrieving those
variables is to invoke dpkg-architecture directly and query the value of a single variable. With explicit
invocation of dpkg-architecture to retrieve necessary variables, there is no need to include architecture.mk
in debian/rules, which would import all architecture-related variables.
buildflags.mk Set CFLAGS, CPPFLAGS, CXXFLAGS, OBJCFLAGS, OBJCXXFLAGS, GCJFLAGS,
FFLAGS, FCFLAGS, and LDFLAGS build flags.
If you wish to use some of these useful variables in debian/rules, copy relevant code to debian/rules or write
a simpler alternative in it. Please keep debian/rules simple.
For example, you can add an extra option to CONFIGURE_FLAGS for linux-any target architectures by
adding the followings to debian/rules:

DEB_HOST_ARCH_OS ?= $(shell dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_ARCH_OS)

...
ifeq ($(DEB_HOST_ARCH_OS),linux)
CONFIGURE_FLAGS += --enable-wayland
endif

37
CHAPTER 5. BASICS 5.5. DEBIAN/CONTROL

Tip
It was useful to include buildflags.mk in debian/rules to set the build flags
such as CPPFLAGS, CFLAGS, LDFLAGS, etc. properly while honoring
DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND, DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS, etc. for
the debhelper “compat <= 8”. Now you should use the debhelper “compat >=
9”, should not include buildflags.mk without specific reasons, and should let the
dh command set these build flags.

See Section 5.20, dpkg-architecture(1) and dpkg-buildflags(1).

5.4.5 Reproducible build

Here are some recommendations to attain a reproducible build result.
• Don’t embed the timestamp based on the system time.

• Use “dh $@” in the debian/rules to access the latest debhelper features.
• Export the build environment as “LC_ALL=C.UTF-8” (see Section 7.15).
• Set the timestamp used in the upstream source from the value of the debhelper-provided environment variable
$SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH.

• Read more at ReproducibleBuilds.

– ReproducibleBuilds Howto.
– ReproducibleBuilds TimestampsProposal.

The control file source-name_source-version_arch.buildinfo generated by dpkg-genbuildinfo(1) records the

build environment. See deb-buildinfo(5)

5.5 debian/control
The debian/control file consists of blocks of meta data separated by a blank line. Each block of meta data defines
the following in this order:

• meta data for the Debian source package

• meta data for the Debian binary packages
See Chapter 5 - Control files and their fields of the “Debian Policy Manual” for the definition of each meta
data.

5.5.1 Split of a Debian binary package

For well behaving build systems, the split of a Debian binary package into small ones can be realized as follows.
• Create binary package entries for all binary packages in the debian/control file.
• List all file paths (relative to debian/tmp) in the corresponding debian/binarypackage.install files.
Please check examples in this guide:

• Section 8.11 (Autotools based)

• Section 8.12 (CMake based)

38
CHAPTER 5. BASICS 5.5. DEBIAN/CONTROL

5.5.1.1 debmake -b
The debmake command with the -b option provides an intuitive and flexible method to create the initial template
debian/control file defining the split of the Debian binary packages with following stanzas:
• Package:
• Architecture:

• Multi-Arch:
• Depends:
• Pre-Depends:

The debmake command also sets an appropriate set of substvars used in each pertinent dependency stanza.
Let’s quote the pertinent part from the debmake manpage here.
-b ”binarypackage[:type],…”, --binaryspec ”binarypackage[:type],…” set the binary package specs by a comma
separated list of binarypackage:type pairs, e.g., in the full form “foo:bin,foo-doc:doc,libfoo1:lib,libfoo-
dev:dev” or in the short form, “-doc,libfoo1,libfoo-dev”.
Here, binarypackage is the binary package name, and the optional type is chosen from the following type
values:
• bin: C/C++ compiled ELF binary code package (any, foreign) (default, alias: ””, i.e., null-string)
• data: Data (fonts, graphics, …) package (all, foreign) (alias: da)
• dev: Library development package (any, same) (alias: de)
• doc: Documentation package (all, foreign) (alias: do)
• lib: Library package (any, same) (alias: l)
• perl: Perl script package (all, foreign) (alias: pl)
• python: Python script package (all, foreign) (alias: py)
• python3: Python3 script package (all, foreign) (alias: py3)
• ruby: Ruby script package (all, foreign) (alias: rb)
• script: Shell script package (all, foreign) (alias: sh)
The pair values in the parentheses, such as (any, foreign), are the Architecture and Multi-Arch stanza values
set in the debian/control file.
In many cases, the debmake command makes good guesses for type from binarypackage. If type is not
obvious, type is set to bin. For example, libfoo sets type to lib, and font-bar sets type to data, …
If the source tree contents do not match settings for type, the debmake command warns you.

5.5.1.2 Package split scenario and examples

Here are some typical multiarch package split scenarios for the following upstream source examples using the
debmake command:
• a library source libfoo-1.0.tar.gz
• a tool source bar-1.0.tar.gz written in a compiled language

• a tool source baz-1.0.tar.gz written in an interpreted language

binarypackage type Architecture: Multi- Package content

Arch:
libfoo1 lib* any same the shared library, co-installable
libfoo-dev dev* any same the shared library header files etc.,
co-installable
libfoo-tools bin* any foreign the run-time support programs, not
co-installable

39
CHAPTER 5. BASICS 5.5. DEBIAN/CONTROL

binarypackage type Architecture: Multi- Package content

Arch:
libfoo-doc doc* all foreign the shared library documentation files
bar bin* any foreign the compiled program files, not
co-installable
bar-doc doc* all foreign the documentation files for the program
baz script all foreign the interpreted program files

5.5.1.3 The library package name

Let’s consider that the upstream source tarball of the libfoo library is updated from libfoo-7.0.tar.gz to libfoo-
8.0.tar.gz with a new SONAME major version which affects other packages.
The binary library package must be renamed from libfoo7 to libfoo8 to keep the unstable suite system working
for all dependent packages after the upload of the package based on the libfoo-8.0.tar.gz.

Warning
If the binary library package isn’t renamed, many dependent packages in the
unstable suite become broken just after the library upload even if a binNMU
upload is requested. The binNMU may not happen immediately after the upload
due to several reasons.

The -dev package must follow one of the following naming rules:
• Use the unversioned -dev package name: libfoo-dev
– This is the typical one for leaf library packages.
– Only one version of the library source package is allowed in the archive.
* The associated library package needs to be renamed from libfoo7 to libfoo8 to prevent dependency
breakage in the unstable archive during the library transition.
– This approach should be used if the simple binNMU resolves the library dependency quickly for all
affected packages. (ABI change by dropping the deprecated API while keeping the active API un-
changed.)
– This approach may still be a good idea if manual code updates, etc. can be coordinated and manageable
within limited packages. (API change)
• Use the versioned -dev package names: libfoo7-dev and libfoo8-dev
– This is typical for many major library packages.
– Two versions of the library source packages are allowed simultaneously in the archive.
* Make all dependent packages depend on libfoo-dev.
* Make both libfoo7-dev and libfoo8-dev provide libfoo-dev.
* The source package needs to be renamed as libfoo7-7.0.tar.gz and libfoo8-8.0.tar.gz respectively
from libfoo-?.0.tar.gz.
* The package specific install file path including libfoo7 and libfoo8 respectively for header files
etc. needs to be chosen to make them co-installable.
– Do not use this heavy handed approach, if possible.
– This approach should be used if the update of multiple dependent packages require manual code updates,
etc. (API change) Otherwise, the affected packages become RC buggy with FTBFS.

Tip

If the data encoding scheme changes (e.g., latin1 to utf-8), the same care as the
API change needs to be taken.

40
CHAPTER 5. BASICS 5.6. DEBIAN/CHANGELOG

See Section 5.18.

5.5.2 Substvar
The debian/control file also defines the package dependency in which the variable substitutions mechanism (sub-
stvar) may be used to free package maintainers from chores of tracking most of the simple package dependency
cases. See deb-substvars(5).
The debmake command supports the following substvars:
• ${misc:Depends} for all binary packages
• ${misc:Pre-Depends} for all multiarch packages
• ${shlibs:Depends} for all binary executable and library packages
• ${python:Depends} for all Python packages
• ${python3:Depends} for all Python3 packages
• ${perl:Depends} for all Perl packages
• ${ruby:Depends} for all Ruby packages
For the shared library, required libraries found simply by ”objdump -p /path/to/program | grep NEEDED” are
covered by the shlib substvar.
For Python and other interpreters, required modules found simply looking for lines with “import”, “use”,
“require”, etc., are covered by the corresponding substvars.
For other programs which do not deploy their own substvars, the misc substvar covers their dependency.
For POSIX shell programs, there is no easy way to identify the dependency and no substvar covers their de-
pendency.
For libraries and modules required via the dynamic loading mechanism including the GObject introspection
mechanism, there is no easy way to identify the dependency and no substvar covers their dependency.

5.5.3 binNMU safe

A binNMU is a binary-only non-maintainer upload performed for library transitions etc. In a binNMU upload, only
the “Architecture: any” packages are rebuilt with a suffixed version number (e.g. version 2.3.4-3 will become
2.3.4-3+b1). The “Architecture: all” packages are not built.
The dependency defined in the debian/control file among binary packages from the same source package
should be safe for the binNMU. This needs attention if there are both “Architecture: any” and “Architecture:
all” packages involved in it.
• “Architecture: any” package: depends on “Architecture: any” foo package

– Depends: foo (= ${binary:Version})

• “Architecture: any” package: depends on “Architecture: all” bar package

– Depends: bar (= ${source:Version}

• “Architecture: all” package: depends on “Architecture: any” baz package

– Depends: baz (>= ${source:Version}), baz (<< ${source:Upstream-Version}.0~)

5.6 debian/changelog
The debian/changelog file records the Debian package history and defines the upstream package version and the
Debian revision in its first line. The changes need to be documented in the specific, formal, and concise style.
• Even if you are uploading your package by yourself, you must document all non-trivial user-visible changes
such as:

– the security related bug fixes.

41
CHAPTER 5. BASICS 5.7. DEBIAN/COPYRIGHT

– the user interface changes.

• If you are asking your sponsor to upload it, you should document changes more comprehensively, including
all packaging related ones, to help reviewing your package.

– The sponsor shouldn’t second guess your thought behind your package.
– The sponsor’s time is more valuable than yours.

The debmake command creates the initial template file with the upstream package version and the Debian
revision. The distribution is set to UNRELEASED to prevent accidental upload to the Debian archive.
The debchange command (alias dch) is commonly used to edit this.

Tip

You can edit the debian/changelog file manually with any text editor as long as
you follow the formatting convention used by the debchange command.

Tip

The date string used in the debian/changelog file can be manually generated
by the “LC_ALL=C date -R” command.

This is installed in the /usr/share/doc/binarypackage directory as changelog.Debian.gz by the dh_installchangelogs

command.
The upstream changelog is installed in the /usr/share/doc/binarypackage directory as changelog.gz.
The upstream changelog is automatically found by the dh_installchangelogs using the case insensitive match
of its file name to changelog, changes, changelog.txt, changes.txt, history, history.txt, or changelog.md and
searched in the ./ doc/ or docs/ directories.
After finishing your packaging and verifying its quality, please execute the “dch -r” command and save the
finalized debian/changelog file with the distribution normally set to unstable. 4 If you are packaging for backports,
security updates, LTS, etc., please use the appropriate distribution names instead.

5.7 debian/copyright
Debian takes the copyright and license matters very seriously. The “Debian Policy Manual” enforces having a
summary of them in the debian/copyright file in the package.
You should format it as a machine-readable debian/copyright file (DEP-5).

Caution

The debian/copyright file should be sorted to keep the generic file patterns at
the top of the list. See Section 6.4.

The debmake command creates the initial DEP-5 compatible template file by scanning the entire source tree.
It uses an internal license checker to classify each license text. 5
Unless specifically requested to be pedantic with the -P option, the debmake command skips reporting for
auto-generated files with permissive licenses to be practical.
4 Ifyou are using the vim editor, make sure to save this with the “:wq” command.
5 The licensecheck command from the devscripts package was referenced to make this internal checker. Now the licensecheck command
is provided in an independent licensecheck package with a lot of improvements.

42
CHAPTER 5. BASICS 5.8. DEBIAN/PATCHES/*

Note

If you find issues with this license checker, please file a bug report to the debmake
package with the problematic part of text containing the copyright and license.

Note
The debmake command focuses on bunching up same copyright and license
claims in detail to create template for debian/copyright. In order to do this within
reasonable time, it only picks the first section which looks like copyright and li-
cense claims. So its license assignment may not be optimal. Please also use
other tools such as licensecheck.

Tip

You are highly encouraged to check the license status with the licensecheck(1)
command and, as needed, with your manual code review.

5.8 debian/patches/*
The -p1 patches in the debian/patches/ directory are applied in the sequence defined in the debian/patches/series
file to the upstream source tree before the build process.

Note

The native Debian package (see Section 5.3) doesn’t use these files.

There are several methods to prepare a series of -p1 patches.

• The diff command

– See Section 4.8.1

– Primitive but versatile method

* Patches may come from other distros, mailing list postings, or cherry-picked patches from the
upstream git repository with the “git format-patches” command
– Missing the .pc/ directory
– Unmodified upstream source tree
– Manually update the debian/patches/series file

• The dquilt command

– See Section 3.4

– Basic convenient method
– Proper generation of the .pc/ directory data
– Modified upstream source tree

43
CHAPTER 5. BASICS 5.8. DEBIAN/PATCHES/*

• The “dpkg-source --commit” command

– See Section 4.8.3

– Newer elegant method
– Proper generation of the .pc/ directory data
– Modified upstream source tree

• The automatic patch generation by the dpkg-buildpackage

– See Section 5.14
– Add single-debian-patch in the debian/source/local-options file
– Set the debian/source/local-patch-header file
– Missing the .pc/ directory
– Modified upstream source tree in the Debian branch (master)
• The gbp-pq command

– basic git work flow with the git-buildpackage package

– Missing the .pc/ directory
– Modified upstream source tree in the throw-away branch (patch-queue/master)
– Unmodified upstream source tree in the Debian branch (master)

• The gbp-dpm command

– more elaborate git work flow with the git-dpm package

– Missing the .pc/ directory
– Modified upstream source tree in the patched branch (patched/whatever)
– Unmodified upstream source tree in the Debian branch (master/whatever)

Wherever these patches come from, it is a good idea to tag them with a DEP-3 compatible header.

Tip

The dgit package offers an alternative git integration tool with the Debian package
archive.

5.8.1 dpkg-source -x
The “dpkg-source -x” command unpacks the Debian source package.
It normally applies the patches in the debian/patches/ directory to the source tree and records the patch state
in the .pc/ directory.
If you wish to keep the source tree unmodified (for example, for use in Section 5.13), please use the --skip-
patches option.

5.8.2 dquilt and dpkg-source

The quilt command (or its wrapped dquilt command) was needed to manage the -p1 patches in the debian/patches/
directory before the --commit feature was added to the dpkg-source command in 1.16.1.
The patches should apply cleanly when using the dpkg-source command. Thus you can’t just copy the patches
to the new packaging of the new upstream release if there are patch offsets, etc.
The dquilt command (see Section 3.4) is more forgiving. You can normalize the patches by the dquilt com-
mand.

44
CHAPTER 5. BASICS 5.9. DEBIAN/UPSTREAM/SIGNING-KEY.ASC

$ while dquilt push; do dquilt refresh ; done

$ dquilt pop -a

There is one advantage of using the dpkg-source command over the dquilt command. While the dquilt com-
mand cannot handle modified binary files automatically, the dpkg-source command detects modified binary files
and lists them in the debian/source/include-binaries file to include them in the Debian tarball.

5.9 debian/upstream/signing-key.asc
Some packages are signed by a GPG key.
For example, GNU hello can be downloaded via HTTP from https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/hello/ . There are sets of
files:

• hello-version.tar.gz (upstream source)

• hello-version.tar.gz.sig (detached signature)
Let’s pick the latest version set.

$ wget https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/hello/hello-2.9.tar.gz
...
$ wget https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/hello/hello-2.9.tar.gz.sig
...
$ gpg --verify hello-2.9.tar.gz.sig
gpg: Signature made Thu 10 Oct 2013 08:49:23 AM JST using DSA key ID 80EE4A00
gpg: Can't check signature: public key not found

If you know the public GPG key of the upstream maintainer from the mailing list, use it as the debian/upstream/signing-
key.asc file. Otherwise, use the hkp keyserver and check it via your web of trust.

$ gpg --keyserver hkp://keys.gnupg.net --recv-key 80EE4A00

gpg: requesting key 80EE4A00 from hkp server keys.gnupg.net
gpg: key 80EE4A00: public key "Reuben Thomas <[email protected]>" imported
gpg: no ultimately trusted keys found
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg: imported: 1
$ gpg --verify hello-2.9.tar.gz.sig
gpg: Signature made Thu 10 Oct 2013 08:49:23 AM JST using DSA key ID 80EE4A00
gpg: Good signature from "Reuben Thomas <[email protected]>"
...
Primary key fingerprint: 9297 8852 A62F A5E2 85B2 A174 6808 9F73 80EE 4A00

Tip

If your network environment blocks access to the HKP port 11371, use
“hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80” instead.

After confirming the key ID 80EE4A00 is a trustworthy one, download its public key into the debian/upstream/signing-
key.asc file.

$ gpg --armor --export 80EE4A00 >debian/upstream/signing-key.asc

Then set the corresponding debian/watch file as follows.

45
CHAPTER 5. BASICS 5.10. DEBIAN/WATCH AND DFSG

version=4
pgpsigurlmangle=s/$/.sig/ https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/hello/ hello-(\d[\d.]*)\.tar ←-
\.(?:gz|bz2|xz)

Now the uscan command will check the authenticity of the package using the GPG signature.

5.10 debian/watch and DFSG

Debian takes software freedom seriously and follows the DFSG.
The non-DFSG components in the upstream source tarball can be easily removed when the uscan command is
used to update the Debian package.
• List the files to be removed in the Files-Excluded stanza of the debian/copyright file.
• List the URL to download the upstream tarball in the debian/watch file.

• Run the uscan command to download the new upstream tarball.

– Alternatively, use the “gbp import-orig --uscan --pristine-tar” command.

• The resulting tarball has the version number with an additional suffix +dfsg.

5.11 Other debian/* Files

Optional configuration files may be added under the debian/ directory. Most of them are to control dh_* commands
offered by the debhelper package but there are some for dpkg-source, lintian and gbp commands.

Tip

Check debhelper(7) for the latest available set of the dh_* commands.

These debian/binarypackage.* files provide very powerful means to set the installation path of files. Even an
upstream source without its build system can be packaged just by using these files. See Section 8.2 as an example.
The ”-x[1234] ” superscript notation that appears in the following list indicates the minimum value for the deb-
make -x option that will generate the associated template file. See Section 6.6 or debmake(1) for details.
Here is the alphabetical list of notable optional configuration files.
binarypackage.bug-control -x3 installed as usr/share/bug/binarypackage/control in binarypackage. See Sec-
tion 5.24.

binarypackage.bug-presubj -x3 installed as usr/share/bug/binarypackage/presubj in binarypackage. See Sec-

tion 5.24.
binarypackage.bug-script -x3 installed as usr/share/bug/binarypackage or usr/share/bug/binarypackage/script
in binarypackage. See Section 5.24.
binarypackage.bash-completion List bash completion scripts to be installed.
The bash-completion package is required for both build and user environments.
See dh_bash-completion(1).
clean -x2 List files that should be removed but are not cleaned by the dh_auto_clean command.
See dh_auto_clean(1) and dh_clean(1).

compat -x1 Set the debhelper compatibility level (currently, “9”).

See “COMPATIBILITY LEVELS” in debhelper(8).

46
CHAPTER 5. BASICS 5.11. OTHER DEBIAN/* FILES

binarypackage.conffile No need for this file under “compat >= 3” since all files in the etc/ directory are conffiles.
If the program you’re packaging requires every user to modify the configuration files in the /etc directory,
there are two popular ways to arrange for them not to be conffiles, keeping the dpkg command happy and
quiet.
• Create a symlink under the /etc directory pointing to a file under the /var directory generated by the
maintainer scripts.
• Create a file generated by the maintainer scripts under the /etc directory.
See dh_installdeb(1).
binarypackage.config This is the debconf config script used for asking any questions necessary to configure the
package. See Section 5.19.

binarypackage.cron.hourly -x3 Installed into the etc/cron/hourly/binarypackage file in binarypackage.

See dh_installcron(1) and cron(8).
binarypackage.cron.daily -x3 Installed into the etc/cron/daily/binarypackage file in binarypackage.
See dh_installcron(1) and cron(8).

binarypackage.cron.weekly -x3 Installed into the etc/cron/weekly/binarypackage file in binarypackage.

See dh_installcron(1) and cron(8).
binarypackage.cron.monthly -x3 Installed into the etc/cron/monthly/binarypackage file in binarypackage.
See dh_installcron(1) and cron(8).

binarypackage.cron.d -x3 Installed into the etc/cron.d/binarypackage file in binarypackage.

See dh_installcron(1), cron(8), and crontab(5).
binarypackage.default -x3 If this exists, it is installed into etc/default/binarypackage in binarypackage.
See dh_installinit(1).

binarypackage.dirs -x3 List directories to be created in binarypackage.

See dh_installdirs(1).
Usually, this is not needed since all dh_install* commands create required directories automatically. Use
this only when you run into trouble.

binarypackage.doc-base -x2 Installed as the doc-base control file in binarypackage.

See dh_installdocs(1) and Debian doc-base Manual provided by the doc-base package.
binarypackage.docs -x2 List documentation files to be installed in binarypackage.
See dh_installdocs(1).

binarypackage.emacsen-compat -x3 Installed into usr/lib/emacsen-common/packages/compat/binarypackage

in binarypackage.
See dh_installemacsen(1).
binarypackage.emacsen-install -x3 Installed into usr/lib/emacsen-common/packages/install/binarypackage in
binarypackage.
See dh_installemacsen(1).
binarypackage.emacsen-remove -x3 Installed into usr/lib/emacsen-common/packages/remove/binarypackage
in binarypackage.
See dh_installemacsen(1).

binarypackage.emacsen-startup -x3 Installed into usr/lib/emacsen-common/packages/startup/binarypackage

in binarypackage.
See dh_installemacsen(1).

47
CHAPTER 5. BASICS 5.11. OTHER DEBIAN/* FILES

binarypackage.examples -x2 List example files or directories to be installed into usr/share/doc/binarypackage/examples/

in binarypackage.
See dh_installexamples(1).
gbp.conf If this exists, it functions as the configuration file for the gbp command.
See gbp.conf(5), gbp(1), and git-buildpackage(1).
binarypackage.info -x2 List info files to be installed in binarypackage.
See dh_installinfo(1).
binarypackage.init -x3 Installed into etc/init.d/binarypackage in binarypackage.
See dh_installinit(1).
binarypackage.install -x2 List files which should be installed but are not installed by the dh_auto_install com-
mand.
See dh_install(1) and dh_auto_install(1).
license-examples/* -x4 These are copyright file examples generated by the debmake command. Use these as the
reference for making the copyright file.
Please make sure to erase these files.
binarypackage.links -x2 List pairs of source and destination files to be symlinked. Each pair should be put on its
own line, with the source and destination separated by whitespace.
See dh_link(1).
binarypackage.lintian-overrides -x3 Installed into usr/share/lintian/overrides/binarypackage in the package build
directory. This file is used to suppress erroneous lintian diagnostics.
See dh_lintian(1), lintian(1) and Lintian User’s Manual.
manpage.* -x3 These are manpage template files generated by the debmake command. Please rename these to
appropriate file names and update their contents.
Debian Policy requires that each program, utility, and function should have an associated manual page in-
cluded in the same package. Manual pages are written in nroff(1).
If you are new to making a manpage, use manpage.asciidoc or manpage.1 as the starting point.
binarypackage.manpages -x2 List man pages to be installed.
See dh_installman(1).
binarypackage.menu (deprecated, no more installed) tech-ctte #741573 decided ”Debian should use .desktop
files as appropriate”.
Debian menu file installed into usr/share/menu/binarypackage in binarypackage.
See menufile(5) for its format. See dh_installmenu(1).
NEWS Installed into usr/share/doc/binarypackage/NEWS.Debian.
See dh_installchangelogs(1).
patches/* Collection of -p1 patch files which are applied to the upstream source before building the source.
See dpkg-source(1), Section 3.4 and Section 4.8.
No patch files are generated by the debmake command.
patches/series -x1 The application sequence of the patches/* patch files.
binarypackage.preinst -x2 , binarypackage.postinst -x2 , binarypackage.prerm -x2 , binarypackage.postrm -x2 These
maintainer scripts are installed into the DEBIAN directory.
Inside the scripts, the token #DEBHELPER# is replaced with shell script snippets generated by other deb-
helper commands.
See dh_installdeb(1) and Chapter 6 - Package maintainer scripts and installation procedure in the “Debian
Policy Manual”.
See also debconf-devel(7) and 3.9.1 Prompting in maintainer scripts in the “Debian Policy Manual”.

48
CHAPTER 5. BASICS 5.11. OTHER DEBIAN/* FILES

README.Debian -x1 Installed into the first binary package listed in the debian/control file as usr/share/-
doc/binarypackage/README.Debian.
See dh_installdocs(1).
This file provides the information specific to the Debian package.
binarypackage.service -x3 If this exists, it is installed into lib/systemd/system/binarypackage.service in binary-
package.
See dh_systemd_enable(1), dh_systemd_start(1), and dh_installinit(1).
source/format -x1 The Debian package format.
• Use “3.0 (quilt)” to make this non-native package (recommended)
• Use “3.0 (native)” to make this native package
See “SOURCE PACKAGE FORMATS” in dpkg-source(1).
source/lintian-overrides or source.lintian-overrides -x3 These files are not installed, but will be scanned by the
lintian command to provide overrides for the source package.
See dh_lintian(1) and lintian(1).
source/local-options -x1 The dpkg-source command uses this content as its options. Notable options are:
• unapply-patches
• abort-on-upstream-changes
• auto-commit
• single-debian-patch
This is not included in the generated source package and is meant to be committed to the VCS of the main-
tainer.
See “FILE FORMATS” in dpkg-source(1).
source/local-patch-header Free form text that is put on top of the automatic patch generated.
This is not included in the generated source package and is meant to be committed to the VCS of the main-
tainer.
+ See “FILE FORMATS” in dpkg-source(1).
binarypackage.symbols -x2 The symbols files, if present, are passed to the dpkg-gensymbols command to be
processed and installed.
See dh_makeshlibs(1) and Section 5.18.1..
binarypackage.templates This is the debconf templates file used for asking any questions necessary to configure
the package. See Section 5.19.
tests/control This is the RFC822-style test meta data file defined in DEP-8. See autopkgtest(1) and Section 5.22.
TODO Installed into the first binary package listed in the debian/control file as usr/share/doc/binarypackage/TODO.Debian.
See dh_installdocs(1).
binarypackage.tmpfile -x3 If this exists, it is installed into usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/binarypackage.conf in binarypack-
age.
See dh_systemd_enable(1), dh_systemd_start(1), and dh_installinit(1).
binarypackage.upstart -x3 If this exists, it is installed into etc/init/package.conf in the package build directory.
(deprecated)
See dh_installinit(1) and Section 8.1.
watch -x1 The control file for the uscan command to download the latest upstream version.
This control file may be configured to verify the authenticity of the tarball using its GPG signature (see
Section 5.9).
See Section 5.10 and uscan(1).

49
CHAPTER 5. BASICS 5.12. CUSTOMIZATION OF THE DEBIAN …

Here are a few reminders for the above list.

• For a single binary package, the binarypackage. part of the filename in the list may be removed.
• For a multi binary package, a configuration file missing the binarypackage. part of the filename is applied
to the first binary package listed in the debian/control.
• When there are many binary packages, their configurations can be specified independently by prefixing their
name to their configuration filenames such as package-1.install, package-2.install, etc.
• Some template configuration files may not be created by the debmake command. In such cases, you need
to create them with an editor.
• Unusual configuration template files generated by the debmake command with an extra .ex suffix need to
be activated by removing that suffix.
• Unused configuration template files generated by the debmake command should be removed.
• Copy configuration template files as needed to the filenames matching their pertinent binary package names.

5.12 Customization of the Debian packaging

Let’s recap the customization of the Debian packaging.
All customization data for the Debian package resides in the debian/ directory. A simple example is given in
Section 4.6. Normally, this customization involves a combination of the following:
• The Debian package build system can be customized through the debian/rules file (see Section 5.4.3).

• The Debian package installation path etc. can be customized through the addition of configuration files such
as package.install and package.docs in the debian/ directory for the dh_* commands from the debhelper
package (see Section 5.11).
When these are not sufficient to make a good Debian package, modifications to the upstream source recorded
as the -p1 patches in the debian/patches/ directory is deployed. These patches are applied in the sequence defined
in the debian/patches/series file before building the package (see Section 5.8). Simple examples are given in
Section 4.8.
You should address the root cause of the Debian packaging problem by the least invasive way. The generated
package shall be more robust for future upgrades in this way.

Note

Send the patch addressing the root cause to the upstream maintainer if it is useful
to the upstream.

5.13 Recording in VCS (standard)

Typically, Git is used as the VCS to record the Debian packaging activity with the following branches.

• master branch

– Record the source tree used for the Debian packaging.

– The upstream portion of the source tree is recorded unmodified.
– The upstream modifications for the Debian packaging are recorded in the debian/patches/ directory as
the -p1 patches.

• upstream branch

– Record the upstream source tree untarred from the released upstream tarball.

50
CHAPTER 5. BASICS 5.14. RECORDING IN VCS (ALTERNATIVE)

Tip

It’s a good idea to add to the .gitignore file the listing .pc.

Tip

Add unapply-patches and abort-on-upstream-changes lines to the

debian/source/local-options file to keep the upstream portion unmodified.

Tip

You may also track the upstream VCS data with a branch different from the up-
stream branch to ease cherry-picking of patches.

5.14 Recording in VCS (alternative)

You may not wish to keep up with creating the -p1 patch files for all upstream changes needed. You can record the
Debian packaging activity with the following branches.
• master branch
– Record the source tree used for the Debian packaging.
– The upstream portion of the source tree is recorded with modifications for the Debian packaging.
• upstream branch
– Record the upstream source tree untarred from the released upstream tarball.
Adding a few extra files in the debian/ directory enables you to do this.

$ tar -xvzf <package-version>.tar.gz

$ ln -sf <package_version>.orig.tar.gz
$ cd <package-version>/
... hack...hack...
$ echo "single-debian-patch" >> debian/source/local-options
$ cat >debian/source/local-patch-header <<END
This patch contains all the Debian-specific changes mixed
together. To review them separately, please inspect the VCS
history at https://git.debian.org/?=collab-maint/foo.git.

Let the dpkg-source command invoked by the Debian package build process (dpkg-buildpackage, debuild,
…) generate the -p1 patch file debian/patches/debian-changes automatically.

Tip

This approach can be adopted for any VCS tools. Since this approach merges
all changes into a merged patch, it is desirable to keep the VCS data publicly
accessible.

51
CHAPTER 5. BASICS 5.15. BUILDING PACKAGE WITHOUT …

Tip

The debian/source/local-options and debian/source/local-patch-header files

are meant to be recorded in the VCS. These aren’t included in the Debian source
package.

5.15 Building package without extraneous contents

There are a few cases which cause the inclusion of undesirable contents in the generated Debian source package.
• The upstream source tree may be placed under the version control system. When the package is rebuilt from
this source tree, the generated Debian source package contains extraneous contents from the version control
system files.
• The upstream source tree may contain some auto-generated files. When the package is rebuilt from this source
tree, the generated Debian source package contains extraneous contents from the auto-generated files.
Normally, the -i and -I options set in Section 3.5 for the dpkg-source command should avoid these. Here, the
-i option is aimed at the non-native package while the -I is aimed at the native package. See dpkg-source(1) and
the “dpkg-source --help” output.
There are several methods to avoid inclusion of undesirable contents.

5.15.1 Fix by debian/rules clean

The problem of extraneous contents can be fixed by removing such files in the “debian/rules clean” target. This
is also useful for auto-generated files.

Note

The “debian/rules clean” target is called before the “dpkg-source --build” com-
mand by the dpkg-buildpackage command and the “dpkg-source --build” com-
mand ignores removed files.

5.15.2 Fix using VCS

The problem of extraneous contents can be fixed by restoring the source tree by committing the source tree to the
VCS before the first build.
You can restore the source tree before the second package build. For example:

$ git reset --hard

$ git clean -dfx
$ debuild

This works because the dpkg-source command ignores the contents of the typical VCS files in the source tree
with the DEBUILD_DPKG_BUILDPACKAGE_OPTS setting in Section 3.5.

Tip

If the source tree is not managed by a VCS, you should run “git init; git add -A
.; git commit” before the first build.

52
CHAPTER 5. BASICS 5.16. UPSTREAM BUILD SYSTEMS

5.15.3 Fix by extend-diff-ignore

This is for a non-native package.
The problem of extraneous diffs can be fixed by ignoring changes made to parts of the source tree by adding
the “extend-diff-ignore=…” line in the debian/source/options file.
For excluding the config.sub, config.guess and Makefile files:

# Don't store changes on autogenerated files

extend-diff-ignore = "(^|/)(config\.sub|config\.guess|Makefile)$"

Note

This approach always works, even when you can’t remove the file. So it saves
you having to make a backup of the unmodified file just to be able to restore it
before the next build.

Tip

If the debian/source/local-options file is used instead, you can hide this setting
from the generated source package. This may be useful when the local non-
standard VCS files interfere with your packaging.

5.15.4 Fix by tar-ignore

This is for a native package.
You can exclude some files in the source tree from the generated tarball by tweaking the file glob by adding the
“tar-ignore=…” lines in the debian/source/options or debian/source/local-options files.

Note
If, for example, the source package of a native package needs files with the
file extension .o as a part of the test data, the setting in Section 3.5 is too ag-
gressive. You can work around this problem by dropping the -I option for DE-
BUILD_DPKG_BUILDPACKAGE_OPTS in Section 3.5 while adding the “tar-
ignore=…” lines in the debian/source/local-options file for each package.

5.16 Upstream build systems

Upstream build systems are designed to go through several steps to install generated binary files to the system from
the source distribution.

Tip

Before attempting to make a Debian package, you should become familiar with
the upstream build system of the upstream source code and try to build it.

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CHAPTER 5. BASICS 5.16. UPSTREAM BUILD SYSTEMS

5.16.1 Autotools
Autotools (autoconf + automake) has 4 steps.
1. set up the build system (“vim configure.ac Makefile.am” and “autoreconf -ivf”)
2. configure the build system (“./configure”)

3. build the source tree (“make”)

4. install the binary files (“make install”)
The upstream maintainer usually performs step 1 and builds the upstream tarball for distribution using the
“make dist” command. (The generated tarball contains not only the pristine upstream VCS contents but also other
generated files.)
The package maintainer needs to take care of steps 2 to 4 at least. This is realized by the “dh $@ --with
autotools-dev” command used in the debian/rules file.
The package maintainer may wish to take care all steps 1 to 4. This is realized by the “dh $@ --with autoreconf”
command used in the debian/rules file. This rebuilds all auto-generated files to the latest version and provides better
support for porting to the newer architectures.
For compat level 10 or newer, the simple “dh $@” command without “--with autoreconf” option can take
care all steps 1 to 4, too.
If you wish to learn more on Autotools, please see:
• GNU Automake documentation
• GNU Autoconf documentation

• Autotools Tutorial
• Introduction to the autotools (autoconf, automake, and libtool)
• Autotools Mythbuster

5.16.2 CMake
CMake has 4 steps.

1. set up the build system (“vim CMakeLists.txt config.h.in”)

2. configure the build system (“cmake”)
3. build the source tree (“make”)
4. install the binary files (“make install”)

The upstream tarball contains no auto-generated files and is generated by the tar command after step 1.
The package maintainer needs to take care of steps 2 to 4.
If you wish to learn more on the CMake, please see:
• CMake

• CMake tutorial

5.16.3 Python distutils

Python distutils has 3 steps.
1. set up and configure the build system (“vim setup.py”)
2. build the source tree (“python setup.py build”)

3. install the binary files (“python setup.py install”)

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CHAPTER 5. BASICS 5.17. DEBUGGING INFORMATION

The upstream maintainer usually performs step 1 and builds the upstream tarball for distribution using the
“python setup.py sdist” command.
The package maintainer needs to take care of step 2. This is realized simply by the “dh $@” command used in
the debian/rules file, after jessie.
The situation of other build systems, such as CMake, are very similar to this Python one.
If you wish to learn more on Python3 and distutils, please see:

• Python3
• distutils

5.17 Debugging information

The Debian package is built with the debugging information but packaged into the binary package after stripping
the debugging information as required by Chapter 10 - Files of the “Debian Policy Manual”.
See
• 6.7.9. Best practices for debug packages of the “Debian Developer’s Reference”.
• 18.2 Debugging Information in Separate Files of the “Debugging with gdb”

• dh_strip(1)
• strip(1)
• readelf(1)
• objcopy(1)

• Debian wiki DebugPackage

• Debian wiki AutomaticDebugPackages
• Debian debian-devel post: Status on automatic debug packages (2015-08-15)

5.17.1 New -dbgsym package (Stretch 9.0 and after)

The debugging information is automatically packaged separately as the debug package using the dh_strip command
with its default behavior. The name of such a debug package normally has the -dbgsym suffix.
If there were no -dbg packages defined in the debian/control file, no special care is needed for updating the
package after the Stretch 9.0 release.
• The debian/rules file shouldn’t explicitly contain dh_strip.

• Set debian/compat to 11 or newer.

• Bump the Build-Depends to debhelper (>=11~) or newer.
If there were -dbg packages defined in the debian/control file, following care is needed for updating the old
package after the Stretch 9.0 release.

• Drop definition entries of such -dbg packages in the debian/control file.

• Replace “dh_strip --dbg-package=package” with “dh_strip --dbgsym-migration=package” in the de-
bian/rules file to avoid file conflicts with the (now obsolete) -dbg package. See dh_strip(1).
• Set debian/compat to 11 or newer.

• Bump the Build-Depends to debhelper (>=11~) or newer.

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CHAPTER 5. BASICS 5.18. LIBRARY PACKAGE

5.18 Library package

Packaging library software requires you to perform much more work than usual. Here are some reminders for
packaging library software:
• The library binary package must be named as in Section 5.5.1.3.
• Debian ships shared libraries such as /usr/lib/<triplet>/libfoo-0.1.so.1.0.0 (see Section 5.20).
• Debian encourages using versioned symbols in the shared library (see Section 5.18.1).
• Debian doesn’t ship *.la libtool library archive files.
• Debian discourages using and shipping *.a static library files.
Before packaging shared library software, see:
• Chapter 8 - Shared libraries of the “Debian Policy Manual”
• 10.2 Libraries of the “Debian Policy Manual”
• 6.7.2. Libraries of the “Debian Developer’s Reference”
For the historic background study, see:
• Escaping the Dependency Hell 6
– This encourages having versioned symbols in the shared library.
• Debian Library Packaging guide 7
– Please read the discussion thread following its announcement, too.

5.18.1 Library symbols

The symbols support in dpkg introduced in Debian lenny (5.0, May 2009) helps us to manage the backward ABI
compatibility of the library package with the same package name. The DEBIAN/symbols file in the binary package
provides the minimal version associated with each symbol.
An oversimplified method for the library packaging is as follows.
• Extract the old DEBIAN/symbols file of the immediate previous binary package with the “dpkg-deb -e”
command.

– Alternatively, the mc command may be used to extract the DEBIAN/symbols file.

• Copy it to the debian/binarypackage.symbols file.

– If this is the first package, use an empty content file instead.

• Build the binary package.

– If the dpkg-gensymbols command warns about some new symbols:

* Extract the updated DEBIAN/symbols file with the “dpkg-deb -e” command.
* Trim the Debian revision such as -1 in it.
* Copy it to the debian/binarypackage.symbols file.
* Re-build the binary package.
– If the dpkg-gensymbols command does not warn about new symbols:

* You are done with the library packaging.

For the details, you should read the following primary references.
6 This document was written before the introduction of the symbols file.
7 The strong preference is to use the SONAME versioned -dev package names over the single -dev package name in Chapter 6. Develop-
ment (-DEV) packages, which does not seem to be shared by the former ftp-master (Steve Langasek). This document was written before the
introduction of the multiarch system and the symbols file.

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CHAPTER 5. BASICS 5.19. DEBCONF

• 8.6.3 The symbols system of the “Debian Policy Manual”

• dh_makeshlibs(1)
• dpkg-gensymbols(1)
• dpkg-shlibdeps(1)
• deb-symbols(5)
Yous should also check:
• Debian wiki UsingSymbolsFiles
• Debian wiki Projects/ImprovedDpkgShlibdeps
• Debian kde team Working with symbols files
• Section 8.11
• Section 8.12

Tip
For C++ libraries and other cases where the tracking of symbols is problematic,
follow 8.6.4 The shlibs system of the “Debian Policy Manual”, instead. Please
make sure to erase the empty debian/binarypackage.symbols file generated by
the debmake command. For this case, the DEBIAN/shlibs file is used.

5.18.2 Library transition

When you package a new library package version which affects other packages, you must file a transition bug
report against the release.debian.org pseudo package using the reportbug command with the ben file and wait for
the approval for its upload from the Release Team.
Release team has the transition tracker. See Transitions.

Caution

Please make sure to rename binary packages as in Section 5.5.1.3.

5.19 debconf
The debconf package enables us to configure packages during their installation in 2 main ways:
• non-interactively from the debian-installer pre-seeding.
• interactively from the menu interface (dialog, gnome, kde, …)

– the package installation: invoked by the dpkg command

– the installed package: invoked by the dpkg-reconfigure command

All user interactions for the package installation must be handled by this debconf system using the following
files.
• debian/binarypackage.config
– This is the debconf config script used for asking any questions necessary to configure the package.

57
CHAPTER 5. BASICS 5.20. MULTIARCH

• debian/binarypackage.template

– This is the debconf templates file used for asking any questions necessary to configure the package.
• package configuration scripts

– debian/binarypackage.preinst
– debian/binarypackage.prerm
– debian/binarypackage.postinst
– debian/binarypackage.postrm

See dh_installdebconf(1), debconf(7), debconf-devel(7) and 3.9.1 Prompting in maintainer scripts in the “De-
bian Policy Manual”.

5.20 Multiarch
Multiarch support for cross-architecture installation of binary packages (particularly i386 and amd64, but also other
combinations) in the dpkg and apt packages introduced in Debian wheezy (7.0, May 2013), demands that we pay
extra attention to packaging.
You should read the following references in detail.
• Ubuntu wiki (upstream)

– MultiarchSpec

• Debian wiki (Debian situation)

– Debian multiarch support

– Multiarch/Implementation

The multiarch is enabled by using the <triplet> value such as i386-linux-gnu and x86_64-linux-gnu in the
install path of shared libraries as /usr/lib/<triplet>/, etc..

• The <triplet> value required internally by debhelper scripts is implicitly set in themselves. The maintainer
doesn’t need to worry.
• The <triplet> value used in override_dh_* target scripts must be explicitly set in the debian/rules file by the
maintainer. The <triplet> value is stored in the $(DEB_HOST_MULTIARCH) variable in the following
debian/rules snippet example:

DEB_HOST_MULTIARCH = $(shell dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_MULTIARCH)

...
override_dh_install:
mkdir -p package1/lib/$(DEB_HOST_MULTIARCH)
cp -dR tmp/lib/. package1/lib/$(DEB_HOST_MULTIARCH)

See:
• Section 5.4.4
• dpkg-architecture(1)

• Section 5.5.1.1
• Section 5.5.1.2

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CHAPTER 5. BASICS 5.20. MULTIARCH

Table 5.1 The multiarch library path options

Classic path i386 multiarch path amd64 multiarch path
/lib/ /lib/i386-linux-gnu/ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/
/usr/lib/ /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/ /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/

5.20.1 The multiarch library path

Debian policy requires following Filesystem Hierarchy Standard. Its /usr/lib : Libraries for programming and
packages states ”/usr/lib includes object files, libraries, and internal binaries that are not intended to be executed
directly by users or shell scripts.”
Debian policy makes an exception to the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard to use /usr/lib/<triplet>/ instead of
/usr/lib<qual>/ (e.g., /lib32/ and /lib64/) to support a multiarch library.
For Autotools based packages under the debhelper package (compat>=9), this path setting is automatically
taken care by the dh_auto_configure command.
For other packages with non-supported build systems, you need to manually adjust the install path as follows.
• If “./configure” is used in the override_dh_auto_configure target in debian/rules, make sure to replace it
with “dh_auto_configure --” while re-targeting the install path from /usr/lib/ to /usr/lib/$(DEB_HOST_MULTIARCH)/.

• Replace all occurrences of /usr/lib/ with /usr/lib/*/ in debian/foo.install files.

All files installed simultaneously as the multiarch package to the same file path should have exactly the same file
content. You must be careful with differences generated by the data byte order and by the compression algorithm.

Note
The --libexecdir option of the ./configure command specifies the default path to
install executable programs run by other programs rather than by users. Its Au-
totools default is /usr/libexec/ but its Debian non-multi-arch default is /usr/lib/.
If such executables are a part of a ”Multi-arch: foreign” package, a path such as
/usr/lib/ or /usr/lib/packagename may be more desirable than /usr/lib/<triplet>/,
which dh_auto_configure uses. The GNU Coding Standards: 7.2.5 Variables
for Installation Directories has a description for libexecdir as ”The definition of
libexecdir is the same for all packages, so you should install your data in a sub-
directory thereof. Most packages install their data under $(libexecdir)/package-
name/ …”. (It is always a good idea to follow GNU unless it conflicts with the
Debian policy.)

The shared library files in the default path /usr/lib/ and /usr/lib/<triplet>/ are loaded automatically.
For shared library files in another path, the GCC option -l must be set by the pkg-config command to make
them load properly.

5.20.2 The multiarch header file path

GCC includes both /usr/include/ and /usr/include/<triplet>/ by default on the multiarch Debian system.
If the header file is not in those paths, the GCC option -I must be set by the pkg-config command to make
”#include <foo.h>” work properly.

Table 5.2 The multiarch header file path options

Classic path i386 multiarch path amd64 multiarch path
/usr/include/ /usr/include/i386-linux-gnu/ /usr/include/x86_64-linux-gnu/
/usr/include/packagename/ /usr/include/i386-linux- /usr/include/x86_64-linux-
gnu/packagename/ gnu/packagename/
/usr/lib/i386-linux- /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-
gnu/packagename/ gnu/packagename/

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CHAPTER 5. BASICS 5.21. COMPILER HARDENING

The use of the /usr/lib/<triplet>/packagename/ path for the library files allows the upstream maintainer to use
the same install script for the multiatch system with /usr/lib/<triplet> and the biarch system with /usr/lib<qual>/.
8

The use of the file path containing packagename enables having more than 2 development libraries simultane-
ously installed on a system.

5.20.3 The multiarch *.pc file path

The pkg-config program is used to retrieve information about installed libraries in the system. It stores its config-
uration parameters in the *.pc file and is used for setting the -I and -l options for GCC.

Table 5.3 The *.pc file path options

Classic path i386 multiarch path amd64 multiarch path
/usr/lib/pkgconfig/ /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/pkgconfig/ /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-
gnu/pkgconfig/

5.21 Compiler hardening

The compiler hardening support spreading for Debian jessie (8.0, TBA) demands that we pay extra attention to the
packaging.
You should read the following references in detail.
• Debian wiki Hardening
• Debian wiki Hardening Walkthrough
The debmake command adds template comments to the debian/rules file as needed for DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS,
DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND, and DEB_LDFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND (see Chapter 4 and dpkg-buildflags(1)).

5.22 Continuous integration

DEP-8 defines the debian/tests/control file as the RFC822-style test metadata file for continuous integration (CI)
of the Debian package.
It is used after building the binary packages from the source package containing this debian/tests/control
file. When the autopkgtest command is run, the generated binary packages are installed and tested in the virtual
environment according to this file.
See documents in the /usr/share/doc/autopkgtest/ directory and 3. autopkgtest: Automatic testing for pack-
ages of the “Ubuntu Packaging Guide”.
There are several other CI tools on Debian for you to explore.

• The debci package: CI platform on top of the autopkgtest package

• The jenkins package: generic CI platform

5.23 Bootstrapping
Debian cares about supporting new ports or flavours. The new ports or flavours require bootstrapping operation
for the cross-build of the initial minimal native-building system. In order to avoid build-dependency loops during
bootstrapping, the build-dependency needs to be reduced using the profile builds feature.
8 This path is compliant with the FHS. Filesystem Hierarchy Standard: /usr/lib : Libraries for programming and packages states ”Applica-

tions may use a single subdirectory under /usr/lib. If an application uses a subdirectory, all architecture-dependent data exclusively used by the
application must be placed within that subdirectory.”

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CHAPTER 5. BASICS 5.24. BUG REPORTS

Tip

If a core package foo build depends on a package bar with deep build depen-
dency chains but bar is only used in the test target in foo, you can safely mark
the bar with <!nocheck> in the Build-depends of foo to avoid build loops.

5.24 Bug reports

The reportbug command used for the bug report of binarypackage can be customized by the files in usr/share/bug/binarypackage
The dh_bugfiles command installs these files from the template files in the debian/ directory.
• debian/binarypackage.bug-control → usr/share/bug/binarypackage/control
– This file contains some directions such as redirecting the bug report to another package.

• debian/binarypackage.bug-presubj → usr/share/bug/binarypackage/presubj
– This file is displayed to the user by the reportbug command.
• debian/binarypackage.bug-script → usr/share/bug/binarypackage or usr/share/bug/binarypackage/script
– The reportbug command runs this script to generate a template file for the bug report.

See dh_bugfiles(1) and reportbug’s Features for Developers

Tip

If you always remind the bug reporter of something or ask them about their situ-
ation, use these files to automate it.

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Chapter 6

debmake options

Here are some notable options for the debmake command.

6.1 Shortcut options (-a, -i)

The debmake command offers 2 shortcut options.

• -a : open the upstream tarball

• -i : execute script to build the binary package
The example in the above Chapter 4 can be done simply as follows.

$ debmake -a package-1.0.tar.gz -i debuild

Tip

A URL such as “https://www.example.org/DL/package-1.0.tar.gz” may be used

for the -a option.

Tip

A URL such as “https://arm.koji.fedoraproject.org/packages/ibus/1.5.7/3.fc21/src/ibus-

1.5.7-3.fc21.src.rpm” may be used for the -a option, too.

6.1.1 Python module

You can generate a functioning single binary Debian package with a reasonable package description directly from
the Python module package offered as a tarball, pythonmodule-1.0.tar.gz. The -b option specifying the package
type python and the -s option to copy the package description from the upstream package need to be specified.

$ debmake -s -b':python' -a pythonmodule-1.0.tar.gz -i debuild

For other interpreted languages that support the -b option, specify the pertinent type for the -b option.
For interpreted languages without the -b option support, specify the script type instead and add the interpreter
package as a dependency of the resulting binary package by adjusting the debian/control file.

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CHAPTER 6. DEBMAKE OPTIONS 6.2. UPSTREAM SNAPSHOT (-D, -T)

6.2 Upstream snapshot (-d, -t)

The upstream snapshot from the upstream source tree in the VCS can be made with the -d option if the upstream
package supports the “make dist” equivalence.

$ cd /path/to/upstream-vcs
$ debmake -d -i debuild

Alternatively, the same can be made with the -t option if the upstream tarball can be made with the tar command.

$ cd /path/to/upstream-vcs
$ debmake -p package -t -i debuild

Unless you provide the upstream version with the -u option or with the debian/changelog file, a snapshot
upstream version is generated in the 0~%y%m%d%H%M format, e.g., 0~1403012359, from the UTC date and
time.
If the upstream VCS is hosted in the package/ directory instead of the upstream-vcs/ directory, the “-p package”
can be skipped.
If the upstream source tree in the VCS contains the debian/* files, the debmake command with either the -d
option or the -t option combined with the -i option automates the making of a non-native Debian package from the
VCS snapshot while using these debian/* files.

$ cp -r /path/to/package-0~1403012359/debian/. /path/to/upstream-vcs/debian
$ dch
... update debian/changelog
$ git add -A .; git commit -m "vcs with debian/*"
$ debmake -t -p package -i debuild

This non-native Debian binary package building scheme using the “debmake -t -i debuild” command may be
considered as the quasi-native Debian package scheme since the packaging situation resembles the native Debian
binary package building case using the debuild command without the upstream tarball.
Use of a non-native Debian package helps to ease communication with the downstream distros such as Ubuntu
for bug fixes etc.

6.3 debmake -cc

The debmake command with the -cc option can make a summary of the copyright and license for the entire source
tree to standard output.

$ tar -xvzf package-1.0.tar.gz

$ cd package-1.0
$ debmake -cc | less

With the -c option, this provides shorter report.

6.4 debmake -k
When updating a package for the new upstream release, the debmake command can verify the content of the
existing debian/copyright file against the copyright and license situation of the entire updated source tree.

$ cd package-vcs
$ gbp import-orig --uscan --pristine-tar
... update source with the new upstream release
$ debmake -k | less

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CHAPTER 6. DEBMAKE OPTIONS 6.5. DEBMAKE -J

The “debmake -k” command parses the debian/copyright file from the top to the bottom and compares the
license of all the non-binary files in the current package with the license described in the last matching file pattern
entry of the debian/copyright file.
When editing the auto-generated debian/copyright file, please make sure to keep the generic file patterns at
the top of the list.

Tip

For all new upstream releases, run the “debmake -k” command to ensure that
the debian/copyright file is current.

6.5 debmake -j
The generation of a functioning multi-binary package always requires more manual work than that of a functioning
single binary package. The test build of the source package is the essential part of it.
For example, let’s package the same package-1.0.tar.gz (see Chapter 4) into a multi binary package.
• Invoke the debmake command with the -j option for the test building and the report generation.

$ debmake -j -a package-1.0.tar.gz

• Check the last lines of the package.build-dep.log file to judge build dependencies for Build-Depends. (You
do not need to list packages used by debhelper, perl, or fakeroot explicitly in Build-Depends. This tech-
nique is useful for the generation of a single binary package, too.)
• Check the contents of the package.install.log file to identify the install paths for files to decide how you split
them into multiple packages.
• Start packaging with the debmake command.

$ rm -rf package-1.0
$ tar -xvzf package-1.0.tar.gz
$ cd package-1.0
$ debmake -b"package1:type1, ..."

• Update debian/control and debian/binarypackage.install files using the above information.

• Update other debian/* files as needed.
• Build the Debian package with the debuild command or its equivalent.

$ debuild

• All binary package entries specified in the debian/binarypackage.install file are generated as binarypackage_version-
revision_arch.deb.

Note
The -j option for the debmake command invokes dpkg-depcheck(1) to run de-
bian/rules under strace(1) to obtain library dependencies. Unfortunately, this
is very slow. If you know the library package dependencies from other sources
such as the SPEC file in the source, you may just run the ”debmake …” com-
mand without the -j option and run the “debian/rules install” command to check
the install paths of the generated files.

64
CHAPTER 6. DEBMAKE OPTIONS 6.6. DEBMAKE -X

6.6 debmake -x
The amount of template files generated by the debmake command depends on the -x[01234] option.
• See Section 8.1 for cherry-picking of the template files.

Note

None of the existing configuration files are modified by the debmake command.

6.7 debmake -P
The debmake command invoked with the -P option pedantically checks auto-generated files for copyright+license
text even if they are with permissive license.
This option affects not only the content of the debian/copyright file generated by normal execution, but also
the output by the execution with the -k, -c, -cc, and -ccc options.

6.8 debmake -T
The debmake command invoked with the -T option additionally prints verbose tutorial comment lines. The lines
marked with ### in the template files are part of the verbose tutorial comment lines.

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Chapter 7

Tips

Here are some notable tips about Debian packaging.

7.1 debdiff
You can compare file contents in two source Debian packages with the debdiff command.

$ debdiff old-package.dsc new-package.dsc

You can also compare file lists in two sets of binary Debian packages with the debdiff command.

$ debdiff old-package.changes new-package.changes

These are useful to identify what has been changed in the source packages and to check for inadvertent changes
made when updating binary packages, such as unintentionally misplacing or removing files.

7.2 dget
You can download the set of files for the Debian source package with the dget command.

$ dget https://www.example.org/path/to/package_version-rev.dsc

7.3 debc
You should install generated packages with the debc command to test it locally.

$ debc package_version-rev_arch.changes

7.4 piuparts
You should install generated packages with the piuparts command to test it automatically.

$ sudo piuparts package_version-rev_arch.changes

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CHAPTER 7. TIPS 7.5. DEBSIGN

Note

This is a very slow process with remote APT package repository access.

7.5 debsign
After completing the test of the package, you can sign it with the debsign command.

$ debsign package_version-rev_arch.changes

7.6 dput
After signing the package with the debsign command, you can upload the set of files for the Debian source and
binary packages with the dput command.

$ dput package_version-rev_arch.changes

7.7 bts
After uploading the package, you will receive bug reports. It is an important duty of a package maintainer to manage
these bugs properly as described in 5.8. Handling bugs of the “Debian Developer’s Reference”.
The bts command is a handy tool to manage bugs on the Debian Bug Tracking System.

$ bts severity 123123 wishlist , tags -1 pending

7.8 git-buildpackage
The git-buildpackage package offers many commands to automate packaging activities using the git repository.

• gbp import-dsc: import the previous Debian source package to the git repository.
• gbp import-orig: import the new upstream tar to the git repository.

– The --pristine-tar option for the git import-orig command enables storing the upstream tarball in the
same git repository.
– The --uscan option as the last argument of the gbp import-orig command enables downloading and
committing the new upstream tarball into the git repository.

• gbp dch: generate the Debian changelog from the git commit messages.
• gbp buildpackage: build the Debian binary package from the git repository.

• gbp pull: update the debian, upstream and pristine-tar branches safely from the remote repository.
• git-pbuilder: build the Debian binary package from the git repository using the pbuilder package.

– The cowbuilder package is used as its backend.

• The gbp pq, git-dpm or quilt (or alias dquilt) commands are used to manage quilt patches.

67
CHAPTER 7. TIPS 7.9. UPSTREAM GIT REPOSITORY

– The dquilt command is the simplest to learn and requires you to commit the resulting files manually
with the git command to the master branch.
– The “gbp pq” command provides the equivalent functionality of patch set management without using
dquilt and eases including upstream git repository changes by cherry-picking.
– The “git dpm” command provides more enhanced functionality than that of the ‘gbp pq’’ command.
Package history management with the git-buildpackage package is becoming the standard practice for most
Debian maintainers.
See:
• Building Debian Packages with git-buildpackage
• https://wiki.debian.org/GitPackagingWorkflow
• https://wiki.debian.org/GitPackagingWorkflow/DebConf11BOF
• https://raphaelhertzog.com/2010/11/18/4-tips-to-maintain-a-3-0-quilt-debian-source-package-in-a-vcs/
• The systemd packaging practice documentation on Building from source.

Tip

Relax. You don’t need to use all the wrapper tools. Use only ones which match
your needs.

7.8.1 gbp import-dscs --debsnap

For Debian source packages named <source-package> recorded in the snapshot.debian.org archive, an initial git
repository with all of the Debian version history can be generated as follows.

$ gbp import-dscs --debsnap --pristine-tar '<source-package>'

7.9 Upstream git repository

For Debian packaging with the git-buildpackage package, the upstream branch on the remote repository origin
is normally used to track the content of the released upstream tarball.
The upstream git repository can also be tracked by naming its remote repository as upstream instead of the
default origin. Then you can easily cherry-pick recent upstream changes into the Debian revision by cherry-picking
with the gitk command and using the gbp-pq command.

Tip

The “gbp import-orig --upstream-vcs-tag” command can create a nice packag-

ing history by making a merge commit into the upstream branch from the speci-
fied tag on the upstream git repository.

Caution

The content of the released upstream tarball may not match exactly with the cor-
responding content of the upstream git repository. It may contain some auto-
generated files or miss some files. (Autotools, distutils, …)

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CHAPTER 7. TIPS 7.10. CHROOT

7.10 chroot
The chroot for a clean package build environment can be created and managed using the tools described in Chap-
ter 3. 1
Here is a quick summary of available package build commands. There are many ways to do the same thing.
• dpkg-buildpackage = core of package building tool
• debuild = dpkg-buildpackage + lintian (build under the sanitized environment variables)
• pbuilder = core of the Debian chroot environment tool
• pdebuild = pbuilder + dpkg-buildpackage (build in the chroot)
• cowbuilder = speed up the pbuilder execution
• git-pbuilder = the easy-to-use command line syntax for pdebuild (used by gbp buildpackge)
• gbp = manage the Debian source under git
• gbp buildpackge = pbuilder + dpkg-buildpackage + gbp
A clean sid distribution chroot environment can be used as follows.
• The chroot filesystem creation command for the sid distribution

– pbuilder create
– git-pbuilder create

• The master chroot filesystem path for the sid distribution chroot filesystem

– /var/cache/pbuilder/base.cow

• The package build command for the sid distribution chroot

– pdebuild
– git-pbuilder
– gbp buildpackage

• The command to update the sid chroot

– pbuilder --update
– git-pbuilder update

• The command to login to the sid chroot filesystem to modify it

– git-pbuilder login --save-after-login

An arbitrary dist distribution environment can be used as follows.

• The chroot filesystem creation command for the dist distribution

– pbuilder create --distribution dist

– DIST=dist git-pbuilder create

• The master chroot filesystem path for the dist distribution chroot

– path: /var/cache/pbuilder/base-dist.cow

• The package build command for the dist distribution chroot

– pdebuild -- --basepath=/var/cache/pbuilder/base-dist.cow
1 The git-pbuilder style organization is deployed here. See https://wiki.debian.org/git-pbuilder . Be careful since many HOWTOs use

different organization.

69
CHAPTER 7. TIPS 7.10. CHROOT

– DIST=dist git-pbuilder
– gbp buildpackage --git-dist=dist
• The command to update the dist chroot
– pbuilder update --basepath=/var/cache/pbuilder/base-dist.cow
– DIST=dist git-pbuilder update
• The command to login to the dist chroot to modify it
– pbuilder --login --basepath=/var/cache/pbuilder/base-dist.cow --save-after-login
– DIST=dist git-pbuilder login --save-after-login

Tip

A custom environment with some pre-loaded packages needed for the new ex-
perimental packages, this “git-pbuilder login --save-after-login” command is
quite handy.

Tip

If your old chroot filesystem is missing packages such as libeatmydata1,

ccache, and lintian, you may want to install these with the “git-pbuilder login
--save-after-login” command.

Tip
The chroot filesystem can be cloned simply by copying with the “cp -a base-
dist.cow base-customdist.cow” command. The new chroot filesystem can be
accessed as “gbp buildpackage --git-dist=customdist” and “DIST=customdist
git-pbuilder …”.

Tip
When the orig.tar.gz file needs to be uploaded for a Debian revision other than
0 or 1 (e.g., for a security upload), add the -sa option to the end of dpkg-
buildpackage, debuild, pdebuild, and git-pbuilder commands. For the “gbp
buildpackage” command, temporarily modify the builder setting of ~/.gbp.conf.

Note
The description in this section is too terse to be useful for most of the prospective
maintainers. This is the intentional choice of the author. You are highly encour-
aged to search and read all the pertinent documents associated with the com-
mands used.

70
CHAPTER 7. TIPS 7.11. NEW DEBIAN REVISION

7.11 New Debian revision

Let’s assume that a bug report #bug_number was filed against your package, and it describes a problem that you
can solve by editing the buggy file in the upstream source. Here’s what you need to do to create a new Debian
revision of the package with the bugname.patch file recording the fix.
New Debian revision with the dquilt command

$ dquilt push -a
$ dquilt new bugname.patch
$ dquilt add buggy
$ vim buggy
...
$ dquilt refresh
$ dquilt header -e
$ dquilt pop -a
$ dch -i

Alternatively if the package is managed in the git repository using the git-buildpackage command with its
default configuration:
New Debian revision with the gbp-pq command

$ git checkout master

$ gbp pq import
$ vim buggy
$ git add buggy
$ git commit
$ git tag pq/<newrev>
$ gbp pq export
$ gbp drop
$ git add debian/patches/*
$ dch -i
$ git commit -a -m "Closes: #<bug_number>"

Please make sure to describe concisely the changes that fix reported bugs and close those bugs by adding
“Closes: #<bug_number>” in the debian/changelog file.

Tip

Use a debian/changelog entry with a version string such as 1.0.1-1~rc1 when

you experiment. Then, unclutter such changelog entries into a single entry for
the official package.

7.12 New upstream release

If a package foo is properly packaged in the modern “3.0 (native)” or “3.0 (quilt)” formats, packaging a new
upstream release is essentially moving the old debian/ directory to the new source. This can be done by running
the “tar -xvzf /path/to/foo_oldversion.debian.tar.gz” command in the new extracted source. 2 Of course, you need
to do some obvious chores.
There are several tools to handle this situation. After updating to the new upstream release with these tools,
please make sure to describe concisely the changes in the new upstream release that fix reported bugs and close
those bugs by adding “Closes: #bug_number” in the debian/changelog file.

7.12.1 uupdate + tarball

You can automatically update to the new upstream source with the uupdate command from the devscripts package.
It requires having the old Debian source package and the new upstream tarball.
2 If a package foo is packaged in the old 1.0 format, this can be done by running the “zcat /path/to/foo_oldversion.diff.gz|patch -p1”

command in the new extracted source, instead.

71
CHAPTER 7. TIPS 7.12. NEW UPSTREAM RELEASE

$ wget https://example.org/foo/foo-newversion.tar.gz
$ cd foo-oldversion
$ uupdate -v newversion ../foo-newversion.tar.gz
...
$ cd ../foo-newversion
$ while dquilt push; do dquilt refresh; done
$ dch

7.12.2 uscan
You can automatically update to the new upstream source with the uscan command from the devscripts package.
It requires having the old Debian source package and the debian/watch file in it.

$ cd foo-oldversion
$ uscan
...
$ while dquilt push; do dquilt refresh; done
$ dch

7.12.3 gbp
You can automatically update to the new upstream source with the “gbp import-orig --pristine-tar” command
from the git-buildpackage package. It requires having the old Debian source in the git repository and the new
upstream tarball.

$ ln -sf foo-newversion.tar.gz foo_newversion.orig.tar.gz

$ cd foo-vcs
$ git checkout master
$ gbp pq import
$ git checkout master
$ gbp import-orig --pristine-tar ../foo_newversion.orig.tar.gz
...
$ gbp pq rebase
$ git checkout master
$ gbp pq export
$ gbp pq drop
$ git add debian/patches
$ dch -v <newversion>
$ git commit -a -m "Refresh patches"

Tip

If upstream uses a git repository, please also use the --upstream-vcs-tag option
for the gbp import-orig command.

7.12.4 gbp + uscan

You can automatically update to the new upstream source with the “gbp import-orig --pristine-tar --uscan” com-
mand from the git-buildpackage package. It requires having the old Debian source in the git repository and the
debian/watch file in it.

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CHAPTER 7. TIPS 7.13. 3.0 SOURCE FORMAT

$ cd foo-vcs
$ git checkout master
$ gbp pq import
$ git checkout master
$ gbp import-orig --pristine-tar --uscan
...
$ gbp pq rebase
$ git checkout master
$ gbp pq export
$ gbp pq drop
$ git add debian/patches
$ dch -v <newversion>
$ git commit -a -m "Refresh patches"

Tip

If upstream uses a git repository, please also use the --upstream-vcs-tag option
for the gbp import-orig command.

7.13 3.0 source format

Updating the package style is not a required activity for the update of a package. However, doing so lets you use
the full capabilities of the modern debhelper system and the 3.0 source format.
• If you need to recreate deleted template files for any reason, you can run debmake again in the same Debian
package source tree. Then edit them appropriately.
• If the package has not been updated to use the dh command for the debian/rules file, update it to use it (see
Section 5.4.2). Update the debian/control file accordingly.
• If you have a 1.0 source package with the foo.diff.gz file, you can update it to the newer “3.0 (quilt)” source
format by creating debian/source/format with “3.0 (quilt)”. The rest of the debian/* files can just be copied.
Import the big.diff file generated by the “filterdiff -z -x /debian/ foo.diff.gz > big.diff” command to your
quilt system, if needed. 3
• If it was packaged using another patch system such as dpatch, dbs, or cdbs with -p0, -p1, or -p2, convert it
to the quilt command using the deb3 script in the quilt package.
• If it was packaged with the dh command with the “--with quilt” option or with the dh_quilt_patch and
dh_quilt_unpatch commands, remove these and make it use the newer “3.0 (quilt)” source format.
• If you have a 1.0 source package without the foo.diff.gz file, you can update it to the newer “3.0 (native)”
source format by creating debian/source/format with “3.0 (native)”. The rest of the debian/* files can just
be copied.
You should check DEP - Debian Enhancement Proposals and adopt ACCEPTED proposals.
See ProjectsDebSrc3.0 to check the support status of the new Debian source formats by the Debian tool chains.

7.14 CDBS
The Common Debian Build System (CDBS) is a wrapper system over the debhelper package. The CDBS is based
on the Makefile inclusion mechanism and configured by the DEB_* configuration variables set in the debian/rules
file.
Before the introduction of the dh command to the debhelper package at the version 7, the CDBS was the only
approach to create a simple and clean debian/rules file.
3 You can split the big.diff file into many small incremental patch files using the splitdiff command.

73
CHAPTER 7. TIPS 7.15. BUILD UNDER UTF-8

For many simple packages, the dh command alone allows us to make a simple and clean debian/rules file now.
It is desirable to keep the build system simple and clean by not using the superfluous CDBS.

Note

Neither “the CDBS magically does the job for me with less typing” nor “I don’t un-
derstand the new dh syntax” can be an excuse to keep using the CDBS system.

For some complicated packages such as GNOME related ones, the CDBS is leveraged to automate their uniform
packaging by the current maintainers with justification. If this is the case, please do not bother converting from the
CDBS to the dh syntax.

Note

If you are working with a team of maintainers, please follow the established prac-
tice of the team.

When converting packages from the CDBS to the dh syntax, please use the following as your reference:
• CDBS Documentation
• The Common Debian Build System (CDBS), FOSDEM 2009

7.15 Build under UTF-8

The default locale of the build environment is C.
Some programs such as the read function of Python3 change their behavior depending on the locale.
Adding the following code to the debian/rules file ensures building the program under the C.UTF-8 locale.

LC_ALL := C.UTF-8
export LC_ALL

7.16 UTF-8 conversion

If upstream documents are encoded in old encoding schemes, converting them to UTF-8 is a good idea.
Use the iconv command in the libc-bin package to convert encodings of plain text files.

$ iconv -f latin1 -t utf8 foo_in.txt > foo_out.txt

Use w3m(1) to convert from HTML files to UTF-8 plain text files. When you do this, make sure to execute it
under UTF-8 locale.

$ LC_ALL=C.UTF-8 w3m -o display_charset=UTF-8 \

-cols 70 -dump -no-graph -T text/html \
< foo_in.html > foo_out.txt

Run these scripts in the override_dh_* target of the debian/rules file.

7.17 Upload orig.tar.gz

When you first upload the package to the archive, you need to include the original orig.tar.gz source, too.
If the Debian revision number of the package is either 1 or 0, this is the default. Otherwise, you must provide
the dpkg-buildpackage option -sa to the dpkg-buildpackage command.

74
CHAPTER 7. TIPS 7.18. SKIPPED UPLOADS

• dpkg-buildpackage -sa

• debuild -sa
• pdebuild --debbuildopts -sa
• git-pbuilder -sa

• For gbp buildpackage, edit the ~/.gbp.conf file.

Tip

On the other hand, the -sd option will force the exclusion of the original orig.tar.gz
source.

Tip

Security uploads require including the orig.tar.gz file.

7.18 Skipped uploads

If you created multiple entries in the debian/changelog while skipping uploads, you must create a proper *_.changes
file which includes all changes since the last upload. This can be done by specifying the dpkg-buildpackage option
-v with the last uploaded version, e.g., 1.2.

• dpkg-buildpackage -v1.2
• debuild -v1.2
• pdebuild --debbuildopts -v1.2

• git-pbuilder -v1.2
• For gbp buildpackage, edit the ~/.gbp.conf file.

7.19 Advanced packaging

Hints for the following can be found in the debhelper(7) manpage:

• differences of the debhelper tool behavior under “compat <= 8”

• building several binary packages with several different build conditions

– making multiple copies of the upstream source

– invoking multiple “dh_auto_configure -S …” commands in the override_dh_auto_configure target
– invoking multiple “dh_auto_build -S …” commands in the override_dh_auto_build target
– invoking multiple “dh_auto_install -S …” commands in the override_dh_auto_install target

• building udeb packages with “Package-Type: udeb” in debian/control (see Package-Type)

• excluding some packages for the bootstrapping process (see also BuildProfileSpec)

– adding the Build-Profiles fields in binary package stanzas in debian/control

75
CHAPTER 7. TIPS 7.20. OTHER DISTROS

– building packages with the DEB_BUILD_PROFILES environment variable set to the pertinent profile
name

Hints for the following can be found in the dpkg-source(1) manpage:

• naming convention for multiple upstream source tarballs

– packagename_version.orig.tar.gz
– packagename_version.orig-componentname.tar.gz

• recording the Debian changes to the upstream source package

– dpkg-source --commit

7.20 Other distros

Although the upstream tarball has all the information to build the Debian package, it is not always easy to figure
out which combination of options to use.
Also, the upstream package may be more focused on feature enhancements and may be less eager about back-
ward compatibilities etc., which are an important aspect of Debian packaging practice.
The leveraging of information from other distributions is an option to address the above issues.
If the other distribution of interest is a Debian derivative one, it is trivial to reuse it.
If the other distribution of interest is an RPM based distribution, see Repackage src.rpm.
Downloading and opening of the src.rpm file can be done with the rget command. (Place the rget script in
your PATH.)
rget script

#!/bin/sh
FCSRPM=$(basename $1)
mkdir ${FCSRPM}; cd ${FCSRPM}/
wget $1
rpm2cpio ${FCSRPM} | cpio -dium

Many upstream tarballs contain the SPEC file named as packagename.spec or packagename.spec.in used by
the RPM system. This can be used as the baseline for the Debian package, too.

7.21 Debug
When you face build problems or core dumps of generated binary programs, you need to resolve them yourself.
That’s debug.
This is too deep a topic to describe here. So, let me just list few pointers and hints for some typical debug tools.
• core dump
– “man core”
– Update the “/etc/security/limits.conf” file to include the following:

* soft core unlimited

– “ulimit -c unlimited” in ~/.bashrc

– “ulimit -a” to check
– Press Ctrl-\ or “kill -ABRT PID” to make a core dump file
• gdb - The GNU Debugger

– “info gdb”
– “Debugging with GDB” in /usr/share/doc/gdb-doc/html/gdb/index.html

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CHAPTER 7. TIPS 7.21. DEBUG

• strace - Trace system calls and signals

– Use strace-graph script found in /usr/share/doc/strace/examples/ to make a nice tree view

– “man strace”

• ltrace - Trace library calls

– “man ltrace”

• “sh -n script.sh” - Syntax check of a Shell script

• “sh -x script.sh” - Trace a Shell script
• “python -m py_compile script.py” - Syntax check of a Python script

• “python -mtrace --trace script.py” - Trace a Python script

• “perl -I ../libpath -c script.pl” - Syntax check of a Perl script
• “perl -d:Trace script.pl” - Trace a Perl script

– Install the libterm-readline-gnu-perl package or its equivalent to add input line editing capability with
history support.

• lsof - List open files by processes

– “man lsof”

Tip

The script command records console outputs.

Tip

The screen and tmux commands used with the ssh command offer secure and
robust remote connection terminals.

Tip

A Python- and Shell-like REPL (=READ + EVAL + PRINT + LOOP) environment

for Perl is offered by the reply command from the libreply-perl (new) package
and the re.pl command from the libdevel-repl-perl (old) package.

Tip

The rlwrap and rlfe commands add input line editing capability with history sup-
port to any interactive commands. E.g. “rlwrap dash -i”’ .

77
Chapter 8

More Examples

There is an old Latin saying: “fabricando fit faber” (“practice makes perfect”).
It is highly recommended to practice and experiment with all the steps of Debian packaging with simple pack-
ages. This chapter provides you with many upstream cases for your practice.
This should also serve as introductory examples for many programing topics.
• Programing in the POSIX shell, Python3, and C.
• Method to create a desktop GUI program launcher with icon graphics.
• Conversion of a command from CLI to GUI.
• Conversion of a program to use gettext for internationalization and localization: POSIX shell, Python3, and
C sources.
• Overview of many build systems: Makefile, Python distutils, Autotools, and CMake.
Please note that Debian takes a few things seriously:
• Free software (a.k.a. Libre software)
• Stability and security of OS
• Universal OS realized via:

– free choice for upstream sources,

– free choice of CPU architectures, and
– free choice of UI languages.

The typical packaging example presented in Chapter 4 is the prerequisite for this chapter.
Some details are intentionally left vague in the following sections. Please try to read the pertinent documentation
and practice yourself to find them out.

Tip

The best source of a packaging example is the current Debian archive itself.
Please use the “Debian Code Search” service to find pertinent examples.

8.1 Cherry-pick templates

Here is an example of creating a simple Debian package from a zero content source on an empty directory.
This is a good platform to get all the template files without making a mess in the upstream source tree you are
working on.
Let’s assume this empty directory to be debhello-0.1.

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CHAPTER 8. MORE EXAMPLES 8.1. CHERRY-PICK TEMPLATES

$ mkdir debhello-0.1
$ tree
.
└── debhello-0.1

1 directory, 0 files

Let’s generate the maximum amount of template files by specifying the -x4 option.
Let’s also use the “-p debhello -t -u 0.1 -r 1” options to make the missing upstream tarball.

$ debmake -t -p debhello -u 0.1 -r 1 -x4

I: set parameters
...
I: debmake -x "4" ...
I: creating => debian/control
I: creating => debian/copyright
I: substituting => /usr/share/debmake/extra0/rules
...
I: creating => debian/license-examples/GPL-2.0+
I: substituting => /usr/share/debmake/extra4/BSD-3-Clause
I: creating => debian/license-examples/BSD-3-Clause
I: substituting => /usr/share/debmake/extra4/Artistic-1.0
I: creating => debian/license-examples/Artistic-1.0
I: $ wrap-and-sort

Let’s inspect generated template files.

$ cd ..
$ tree
.
├── debhello-0.1
│ └── debian
│ ├── README.Debian
│ ├── changelog
│ ├── clean
│ ├── compat
│ ├── control
│ ├── copyright
│ ├── debhello.bug-control.ex
│ ├── debhello.bug-presubj.ex
│ ├── debhello.bug-script.ex
│ ├── debhello.conffiles.ex
...
│ └── watch
├── debhello-0.1.tar.gz
└── debhello_0.1.orig.tar.gz -> debhello-0.1.tar.gz

5 directories, 51 files

Now you can copy any of these generated template files in the debhello-0.1/debian/ directory to your package
as needed while renaming them as needed.

Tip

The generated template files can be made more verbose by invoking the deb-
make command with the -T option (tutorial mode).

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CHAPTER 8. MORE EXAMPLES 8.2. NO MAKEFILE (SHELL, CLI)

8.2 No Makefile (shell, CLI)

Here is an example of creating a simple Debian package from a POSIX shell CLI program without its build system.
Let’s assume this upstream tarball to be debhello-0.2.tar.gz.
This type of source has no automated means and files must be installed manually.

$ tar -xzmf debhello-0.2.tar.gz

$ cd debhello-0.2
$ sudo cp scripts/hello /bin/hello
...

Let’s get the source and make the Debian package.

Download debhello-0.2.tar.gz

$ wget http://www.example.org/download/debhello-0.2.tar.gz
...
$ tar -xzmf debhello-0.2.tar.gz
$ tree
.
├── debhello-0.2
│ ├── LICENSE
│ ├── data
│ │ ├── hello.desktop
│ │ └── hello.png
│ ├── man
│ │ └── hello.1
│ └── scripts
│ └── hello
└── debhello-0.2.tar.gz

4 directories, 6 files

Here, the POSIX shell script hello is a very simple one.

hello (v=0.2)

$ cat debhello-0.2/scripts/hello
#!/bin/sh -e
echo "Hello from the shell!"
echo ""
echo -n "Type Enter to exit this program: "
read X

Here, hello.desktop supports the Desktop Entry Specification.

hello.desktop (v=0.2)

$ cat debhello-0.2/data/hello.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Hello
Name[fr]=Bonjour
Comment=Greetings
Comment[fr]=Salutations
Type=Application
Keywords=hello
Exec=hello
Terminal=true
Icon=hello.png
Categories=Utility;

Here, hello.png is the icon graphics file.

Let’s package this with the debmake command. Here, the -b’:sh’ option is used to specify that the generated
binary package is a shell script.

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CHAPTER 8. MORE EXAMPLES 8.2. NO MAKEFILE (SHELL, CLI)

$ cd debhello-0.2
$ debmake -b':sh'
I: set parameters
I: sanity check of parameters
I: pkg="debhello", ver="0.2", rev="1"
I: *** start packaging in "debhello-0.2". ***
I: provide debhello_0.2.orig.tar.gz for non-native Debian package
I: pwd = "/path/to"
I: $ ln -sf debhello-0.2.tar.gz debhello_0.2.orig.tar.gz
I: pwd = "/path/to/debhello-0.2"
I: parse binary package settings: :sh
I: binary package=debhello Type=script / Arch=all M-A=foreign
...

Let’s inspect notable template files generated.

The source tree after the basic debmake execution. (v=0.2)

$ cd ..
$ tree
.
├── debhello-0.2
│ ├── LICENSE
│ ├── data
│ │ ├── hello.desktop
│ │ └── hello.png
│ ├── debian
│ │ ├── README.Debian
│ │ ├── changelog
│ │ ├── compat
│ │ ├── control
│ │ ├── copyright
│ │ ├── patches
│ │ │ └── series
│ │ ├── rules
│ │ ├── source
│ │ │ ├── format
│ │ │ └── local-options
│ │ └── watch
│ ├── man
│ │ └── hello.1
│ └── scripts
│ └── hello
├── debhello-0.2.tar.gz
└── debhello_0.2.orig.tar.gz -> debhello-0.2.tar.gz

7 directories, 17 files

debian/rules (template file, v=0.2):

$ cat debhello-0.2/debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
# You must remove unused comment lines for the released package.
#export DH_VERBOSE = 1

%:
dh $@

This is essentially the standard debian/rules file with the dh command. Since this is the script package, this
template debian/rules file has no build flag related contents.
debian/control (template file, v=0.2):

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CHAPTER 8. MORE EXAMPLES 8.2. NO MAKEFILE (SHELL, CLI)

$ cat debhello-0.2/debian/control
Source: debhello
Section: unknown
Priority: optional
Maintainer: "Firstname Lastname" <[email protected]>
Build-Depends: debhelper (>=11~)
Standards-Version: 4.1.4
Homepage: <insert the upstream URL, if relevant>

Package: debhello
Architecture: all
Multi-Arch: foreign
Depends: ${misc:Depends}
Description: auto-generated package by debmake
This Debian binary package was auto-generated by the
debmake(1) command provided by the debmake package.

Since this is the shell script package, the debmake command sets “Architecture: all” and “Multi-Arch: for-
eign”. Also, it sets required substvar parameters as “Depends: ${misc:Depends}”. These are explained in Chap-
ter 5.
Since this upstream source lacks the upstream Makefile, that functionality needs to be provided by the main-
tainer. This upstream source contains only a script file and data files and no C source files; the build process can
be skipped but the install process needs to be implemented. For this case, this is achieved cleanly by adding the
debian/install and debian/manpages files without complicating the debian/rules file.
Let’s make this Debian package better as the maintainer.
debian/rules (maintainer version, v=0.2):

$ vim debhello-0.2/debian/rules
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ cat debhello-0.2/debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
export DH_VERBOSE = 1

%:
dh $@

debian/control (maintainer version, v=0.2):

$ vim debhello-0.2/debian/control
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ cat debhello-0.2/debian/control
Source: debhello
Section: devel
Priority: optional
Maintainer: Osamu Aoki <[email protected]>
Build-Depends: debhelper (>=11~)
Standards-Version: 4.3.0
Homepage: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debmake-doc

Package: debhello
Architecture: all
Multi-Arch: foreign
Depends: ${misc:Depends}
Description: example package in the debmake-doc package
This is an example package to demonstrate Debian packaging using
the debmake command.
.
The generated Debian package uses the dh command offered by the
debhelper package and the dpkg source format `3.0 (quilt)'.

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CHAPTER 8. MORE EXAMPLES 8.2. NO MAKEFILE (SHELL, CLI)

Warning

If you leave “Section: unknown” in the template debian/control file unchanged,

the lintian error may cause a build failure.

debian/install (maintainer version, v=0.2):

$ vim debhello-0.2/debian/install
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ cat debhello-0.2/debian/install
data/hello.desktop usr/share/applications
data/hello.png usr/share/pixmaps
scripts/hello usr/bin

debian/manpages (maintainer version, v=0.2):

$ vim debhello-0.2/debian/manpages
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ cat debhello-0.2/debian/manpages
man/hello.1

There are several other template files under the debian/ directory. These also need to be updated.
Template files under debian/. (v=0.2):

$ tree debhello-0.2/debian
debhello-0.2/debian
├── README.Debian
├── changelog
├── compat
├── control
├── copyright
├── install
├── manpages
├── patches
│ └── series
├── rules
├── source
│ ├── format
│ └── local-options
└── watch

2 directories, 12 files

You can create a non-native Debian package using the debuild command (or its equivalents) in this source tree.
The command output is very verbose and explains what it does as follows.

$ cd debhello-0.2
$ debuild
dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc -ui -i
...
fakeroot debian/rules clean
dh clean
...
debian/rules build
dh build
dh_update_autotools_config
dh_autoreconf

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create-stamp debian/debhelper-build-stamp
fakeroot debian/rules binary
dh binary
dh_testroot
dh_prep
rm -f -- debian/debhello.substvars
rm -fr -- debian/.debhelper/generated/debhello/ debian/debhello/ debi...
...
fakeroot debian/rules binary
dh binary
...

Let’s inspect the result.

The generated files of debhello version 0.2 by the debuild command:

$ cd ..
$ tree -FL 1
.
├── debhello-0.2/
├── debhello-0.2.tar.gz
├── debhello_0.2-1.debian.tar.xz
├── debhello_0.2-1.dsc
├── debhello_0.2-1_all.deb
├── debhello_0.2-1_amd64.build
├── debhello_0.2-1_amd64.buildinfo
├── debhello_0.2-1_amd64.changes
└── debhello_0.2.orig.tar.gz -> debhello-0.2.tar.gz

1 directory, 8 files

You see all the generated files.

• The debhello_0.2.orig.tar.gz file is a symlink to the upstream tarball.

• The debhello_0.2-1.debian.tar.xz file contains the maintainer generated contents.
• The debhello_0.2-1.dsc file is the meta data file for the Debian source package.
• The debhello_0.2-1_all.deb file is the Debian binary package.

• The debhello_0.2-1_amd64.build file is the build log file.

• The debhello_0.2-1_amd64.buildinfo file is the meta data file generated by dpkg-genbuildinfo(1).
• The debhello_0.2-1_amd64.changes file is the meta data file for the Debian binary package.

The debhello_0.2-1.debian.tar.xz file contains the Debian changes to the upstream source as follows.
The compressed archive contents of debhello_0.2-1.debian.tar.xz:

$ tar -tzf debhello-0.2.tar.gz

debhello-0.2/
debhello-0.2/LICENSE
debhello-0.2/data/
debhello-0.2/data/hello.desktop
debhello-0.2/data/hello.png
debhello-0.2/scripts/
debhello-0.2/scripts/hello
debhello-0.2/man/
debhello-0.2/man/hello.1
$ tar --xz -tf debhello_0.2-1.debian.tar.xz
debian/
debian/README.Debian
debian/changelog
debian/compat

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debian/control
debian/copyright
debian/install
debian/manpages
debian/patches/
debian/patches/series
debian/rules
debian/source/
debian/source/format
debian/watch

The debhello_0.2-1_amd64.deb file contains the files to be installed as follows.

The binary package contents of debhello_0.2-1_all.deb:

$ dpkg -c debhello_0.2-1_all.deb
drwxr-xr-x root/root ... ./
drwxr-xr-x root/root ... ./usr/
drwxr-xr-x root/root ... ./usr/bin/
-rwxr-xr-x root/root ... ./usr/bin/hello
drwxr-xr-x root/root ... ./usr/share/
drwxr-xr-x root/root ... ./usr/share/applications/
-rw-r--r-- root/root ... ./usr/share/applications/hello.desktop
drwxr-xr-x root/root ... ./usr/share/doc/
drwxr-xr-x root/root ... ./usr/share/doc/debhello/
-rw-r--r-- root/root ... ./usr/share/doc/debhello/README.Debian
-rw-r--r-- root/root ... ./usr/share/doc/debhello/changelog.Debian.gz
-rw-r--r-- root/root ... ./usr/share/doc/debhello/copyright
drwxr-xr-x root/root ... ./usr/share/man/
drwxr-xr-x root/root ... ./usr/share/man/man1/
-rw-r--r-- root/root ... ./usr/share/man/man1/hello.1.gz
drwxr-xr-x root/root ... ./usr/share/pixmaps/
-rw-r--r-- root/root ... ./usr/share/pixmaps/hello.png

Here is the generated dependency list of debhello_0.2-1_all.deb.

The generated dependency list of debhello_0.2-1_all.deb:

$ dpkg -f debhello_0.2-1_all.deb pre-depends depends recommends conflicts br...

8.3 Makefile (shell, CLI)

Here is an example of creating a simple Debian package from a POSIX shell CLI program using the Makefile as
its build system.
Let’s assume its upstream tarball to be debhello-1.0.tar.gz.
This type of source is meant to be installed as a non-system file as:

$ tar -xzmf debhello-1.0.tar.gz

$ cd debhello-1.0
$ make install

Debian packaging requires changing this “make install” process to install files to the target system image
location instead of the normal location under /usr/local.
Let’s get the source and make the Debian package.
Download debhello-1.0.tar.gz

$ wget http://www.example.org/download/debhello-1.0.tar.gz
...
$ tar -xzmf debhello-1.0.tar.gz
$ tree
.

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├── debhello-1.0
│ ├── LICENSE
│ ├── Makefile
│ ├── data
│ │ ├── hello.desktop
│ │ └── hello.png
│ ├── man
│ │ └── hello.1
│ └── scripts
│ └── hello
└── debhello-1.0.tar.gz

4 directories, 7 files

Here, the Makefile uses $(DESTDIR) and $(prefix) properly. All other files are the same as in Section 8.2
and most of the packaging activities are the same.
Makefile (v=1.0)

$ cat debhello-1.0/Makefile
prefix = /usr/local

all:
: # do nothing

install:
install -D scripts/hello \
$(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/bin/hello
install -m 644 -D data/hello.desktop \
$(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/applications/hello.desktop
install -m 644 -D data/hello.png \
$(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/pixmaps/hello.png
install -m 644 -D man/hello.1 \
$(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/man/man1/hello.1

clean:
: # do nothing

distclean: clean

uninstall:
-rm -f $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/bin/hello
-rm -f $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/applications/hello.desktop
-rm -f $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/pixmaps/hello.png
-rm -f $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/man/man1/hello.1

.PHONY: all install clean distclean uninstall

Let’s package this with the debmake command. Here, the -b’:sh’ option is used to specify that the generated
binary package is a shell script.

$ cd debhello-1.0
$ debmake -b':sh'
I: set parameters
I: sanity check of parameters
I: pkg="debhello", ver="1.0", rev="1"
I: *** start packaging in "debhello-1.0". ***
I: provide debhello_1.0.orig.tar.gz for non-native Debian package
I: pwd = "/path/to"
I: $ ln -sf debhello-1.0.tar.gz debhello_1.0.orig.tar.gz
I: pwd = "/path/to/debhello-1.0"
I: parse binary package settings: :sh
I: binary package=debhello Type=script / Arch=all M-A=foreign
...

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Let’s inspect the notable template files generated.

debian/rules (template file, v=1.0):

$ cat debhello-1.0/debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
# You must remove unused comment lines for the released package.
#export DH_VERBOSE = 1

%:
dh $@

#override_dh_auto_install:
# dh_auto_install -- prefix=/usr

#override_dh_install:
# dh_install --list-missing -X.pyc -X.pyo

Let’s make this Debian package better as the maintainer.

debian/rules (maintainer version, v=1.0):

$ vim debhello-1.0/debian/rules
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ cat debhello-1.0/debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
export DH_VERBOSE = 1

%:
dh $@

override_dh_auto_install:
dh_auto_install -- prefix=/usr

Since this upstream source has the proper upstream Makefile, there is no need to create debian/install and
debian/manpages files.
The debian/control file is exactly the same as the one in Section 8.2.
There are several other template files under the debian/ directory. These also need to be updated.
Template files under debian/. (v=1.0):

$ tree debhello-1.0/debian
debhello-1.0/debian
├── README.Debian
├── changelog
├── compat
├── control
├── copyright
├── patches
│ └── series
├── rules
├── source
│ ├── format
│ └── local-options
└── watch

2 directories, 10 files

The rest of the packaging activities are practically the same as the ones in Section 8.2.

8.4 setup.py (Python3, CLI)

Here is an example of creating a simple Debian package from a Python3 CLI program using setup.py as its build
system.

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CHAPTER 8. MORE EXAMPLES 8.4. SETUP.PY (PYTHON3, CLI)

Let’s assume its upstream tarball to be debhello-1.1.tar.gz.

This type of source is meant to be installed as a non-system file as:

$ tar -xzmf debhello-1.1.tar.gz

$ cd debhello-1.1
$ python3 setup.py install

Debian packaging requires changing the last line to “python3 setup.py install --install-layout=deb” to install
files into the target system image location. This issue is automatically addressed when using the dh command for
Debian packaging.
Let’s get the source and make the Debian package.
Download debhello-1.1.tar.gz

$ wget http://www.example.org/download/debhello-1.1.tar.gz
...
$ tar -xzmf debhello-1.1.tar.gz
$ tree
.
├── debhello-1.1
│ ├── LICENSE
│ ├── MANIFEST.in
│ ├── PKG-INFO
│ ├── hello_py
│ │ └── __init__.py
│ ├── scripts
│ │ └── hello
│ └── setup.py
└── debhello-1.1.tar.gz

3 directories, 7 files

Here, the hello script and its associated hello_py module are as follows.
hello (v=1.1)

$ cat debhello-1.1/scripts/hello
#!/usr/bin/python3
import hello_py

if __name__ == '__main__':
hello_py.main()

hello_py/__init__.py (v=1.1)

$ cat debhello-1.1/hello_py/__init__.py
#!/usr/bin/python3
def main():
print('Hello Python3!')
input("Press Enter to continue...")
return

if __name__ == '__main__':
main()

These are packaged using the Python distutils with the setup.py and MANIFEST.in files.
setup.py (v=1.1)

$ cat debhello-1.1/setup.py
#!/usr/bin/python3
# vi:se ts=4 sts=4 et ai:
from distutils.core import setup

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setup(name='debhello',
version='4.0',
description='Hello Python',
long_description='Hello Python program.',
author='Osamu Aoki',
author_email='[email protected]',
url='http://people.debian.org/~osamu/',
packages=['hello_py'],
package_dir={'hello_py': 'hello_py'},
scripts=['scripts/hello'],
classifiers = ['Development Status :: 3 - Alpha',
'Environment :: Console',
'Intended Audience :: Developers',
'License :: OSI Approved :: MIT License',
'Natural Language :: English',
'Operating System :: POSIX :: Linux',
'Programming Language :: Python :: 3',
'Topic :: Utilities',
],
platforms = 'POSIX',
license = 'MIT License'
)

MANIFEST.in (v=1.1)

$ cat debhello-1.1/MANIFEST.in
include MANIFEST.in
include LICENSE

Tip

Many modern Python packages are distributed using setuptools. Since setup-
tools is an enhanced alternative to distutils, this example is useful for them.

Let’s package this with the debmake command. Here, the -b’:py3’ option is used to specify the generated
binary package containing Python3 script and module files.

$ cd debhello-1.1
$ debmake -b':py3'
I: set parameters
I: sanity check of parameters
I: pkg="debhello", ver="1.1", rev="1"
I: *** start packaging in "debhello-1.1". ***
I: provide debhello_1.1.orig.tar.gz for non-native Debian package
I: pwd = "/path/to"
I: $ ln -sf debhello-1.1.tar.gz debhello_1.1.orig.tar.gz
I: pwd = "/path/to/debhello-1.1"
I: parse binary package settings: :py3
I: binary package=debhello Type=python3 / Arch=all M-A=foreign
...

Let’s inspect the notable template files generated.

debian/rules (template file, v=1.1):

$ cat debhello-1.1/debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
# You must remove unused comment lines for the released package.

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CHAPTER 8. MORE EXAMPLES 8.4. SETUP.PY (PYTHON3, CLI)

#export DH_VERBOSE = 1

%:
dh $@ --with python3 --buildsystem=pybuild

This is essentially the standard debian/rules file with the dh command.

The use of the “--with python3” option invokes dh_python3 to calculate Python dependencies, add maintainer
scripts to byte compiled files, etc. See dh_python3(1).
The use of the “--buildsystem=pybuild” option invokes various build systems for requested Python versions
in order to build modules and extensions. See pybuild(1).
debian/control (template file, v=1.1):

$ cat debhello-1.1/debian/control
Source: debhello
Section: unknown
Priority: optional
Maintainer: "Firstname Lastname" <[email protected]>
Build-Depends: debhelper (>=11~), dh-python, python3-all
Standards-Version: 4.1.4
Homepage: <insert the upstream URL, if relevant>
X-Python3-Version: >= 3.2

Package: debhello
Architecture: all
Multi-Arch: foreign
Depends: ${misc:Depends}, ${python3:Depends}
Description: auto-generated package by debmake
This Debian binary package was auto-generated by the
debmake(1) command provided by the debmake package.

Since this is the Python3 package, the debmake command sets “Architecture: all” and “Multi-Arch: for-
eign”. Also, it sets required substvar parameters as “Depends: ${python3:Depends}, ${misc:Depends}”. These
are explained in Chapter 5.
Let’s make this Debian package better as the maintainer.
debian/rules (maintainer version, v=1.1):

$ vim debhello-1.1/debian/rules
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ cat debhello-1.1/debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
export DH_VERBOSE = 1

%:
dh $@ --with python3 --buildsystem=pybuild

debian/control (maintainer version, v=1.1):

$ vim debhello-1.1/debian/control
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ cat debhello-1.1/debian/control
Source: debhello
Section: devel
Priority: optional
Maintainer: Osamu Aoki <[email protected]>
Build-Depends: debhelper (>= 12~), dh-python, python3-all
Standards-Version: 4.3.0
Homepage: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debmake-doc
X-Python3-Version: >= 3.2

Package: debhello
Architecture: all

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Multi-Arch: foreign
Depends: ${misc:Depends}, ${python3:Depends}
Description: example package in the debmake-doc package
This is an example package to demonstrate Debian packaging using
the debmake command.
.
The generated Debian package uses the dh command offered by the
debhelper package and the dpkg source format `3.0 (quilt)'.

The hello command does not come with the upstream-provided manpage; let’s add it as the maintainer.
debian/manpages etc. (maintainer version, v=1.1):

$ vim debhello-1.1/debian/hello.1
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ vim debhello-1.1/debian/manpages
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ cat debhello-1.1/debian/manpages
debian/hello.1

There are several other template files under the debian/ directory. These also need to be updated.
The rest of the packaging activities are practically the same as the ones in Section 8.3.
Template files under debian/. (v=1.1):

$ tree debhello-1.1/debian
debhello-1.1/debian
├── README.Debian
├── changelog
├── compat
├── control
├── copyright
├── hello.1
├── manpages
├── patches
│ └── series
├── rules
├── source
│ ├── format
│ └── local-options
└── watch

2 directories, 12 files

Here is the generated dependency list of debhello_1.1-1_all.deb.

The generated dependency list of debhello_1.1-1_all.deb:

$ dpkg -f debhello_1.1-1_all.deb pre-depends depends recommends conflicts br...

Depends: python3:any (>= 3.2~)

8.5 Makefile (shell, GUI)

Here is an example of creating a simple Debian package from a POSIX shell GUI program using the Makefile as
its build system.
This upstream is based on Section 8.3 with enhanced GUI support.
Let’s assume its upstream tarball to be debhello-1.2.tar.gz.
Let’s get the source and make the Debian package.
Download debhello-1.2.tar.gz

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CHAPTER 8. MORE EXAMPLES 8.5. MAKEFILE (SHELL, GUI)

$ wget http://www.example.org/download/debhello-1.2.tar.gz
...
$ tar -xzmf debhello-1.2.tar.gz
$ tree
.
├── debhello-1.2
│ ├── LICENSE
│ ├── Makefile
│ ├── data
│ │ ├── hello.desktop
│ │ └── hello.png
│ ├── man
│ │ └── hello.1
│ └── scripts
│ └── hello
└── debhello-1.2.tar.gz

4 directories, 7 files

Here, the hello has been re-written to use the zenity command to make this a GTK+ GUI program.
hello (v=1.2)

$ cat debhello-1.2/scripts/hello
#!/bin/sh -e
zenity --info --title "hello" --text "Hello from the shell!"

Here, the desktop file is updated to be Terminal=false as a GUI program.

hello.desktop (v=1.2)

$ cat debhello-1.2/data/hello.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Hello
Name[fr]=Bonjour
Comment=Greetings
Comment[fr]=Salutations
Type=Application
Keywords=hello
Exec=hello
Terminal=false
Icon=hello.png
Categories=Utility;

All other files are the same as in Section 8.3.

Let’s package this with the debmake command. Here, the -b’:sh’ option is used to specify that the generated
binary package is a shell script.

$ cd debhello-1.2
$ debmake -b':sh'
I: set parameters
I: sanity check of parameters
I: pkg="debhello", ver="1.2", rev="1"
I: *** start packaging in "debhello-1.2". ***
I: provide debhello_1.2.orig.tar.gz for non-native Debian package
I: pwd = "/path/to"
I: $ ln -sf debhello-1.2.tar.gz debhello_1.2.orig.tar.gz
I: pwd = "/path/to/debhello-1.2"
I: parse binary package settings: :sh
I: binary package=debhello Type=script / Arch=all M-A=foreign
...

Let’s inspect the notable template files generated.

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debian/control (template file, v=1.2):

$ cat debhello-1.2/debian/control
Source: debhello
Section: unknown
Priority: optional
Maintainer: "Firstname Lastname" <[email protected]>
Build-Depends: debhelper (>=11~)
Standards-Version: 4.1.4
Homepage: <insert the upstream URL, if relevant>

Package: debhello
Architecture: all
Multi-Arch: foreign
Depends: ${misc:Depends}
Description: auto-generated package by debmake
This Debian binary package was auto-generated by the
debmake(1) command provided by the debmake package.

Let’s make this Debian package better as the maintainer.

debian/control (maintainer version, v=1.2):

$ vim debhello-1.2/debian/control
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ cat debhello-1.2/debian/control
Source: debhello
Section: devel
Priority: optional
Maintainer: Osamu Aoki <[email protected]>
Build-Depends: debhelper (>=11~)
Standards-Version: 4.3.0
Homepage: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debmake-doc

Package: debhello
Architecture: all
Multi-Arch: foreign
Depends: zenity, ${misc:Depends}
Description: example package in the debmake-doc package
This is an example package to demonstrate Debian packaging using
the debmake command.
.
The generated Debian package uses the dh command offered by the
debhelper package and the dpkg source format `3.0 (quilt)'.

Please note the manually added zenity dependency.

The debian/rules file is exactly the same as the one in Section 8.3.
There are several other template files under the debian/ directory. These also need to be updated.
Template files under debian/. (v=1.2):

$ tree debhello-1.2/debian
debhello-1.2/debian
├── README.Debian
├── changelog
├── compat
├── control
├── copyright
├── patches
│ └── series
├── rules
├── source
│ ├── format
│ └── local-options

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└── watch

2 directories, 10 files

The rest of the packaging activities are practically the same as in Section 8.3.
Here is the generated dependency list of debhello_1.2-1_all.deb.
The generated dependency list of debhello_1.2-1_all.deb:

$ dpkg -f debhello_1.2-1_all.deb pre-depends depends recommends conflicts br...

Depends: zenity

8.6 setup.py (Python3, GUI)

Here is an example of creating a simple Debian package from a Python3 GUI program using the setup.py as its
build system.
This upstream is based on Section 8.4 with enhanced GUI, desktop icon, and manpage support.
Let’s assume this upstream tarball to be debhello-1.3.tar.gz.
Let’s get the source and make the Debian package.
Download debhello-1.3.tar.gz

$ wget http://www.example.org/download/debhello-1.3.tar.gz
...
$ tar -xzmf debhello-1.3.tar.gz
$ tree
.
├── debhello-1.3
│ ├── LICENSE
│ ├── MANIFEST.in
│ ├── PKG-INFO
│ ├── data
│ │ ├── hello.desktop
│ │ └── hello.png
│ ├── hello_py
│ │ └── __init__.py
│ ├── man
│ │ └── hello.1
│ ├── scripts
│ │ └── hello
│ └── setup.py
└── debhello-1.3.tar.gz

5 directories, 10 files

Here are the upstream sources.

hello (v=1.3)

$ cat debhello-1.3/scripts/hello
#!/usr/bin/python3
import hello_py

if __name__ == '__main__':
hello_py.main()

hello_py/__init__.py (v=1.3)

$ cat debhello-1.3/hello_py/__init__.py
#!/usr/bin/python3
from gi.repository import Gtk

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class TopWindow(Gtk.Window):

def __init__(self):
Gtk.Window.__init__(self)
self.title = "Hello World!"
self.counter = 0
self.border_width = 10
self.set_default_size(400, 100)
self.set_position(Gtk.WindowPosition.CENTER)
self.button = Gtk.Button(label="Click me!")
self.button.connect("clicked", self.on_button_clicked)
self.add(self.button)
self.connect("delete-event", self.on_window_destroy)

def on_window_destroy(self, *args):

Gtk.main_quit(*args)

def on_button_clicked(self, widget):

self.counter += 1
widget.set_label("Hello, World!\nClick count = %i" % self.counter)

def main():
window = TopWindow()
window.show_all()
Gtk.main()

if __name__ == '__main__':
main()

setup.py (v=1.3)

$ cat debhello-1.3/setup.py
#!/usr/bin/python3
# vi:se ts=4 sts=4 et ai:
from distutils.core import setup

setup(name='debhello',
version='4.1',
description='Hello Python',
long_description='Hello Python program.',
author='Osamu Aoki',
author_email='[email protected]',
url='http://people.debian.org/~osamu/',
packages=['hello_py'],
package_dir={'hello_py': 'hello_py'},
scripts=['scripts/hello'],
data_files=[
('share/applications', ['data/hello.desktop']),
('share/pixmaps', ['data/hello.png']),
('share/man/man1', ['man/hello.1']),
],
classifiers = ['Development Status :: 3 - Alpha',
'Environment :: Console',
'Intended Audience :: Developers',
'License :: OSI Approved :: MIT License',
'Natural Language :: English',
'Operating System :: POSIX :: Linux',
'Programming Language :: Python :: 3',
'Topic :: Utilities',
],
platforms = 'POSIX',
license = 'MIT License'
)

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MANIFEST.in (v=1.3)

$ cat debhello-1.3/MANIFEST.in
include MANIFEST.in
include LICENSE
include data/hello.deskto
include data/hello.png
include man/hello.1

Let’s package this with the debmake command. Here, the -b’:py3’ option is used to specify that the generated
binary package contains Python3 script and module files.

$ cd debhello-1.3
$ debmake -b':py3'
I: set parameters
I: sanity check of parameters
I: pkg="debhello", ver="1.3", rev="1"
I: *** start packaging in "debhello-1.3". ***
I: provide debhello_1.3.orig.tar.gz for non-native Debian package
I: pwd = "/path/to"
I: $ ln -sf debhello-1.3.tar.gz debhello_1.3.orig.tar.gz
I: pwd = "/path/to/debhello-1.3"
I: parse binary package settings: :py3
I: binary package=debhello Type=python3 / Arch=all M-A=foreign
...

The result is practically the same as in Section 8.4.

Let’s make this Debian package better as the maintainer.
debian/rules (maintainer version, v=1.3):

$ vim debhello-1.3/debian/rules
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ cat debhello-1.3/debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
export DH_VERBOSE = 1

%:
dh $@ --with python3 --buildsystem=pybuild

debian/control (maintainer version, v=1.3):

$ vim debhello-1.3/debian/control
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ cat debhello-1.3/debian/control
Source: debhello
Section: devel
Priority: optional
Maintainer: Osamu Aoki <[email protected]>
Build-Depends: debhelper (>=11~), dh-python, python3-all
Standards-Version: 4.3.0
Homepage: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debmake-doc
X-Python3-Version: >= 3.2

Package: debhello
Architecture: all
Multi-Arch: foreign
Depends: gir1.2-gtk-3.0, python3-gi, ${misc:Depends}, ${python3:Depends}
Description: example package in the debmake-doc package
This is an example package to demonstrate Debian packaging using
the debmake command.
.

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The generated Debian package uses the dh command offered by the

debhelper package and the dpkg source format `3.0 (quilt)'.

Please note the manually added python3-gi and gir1.2-gtk-3.0 dependencies.

Since this upstream source has a manpage and other files with matching entries in the setup.py file, there is no
need to create them and add the debian/install and debian/manpages files that were required in Section 8.4.
The rest of the packaging activities are practically the same as in Section 8.4.
Here is the generated dependency list of debhello_1.3-1_all.deb.
The generated dependency list of debhello_1.3-1_all.deb:

$ dpkg -f debhello_1.3-1_all.deb pre-depends depends recommends conflicts br...

Depends: gir1.2-gtk-3.0, python3-gi, python3:any (>= 3.2~)

8.7 Makefile (single-binary package)

Here is an example of creating a simple Debian package from a simple C source program using the Makefile as its
build system.
This is an enhanced upstream source example for Chapter 4. This comes with the manpage, the desktop file,
and the desktop icon. This also links to an external library libm to be a more practical example.
Let’s assume this upstream tarball to be debhello-1.4.tar.gz.
This type of source is meant to be installed as a non-system file as:

$ tar -xzmf debhello-1.4.tar.gz

$ cd debhello-1.4
$ make
$ make install

Debian packaging requires changing this “make install” process to install files into the target system image
location instead of the normal location under /usr/local.
Let’s get the source and make the Debian package.
Download debhello-1.4.tar.gz

$ wget http://www.example.org/download/debhello-1.4.tar.gz
...
$ tar -xzmf debhello-1.4.tar.gz
$ tree
.
├── debhello-1.4
│ ├── LICENSE
│ ├── Makefile
│ ├── data
│ │ ├── hello.desktop
│ │ └── hello.png
│ ├── man
│ │ └── hello.1
│ └── src
│ ├── config.h
│ └── hello.c
└── debhello-1.4.tar.gz

4 directories, 8 files

Here, the contents of this source are as follows.

src/hello.c (v=1.4):

$ cat debhello-1.4/src/hello.c
#include "config.h"
#include <math.h>

97
CHAPTER 8. MORE EXAMPLES 8.7. MAKEFILE (SINGLE-BINARY PACKAGE)

#include <stdio.h>
int
main()
{
printf("Hello, I am " PACKAGE_AUTHOR "!\n");
printf("4.0 * atan(1.0) = %10f8\n", 4.0*atan(1.0));
return 0;
}

src/config.h (v=1.4):

$ cat debhello-1.4/src/config.h
#define PACKAGE_AUTHOR "Osamu Aoki"

Makefile (v=1.4):

$ cat debhello-1.4/Makefile
prefix = /usr/local

all: src/hello

src/hello: src/hello.c
$(CC) $(CPPFLAGS) $(CFLAGS) $(LDFLAGS) -o $@ $^ -lm

install: src/hello
install -D src/hello \
$(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/bin/hello
install -m 644 -D data/hello.desktop \
$(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/applications/hello.desktop
install -m 644 -D data/hello.png \
$(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/pixmaps/hello.png
install -m 644 -D man/hello.1 \
$(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/man/man1/hello.1

clean:
-rm -f src/hello

distclean: clean

uninstall:
-rm -f $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/bin/hello
-rm -f $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/applications/hello.desktop
-rm -f $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/pixmaps/hello.png
-rm -f $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/man/man1/hello.1

.PHONY: all install clean distclean uninstall

Please note that this Makefile has the proper install target for the manpage, the desktop file, and the desktop
icon.
Let’s package this with the debmake command.

$ cd debhello-1.4
$ debmake
I: set parameters
I: sanity check of parameters
I: pkg="debhello", ver="1.4", rev="1"
I: *** start packaging in "debhello-1.4". ***
I: provide debhello_1.4.orig.tar.gz for non-native Debian package
I: pwd = "/path/to"
I: $ ln -sf debhello-1.4.tar.gz debhello_1.4.orig.tar.gz
I: pwd = "/path/to/debhello-1.4"
I: parse binary package settings:

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I: binary package=debhello Type=bin / Arch=any M-A=foreign

...

The result is practically the same as in Section 4.5.

Let’s make this Debian package, which is practically the same as in Section 4.6, better as the maintainer.
If the DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS environment variable is not exported in debian/rules, lintian warns
”W: debhello: hardening-no-relro usr/bin/hello” for the linking of libm.
The debian/control file makes it exactly the same as the one in Section 4.6, since the libm library is always
available as a part of libc6 (Priority: required).
There are several other template files under the debian/ directory. These also need to be updated.
Template files under debian/. (v=1.4):

$ tree debhello-1.4/debian
debhello-1.4/debian
├── README.Debian
├── changelog
├── compat
├── control
├── copyright
├── patches
│ └── series
├── rules
├── source
│ ├── format
│ └── local-options
└── watch

2 directories, 10 files

The rest of the packaging activities are practically the same as the one in Section 4.7.
Here is the generated dependency list of all binary packages.
The generated dependency list of all binary packages (v=1.4):

$ dpkg -f debhello-dbgsym_1.4-1_amd64.deb pre-depends depends recommends con...

Depends: debhello (= 1.4-1)
$ dpkg -f debhello_1.4-1_amd64.deb pre-depends depends recommends conflicts ...
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.3.4)

8.8 Makefile.in + configure (single-binary package)

Here is an example of creating a simple Debian package from a simple C source program using Makefile.in and
configure as its build system.
This is an enhanced upstream source example for Section 8.7. This also links to an external library, libm, and
this source is configurable using arguments to the configure script, which generates the Makefile and src/config.h
files.
Let’s assume this upstream tarball to be debhello-1.5.tar.gz.
This type of source is meant to be installed as a non-system file, for example, as:

$ tar -xzmf debhello-1.5.tar.gz

$ cd debhello-1.5
$ ./configure --with-math
$ make
$ make install

Let’s get the source and make the Debian package.

Download debhello-1.5.tar.gz

99
CHAPTER 8. MORE EXAMPLES 8.8. MAKEFILE.IN + CONFIGURE …

$ wget http://www.example.org/download/debhello-1.5.tar.gz
...
$ tar -xzmf debhello-1.5.tar.gz
$ tree
.
├── debhello-1.5
│ ├── LICENSE
│ ├── Makefile.in
│ ├── configure
│ ├── data
│ │ ├── hello.desktop
│ │ └── hello.png
│ ├── man
│ │ └── hello.1
│ └── src
│ └── hello.c
└── debhello-1.5.tar.gz

4 directories, 8 files

Here, the contents of this source are as follows.

src/hello.c (v=1.5):

$ cat debhello-1.5/src/hello.c
#include "config.h"
#ifdef WITH_MATH
# include <math.h>
#endif
#include <stdio.h>
int
main()
{
printf("Hello, I am " PACKAGE_AUTHOR "!\n");
#ifdef WITH_MATH
printf("4.0 * atan(1.0) = %10f8\n", 4.0*atan(1.0));
#else
printf("I can't do MATH!\n");
#endif
return 0;
}

Makefile.in (v=1.5):

$ cat debhello-1.5/Makefile.in
prefix = @prefix@

all: src/hello

src/hello: src/hello.c
$(CC) @VERBOSE@ \
$(CPPFLAGS) \
$(CFLAGS) \
$(LDFLAGS) \
-o $@ $^ \
@LINKLIB@

install: src/hello
install -D src/hello \
$(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/bin/hello
install -m 644 -D data/hello.desktop \
$(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/applications/hello.desktop
install -m 644 -D data/hello.png \

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$(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/pixmaps/hello.png
install -m 644 -D man/hello.1 \
$(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/man/man1/hello.1

clean:
-rm -f src/hello

distclean: clean

uninstall:
-rm -f $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/bin/hello
-rm -f $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/applications/hello.desktop
-rm -f $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/pixmaps/hello.png
-rm -f $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/man/man1/hello.1

.PHONY: all install clean distclean uninstall

configure (v=1.5):

$ cat debhello-1.5/configure
#!/bin/sh -e
# default values
PREFIX="/usr/local"
VERBOSE=""
WITH_MATH="0"
LINKLIB=""
PACKAGE_AUTHOR="John Doe"

# parse arguments
while [ "${1}" != "" ]; do
VAR="${1%=*}" # Drop suffix =*
VAL="${1#*=}" # Drop prefix *=
case "${VAR}" in
--prefix)
PREFIX="${VAL}"
;;
--verbose|-v)
VERBOSE="-v"
;;
--with-math)
WITH_MATH="1"
LINKLIB="-lm"
;;
--author)
PACKAGE_AUTHOR="${VAL}"
;;
*)
echo "W: Unknown argument: ${1}"
esac
shift
done

# setup configured Makefile and src/config.h

sed -e "s,@prefix@,${PREFIX}," \
-e "s,@VERBOSE@,${VERBOSE}," \
-e "s,@LINKLIB@,${LINKLIB}," \
<Makefile.in >Makefile
if [ "${WITH_MATH}" = 1 ]; then
echo "#define WITH_MATH" >src/config.h
else
echo "/* not defined: WITH_MATH */" >src/config.h
fi
echo "#define PACKAGE_AUTHOR \"${PACKAGE_AUTHOR}\"" >>src/config.h

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Please note that the configure command replaces strings with @…@ in Makefile.in to produce Makefile and
creates src/config.h.
Let’s package this with the debmake command.

$ cd debhello-1.5
$ debmake
I: set parameters
I: sanity check of parameters
I: pkg="debhello", ver="1.5", rev="1"
I: *** start packaging in "debhello-1.5". ***
I: provide debhello_1.5.orig.tar.gz for non-native Debian package
I: pwd = "/path/to"
I: $ ln -sf debhello-1.5.tar.gz debhello_1.5.orig.tar.gz
I: pwd = "/path/to/debhello-1.5"
I: parse binary package settings:
I: binary package=debhello Type=bin / Arch=any M-A=foreign
...

The result is similar to Section 4.5 but not exactly the same.
Let’s inspect the notable template files generated.
debian/rules (template file, v=1.5):

$ cat debhello-1.5/debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
# You must remove unused comment lines for the released package.
#export DH_VERBOSE = 1
#export DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS = hardening=+all
#export DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wall -pedantic
#export DEB_LDFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wl,--as-needed

%:
dh $@

Let’s make this Debian package better as the maintainer.

debian/rules (maintainer version, v=1.5):

$ vim debhello-1.5/debian/rules
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ cat debhello-1.5/debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
export DH_VERBOSE = 1
export DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS = hardening=+all
export DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wall -pedantic
export DEB_LDFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wl,--as-needed

%:
dh $@

override_dh_auto_configure:
dh_auto_configure -- \
--with-math \
--author="Osamu Aoki"

There are several other template files under the debian/ directory. These also need to be updated.
The rest of the packaging activities are practically the same as the one in Section 4.7.

8.9 Autotools (single-binary package)

Here is an example of creating a simple Debian package from a simple C source program using Autotools = Auto-
conf and Automake (Makefile.am and configure.ac) as its build system. See Section 5.16.1.

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This source usually comes with the upstream auto-generated Makefile.in and configure files, too. This source
can be packaged using these files as in Section 8.8 with the help of the autotools-dev package.
The better alternative is to regenerate these files using the latest Autoconf and Automake packages if the up-
stream provided Makefile.am and configure.ac are compatible with the latest version. This is advantageous for
porting to new CPU architectures, etc. This can be automated by using the “--with autoreconf” option for the dh
command.
Let’s assume this upstream tarball to be debhello-1.6.tar.gz.
This type of source is meant to be installed as a non-system file, for example, as:

$ tar -xzmf debhello-1.6.tar.gz

$ cd debhello-1.6
$ autoreconf -ivf # optional
$ ./configure --with-math
$ make
$ make install

Let’s get the source and make the Debian package.

Download debhello-1.6.tar.gz

$ wget http://www.example.org/download/debhello-1.6.tar.gz
...
$ tar -xzmf debhello-1.6.tar.gz
$ tree
.
├── debhello-1.6
│ ├── Makefile.am
│ ├── configure.ac
│ ├── data
│ │ ├── hello.desktop
│ │ └── hello.png
│ ├── man
│ │ ├── Makefile.am
│ │ └── hello.1
│ └── src
│ ├── Makefile.am
│ └── hello.c
└── debhello-1.6.tar.gz

4 directories, 9 files

Here, the contents of this source are as follows.

src/hello.c (v=1.6):

$ cat debhello-1.6/src/hello.c
#include "config.h"
#ifdef WITH_MATH
# include <math.h>
#endif
#include <stdio.h>
int
main()
{
printf("Hello, I am " PACKAGE_AUTHOR "!\n");
#ifdef WITH_MATH
printf("4.0 * atan(1.0) = %10f8\n", 4.0*atan(1.0));
#else
printf("I can't do MATH!\n");
#endif
return 0;
}

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Makefile.am (v=1.6):

$ cat debhello-1.6/Makefile.am
SUBDIRS = src man
$ cat debhello-1.6/man/Makefile.am
dist_man_MANS = hello.1
$ cat debhello-1.6/src/Makefile.am
bin_PROGRAMS = hello
hello_SOURCES = hello.c

configure.ac (v=1.6):

$ cat debhello-1.6/configure.ac
# -*- Autoconf -*-
# Process this file with autoconf to produce a configure script.
AC_PREREQ([2.69])
AC_INIT([debhello],[2.1],[[email protected]])
AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([src/hello.c])
AC_CONFIG_HEADERS([config.h])
echo "Standard customization chores"
AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([build-aux])
AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([foreign])
# Add #define PACKAGE_AUTHOR ... in config.h with a comment
AC_DEFINE(PACKAGE_AUTHOR, ["Osamu Aoki"], [Define PACKAGE_AUTHOR])
echo "Add --with-math option functionality to ./configure"
AC_ARG_WITH([math],
[AS_HELP_STRING([--with-math],
[compile with math library @<:@default=yes@:>@])],
[],
[with_math="yes"]
)
echo "==== withval := \"$withval\""
echo "==== with_math := \"$with_math\""
# m4sh if-else construct
AS_IF([test "x$with_math" != "xno"],[
echo "==== Check include: math.h"
AC_CHECK_HEADER(math.h,[],[
AC_MSG_ERROR([Couldn't find math.h.] )
])
echo "==== Check library: libm"
AC_SEARCH_LIBS(atan, [m])
#AC_CHECK_LIB(m, atan)
echo "==== Build with LIBS := \"$LIBS\""
AC_DEFINE(WITH_MATH, [1], [Build with the math library])
],[
echo "==== Skip building with math.h."
AH_TEMPLATE(WITH_MATH, [Build without the math library])
])
# Checks for programs.
AC_PROG_CC
AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile
man/Makefile
src/Makefile])
AC_OUTPUT

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Tip

Without “foreign” strictness level specified in AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE() as above,

automake defaults to “gnu” strictness level requiring several files in the top-level
directory. See “3.2 Strictness” in the automake document.

Let’s package this with the debmake command.

$ cd debhello-1.6
$ debmake
I: set parameters
I: sanity check of parameters
I: pkg="debhello", ver="1.6", rev="1"
I: *** start packaging in "debhello-1.6". ***
I: provide debhello_1.6.orig.tar.gz for non-native Debian package
I: pwd = "/path/to"
I: $ ln -sf debhello-1.6.tar.gz debhello_1.6.orig.tar.gz
I: pwd = "/path/to/debhello-1.6"
I: parse binary package settings:
I: binary package=debhello Type=bin / Arch=any M-A=foreign
...

The result is similar to Section 8.8 but not exactly the same.
Let’s inspect the notable template files generated.
debian/rules (template file, v=1.6):

$ cat debhello-1.6/debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
# You must remove unused comment lines for the released package.
#export DH_VERBOSE = 1
#export DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS = hardening=+all
#export DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wall -pedantic
#export DEB_LDFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wl,--as-needed

%:
dh $@ --with autoreconf

#override_dh_install:
# dh_install --list-missing -X.la -X.pyc -X.pyo

Let’s make this Debian package better as the maintainer.

debian/rules (maintainer version, v=1.6):

$ vim debhello-1.6/debian/rules
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ cat debhello-1.6/debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
export DH_VERBOSE = 1
export DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS = hardening=+all
export DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wall -pedantic
export DEB_LDFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wl,--as-needed

%:
dh $@ --with autoreconf

override_dh_auto_configure:
dh_auto_configure -- \
--with-math

There are several other template files under the debian/ directory. These also need to be updated.
The rest of the packaging activities are practically the same as the one in Section 4.7.

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8.10 CMake (single-binary package)

Here is an example of creating a simple Debian package from a simple C source program using CMake (CMakeLists.txt
and some files such as config.h.in) as its build system. See Section 5.16.2.
The cmake command generates the Makefile file based on the CMakeLists.txt file and its -D option. It
also configures the file as specified in its configure_file(…) by replacing strings with @…@ and changing the
#cmakedefine … line.
Let’s assume this upstream tarball to be debhello-1.7.tar.gz.
This type of source is meant to be installed as a non-system file, for example, as:

$ tar -xzmf debhello-1.7.tar.gz

$ cd debhello-1.7
$ mkdir obj-x86_64-linux-gnu # for out-of-tree build
$ cd obj-x86_64-linux-gnu
$ cmake ..
$ make
$ make install

Let’s get the source and make the Debian package.

Download debhello-1.7.tar.gz

$ wget http://www.example.org/download/debhello-1.7.tar.gz
...
$ tar -xzmf debhello-1.7.tar.gz
$ tree
.
├── debhello-1.7
│ ├── CMakeLists.txt
│ ├── data
│ │ ├── hello.desktop
│ │ └── hello.png
│ ├── man
│ │ ├── CMakeLists.txt
│ │ └── hello.1
│ └── src
│ ├── CMakeLists.txt
│ ├── config.h.in
│ └── hello.c
└── debhello-1.7.tar.gz

4 directories, 9 files

Here, the contents of this source are as follows.

src/hello.c (v=1.7):

$ cat debhello-1.7/src/hello.c
#include "config.h"
#ifdef WITH_MATH
# include <math.h>
#endif
#include <stdio.h>
int
main()
{
printf("Hello, I am " PACKAGE_AUTHOR "!\n");
#ifdef WITH_MATH
printf("4.0 * atan(1.0) = %10f8\n", 4.0*atan(1.0));
#else
printf("I can't do MATH!\n");
#endif
return 0;
}

106
CHAPTER 8. MORE EXAMPLES 8.10. CMAKE (SINGLE-BINARY PACKAGE)

src/config.h.in (v=1.7):

$ cat debhello-1.7/src/config.h.in
/* name of the package author */
#define PACKAGE_AUTHOR "@PACKAGE_AUTHOR@"
/* math library support */
#cmakedefine WITH_MATH

CMakeLists.txt (v=1.7):

$ cat debhello-1.7/CMakeLists.txt
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8)
project(debhello)
set(PACKAGE_AUTHOR "Osamu Aoki")
add_subdirectory(src)
add_subdirectory(man)
$ cat debhello-1.7/man/CMakeLists.txt
install(
FILES ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/hello.1
DESTINATION share/man/man1
)
$ cat debhello-1.7/src/CMakeLists.txt
# Always define HAVE_CONFIG_H
add_definitions(-DHAVE_CONFIG_H)
# Interactively define WITH_MATH
option(WITH_MATH "Build with math support" OFF)
#variable_watch(WITH_MATH)
# Generate config.h from config.h.in
configure_file(
"${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/config.h.in"
"${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/config.h"
)
include_directories("${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}")
add_executable(hello hello.c)
install(TARGETS hello
RUNTIME DESTINATION bin
)

Let’s package this with the debmake command.

$ cd debhello-1.7
$ debmake
I: set parameters
I: sanity check of parameters
I: pkg="debhello", ver="1.7", rev="1"
I: *** start packaging in "debhello-1.7". ***
I: provide debhello_1.7.orig.tar.gz for non-native Debian package
I: pwd = "/path/to"
I: $ ln -sf debhello-1.7.tar.gz debhello_1.7.orig.tar.gz
I: pwd = "/path/to/debhello-1.7"
I: parse binary package settings:
I: binary package=debhello Type=bin / Arch=any M-A=foreign
...

The result is similar to Section 8.8 but not exactly the same.
Let’s inspect the notable template files generated.
debian/rules (template file, v=1.7):

$ cat debhello-1.7/debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
# You must remove unused comment lines for the released package.

107
CHAPTER 8. MORE EXAMPLES 8.10. CMAKE (SINGLE-BINARY PACKAGE)

#export DH_VERBOSE = 1
#export DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS = hardening=+all
#export DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wall -pedantic
#export DEB_LDFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wl,--as-needed

%:
dh $@

#override_dh_auto_configure:
# dh_auto_configure -- \
# -DCMAKE_LIBRARY_ARCHITECTURE="$(DEB_TARGET_MULTIARCH)"

debian/control (template file, v=1.7):

$ cat debhello-1.7/debian/control
Source: debhello
Section: unknown
Priority: optional
Maintainer: "Firstname Lastname" <[email protected]>
Build-Depends: cmake, debhelper (>=11~)
Standards-Version: 4.1.4
Homepage: <insert the upstream URL, if relevant>

Package: debhello
Architecture: any
Multi-Arch: foreign
Depends: ${misc:Depends}, ${shlibs:Depends}
Description: auto-generated package by debmake
This Debian binary package was auto-generated by the
debmake(1) command provided by the debmake package.

Let’s make this Debian package better as the maintainer.

debian/rules (maintainer version, v=1.7):

$ vim debhello-1.7/debian/rules
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ cat debhello-1.7/debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
export DH_VERBOSE = 1
export DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS = hardening=+all
export DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wall -pedantic
export DEB_LDFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wl,--as-needed

%:
dh $@

override_dh_auto_configure:
dh_auto_configure -- -DWITH-MATH=1

debian/control (maintainer version, v=1.7):

$ vim debhello-1.7/debian/control
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ cat debhello-1.7/debian/control
Source: debhello
Section: devel
Priority: optional
Maintainer: Osamu Aoki <[email protected]>
Build-Depends: cmake, debhelper (>=11~)
Standards-Version: 4.3.0
Homepage: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debmake-doc

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CHAPTER 8. MORE EXAMPLES 8.11. AUTOTOOLS (MULTI-BINARY PACKAGE)

Package: debhello
Architecture: any
Multi-Arch: foreign
Depends: ${misc:Depends}, ${shlibs:Depends}
Description: example package in the debmake-doc package
This is an example package to demonstrate Debian packaging using
the debmake command.
.
The generated Debian package uses the dh command offered by the
debhelper package and the dpkg source format `3.0 (quilt)'.

There are several other template files under the debian/ directory. These also need to be updated.
The rest of the packaging activities are practically the same as the one in Section 8.8.

8.11 Autotools (multi-binary package)

Here is an example of creating a set of Debian binary packages including the executable package, the shared
library package, the development file package, and the debug symbol package from a simple C source program
using Autotools = Autoconf and Automake (which use Makefile.am and configure.ac as their input files) as its
build system. See Section 5.16.1.
Let’s package this in the same way as in Section 8.9.
Let’s assume this upstream tarball to be debhello-2.0.tar.gz.
This type of source is meant to be installed as a non-system file, for example, as:

$ tar -xzmf debhello-2.0.tar.gz

$ cd debhello-2.0
$ autoreconf -ivf # optional
$ ./configure --with-math
$ make
$ make install

Let’s get the source and make the Debian package.

Download debhello-2.0.tar.gz

$ wget http://www.example.org/download/debhello-2.0.tar.gz
...
$ tar -xzmf debhello-2.0.tar.gz
$ tree
.
├── debhello-2.0
│ ├── Makefile.am
│ ├── configure.ac
│ ├── data
│ │ ├── hello.desktop
│ │ └── hello.png
│ ├── lib
│ │ ├── Makefile.am
│ │ ├── sharedlib.c
│ │ └── sharedlib.h
│ ├── man
│ │ ├── Makefile.am
│ │ └── hello.1
│ └── src
│ ├── Makefile.am
│ └── hello.c
└── debhello-2.0.tar.gz

5 directories, 12 files

Here, the contents of this source are as follows.

src/hello.c (v=2.0):

109
CHAPTER 8. MORE EXAMPLES 8.11. AUTOTOOLS (MULTI-BINARY PACKAGE)

$ cat debhello-2.0/src/hello.c
#include "config.h"
#include <stdio.h>
#include <sharedlib.h>
int
main()
{
printf("Hello, I am " PACKAGE_AUTHOR "!\n");
sharedlib();
return 0;
}

lib/sharedlib.h and lib/sharedlib.c (v=1.6):

$ cat debhello-2.0/lib/sharedlib.h
int sharedlib();
$ cat debhello-2.0/lib/sharedlib.c
#include <stdio.h>
int
sharedlib()
{
printf("This is a shared library!\n");
return 0;
}

Makefile.am (v=2.0):

$ cat debhello-2.0/Makefile.am
# recursively process `Makefile.am` in SUBDIRS
SUBDIRS = lib src man
$ cat debhello-2.0/man/Makefile.am
# manpages (distributed in the source package)
dist_man_MANS = hello.1
$ cat debhello-2.0/lib/Makefile.am
# libtool librares to be produced
lib_LTLIBRARIES = libsharedlib.la

# source files used for lib_LTLIBRARIES

libsharedlib_la_SOURCES = sharedlib.c

# C pre-processor flags used for lib_LTLIBRARIES

#libsharedlib_la_CPPFLAGS =

# Headers files to be installed in <prefix>/include

include_HEADERS = sharedlib.h

# Versioning Libtool Libraries with version triplets

libsharedlib_la_LDFLAGS = -version-info 1:0:0
$ cat debhello-2.0/src/Makefile.am
# program executables to be produced
bin_PROGRAMS = hello

# source files used for bin_PROGRAMS

hello_SOURCES = hello.c

# C pre-processor flags used for bin_PROGRAMS

AM_CPPFLAGS = -I$(srcdir) -I$(top_srcdir)/lib

# Extra options for the linker for hello

# hello_LDFLAGS =

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# Libraries the `hello` binary to be linked

hello_LDADD = $(top_srcdir)/lib/libsharedlib.la

configure.ac (v=2.0):

$ cat debhello-2.0/configure.ac
# -*- Autoconf -*-
# Process this file with autoconf to produce a configure script.
AC_PREREQ([2.69])
AC_INIT([debhello],[2.2],[[email protected]])
AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([src/hello.c])
AC_CONFIG_HEADERS([config.h])
echo "Standard customization chores"
AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([build-aux])

AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([foreign])

# Set default to --enable-shared --disable-static

LT_INIT([shared disable-static])

# find the libltdl sources in the libltdl sub-directory

LT_CONFIG_LTDL_DIR([libltdl])

# choose one
LTDL_INIT([recursive])
#LTDL_INIT([subproject])
#LTDL_INIT([nonrecursive])

# Add #define PACKAGE_AUTHOR ... in config.h with a comment

AC_DEFINE(PACKAGE_AUTHOR, ["Osamu Aoki"], [Define PACKAGE_AUTHOR])
# Checks for programs.
AC_PROG_CC

# only for the recursive case

AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile
lib/Makefile
man/Makefile
src/Makefile])
AC_OUTPUT

Let’s package this with the debmake command into multiple packages:
• debhello: type = bin
• libsharedlib1: type = lib
• libsharedlib-dev: type = dev
Here, the -b’,libsharedlib1,libsharedlib-dev’ option is used to specify the generated binary packages.

$ cd debhello-2.0
$ debmake -b',libsharedlib1,libsharedlib-dev'
I: set parameters
I: sanity check of parameters
I: pkg="debhello", ver="2.0", rev="1"
I: *** start packaging in "debhello-2.0". ***
I: provide debhello_2.0.orig.tar.gz for non-native Debian package
I: pwd = "/path/to"
I: $ ln -sf debhello-2.0.tar.gz debhello_2.0.orig.tar.gz
I: pwd = "/path/to/debhello-2.0"
I: parse binary package settings: ,libsharedlib1,libsharedlib-dev
I: binary package=debhello Type=bin / Arch=any M-A=foreign
I: binary package=libsharedlib1 Type=lib / Arch=any M-A=same
I: binary package=libsharedlib-dev Type=dev / Arch=any M-A=same

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CHAPTER 8. MORE EXAMPLES 8.11. AUTOTOOLS (MULTI-BINARY PACKAGE)

I: analyze the source tree

I: build_type = Autotools with autoreconf
...

The result is similar to Section 8.8 but with more template files.
Let’s inspect the notable template files generated.
debian/rules (template file, v=2.0):

$ cat debhello-2.0/debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
# You must remove unused comment lines for the released package.
#export DH_VERBOSE = 1
#export DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS = hardening=+all
#export DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wall -pedantic
#export DEB_LDFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wl,--as-needed

%:
dh $@ --with autoreconf

#override_dh_install:
# dh_install --list-missing -X.la -X.pyc -X.pyo

Let’s make this Debian package better as the maintainer.

debian/rules (maintainer version, v=2.0):

$ vim debhello-2.0/debian/rules
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ cat debhello-2.0/debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
export DH_VERBOSE = 1
export DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS = hardening=+all
export DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wall -pedantic
export DEB_LDFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wl,--as-needed

%:
dh $@ --with autoreconf

override_dh_install:
dh_install --list-missing -X.la

debian/control (maintainer version, v=2.0):

$ vim debhello-2.0/debian/control
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ cat debhello-2.0/debian/control
Source: debhello
Section: devel
Priority: optional
Maintainer: Osamu Aoki <[email protected]>
Build-Depends: debhelper (>=11~), dh-autoreconf
Standards-Version: 4.3.0
Homepage: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debmake-doc

Package: debhello
Architecture: any
Multi-Arch: foreign
Depends: libsharedlib1 (= ${binary:Version}),
${misc:Depends},
${shlibs:Depends}
Description: example executable package
This is an example package to demonstrate Debian packaging using
the debmake command.

112
CHAPTER 8. MORE EXAMPLES 8.11. AUTOTOOLS (MULTI-BINARY PACKAGE)

.
The generated Debian package uses the dh command offered by the
debhelper package and the dpkg source format `3.0 (quilt)'.
.
This package provides the executable program.

Package: libsharedlib1
Section: libs
Architecture: any
Multi-Arch: same
Pre-Depends: ${misc:Pre-Depends}
Depends: ${misc:Depends}, ${shlibs:Depends}
Description: example shared library package
This is an example package to demonstrate Debian packaging using
the debmake command.
.
The generated Debian package uses the dh command offered by the
debhelper package and the dpkg source format `3.0 (quilt)'.
.
This package contains the shared library.

Package: libsharedlib-dev
Section: libdevel
Architecture: any
Multi-Arch: same
Depends: libsharedlib1 (= ${binary:Version}), ${misc:Depends}
Description: example development package
This is an example package to demonstrate Debian packaging using
the debmake command.
.
The generated Debian package uses the dh command offered by the
debhelper package and the dpkg source format `3.0 (quilt)'.
.
This package contains the development files.

debian/*.install (maintainer version, v=2.0):

$ vim debhello-2.0/debian/debhello.install
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ cat debhello-2.0/debian/debhello.install
usr/bin/*
usr/share/man/*
$ vim debhello-2.0/debian/libsharedlib1.install
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ cat debhello-2.0/debian/libsharedlib1.install
usr/lib/*/*.so.*
$ vim debhello-2.0/debian/libsharedlib-dev.install
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ cat debhello-2.0/debian/libsharedlib-dev.install
###usr/lib/*/pkgconfig/*.pc
usr/include
usr/lib/*/*.so

Since this upstream source creates the proper auto-generated Makefile, there is no need to create debian/install
and debian/manpages files.
There are several other template files under the debian/ directory. These also need to be updated.
Template files under debian/. (v=2.0):

$ tree debhello-2.0/debian
debhello-2.0/debian
├── README.Debian
├── changelog
├── compat

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CHAPTER 8. MORE EXAMPLES 8.12. CMAKE (MULTI-BINARY PACKAGE)

├── control
├── copyright
├── debhello.install
├── libsharedlib-dev.install
├── libsharedlib1.install
├── libsharedlib1.symbols
├── patches
│ └── series
├── rules
├── source
│ ├── format
│ └── local-options
└── watch

2 directories, 14 files

The rest of the packaging activities are practically the same as the one in Section 8.8.
Here are the generated dependency list of all binary packages.
The generated dependency list of all binary packages (v=2.0):

$ dpkg -f debhello-dbgsym_2.0-1_amd64.deb pre-depends depends recommends con...

Depends: debhello (= 2.0-1)
$ dpkg -f debhello_2.0-1_amd64.deb pre-depends depends recommends conflicts ...
Depends: libsharedlib1 (= 2.0-1), libc6 (>= 2.2.5)
$ dpkg -f libsharedlib-dev_2.0-1_amd64.deb pre-depends depends recommends co...
Depends: libsharedlib1 (= 2.0-1)
$ dpkg -f libsharedlib1-dbgsym_2.0-1_amd64.deb pre-depends depends recommend...
Depends: libsharedlib1 (= 2.0-1)
$ dpkg -f libsharedlib1_2.0-1_amd64.deb pre-depends depends recommends confl...
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.2.5)

8.12 CMake (multi-binary package)

Here is an example of creating a set of Debian binary packages including the executable package, the shared
library package, the development file package, and the debug symbol package from a simple C source program
using CMake (CMakeLists.txt and some files such as config.h.in) as its build system. See Section 5.16.2.
Let’s assume this upstream tarball to be debhello-2.1.tar.gz.
This type of source is meant to be installed as a non-system file, for example, as:

$ tar -xzmf debhello-2.1.tar.gz

$ cd debhello-2.1
$ mkdir obj-x86_64-linux-gnu
$ cd obj-x86_64-linux-gnu
$ cmake ..
$ make
$ make install

Let’s get the source and make the Debian package.

Download debhello-2.1.tar.gz

$ wget http://www.example.org/download/debhello-2.1.tar.gz
...
$ tar -xzmf debhello-2.1.tar.gz
$ tree
.
├── debhello-2.1
│ ├── CMakeLists.txt
│ ├── data
│ │ ├── hello.desktop
│ │ └── hello.png

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CHAPTER 8. MORE EXAMPLES 8.12. CMAKE (MULTI-BINARY PACKAGE)

│ ├── lib
│ │ ├── CMakeLists.txt
│ │ ├── sharedlib.c
│ │ └── sharedlib.h
│ ├── man
│ │ ├── CMakeLists.txt
│ │ └── hello.1
│ └── src
│ ├── CMakeLists.txt
│ ├── config.h.in
│ └── hello.c
└── debhello-2.1.tar.gz

5 directories, 12 files

Here, the contents of this source are as follows.

src/hello.c (v=2.1):

$ cat debhello-2.1/src/hello.c
#include "config.h"
#include <stdio.h>
#include <sharedlib.h>
int
main()
{
printf("Hello, I am " PACKAGE_AUTHOR "!\n");
sharedlib();
return 0;
}

src/config.h.in (v=2.1):

$ cat debhello-2.1/src/config.h.in
/* name of the package author */
#define PACKAGE_AUTHOR "@PACKAGE_AUTHOR@"

lib/sharedlib.c and lib/sharedlib.h (v=2.1):

$ cat debhello-2.1/lib/sharedlib.h
int sharedlib();
$ cat debhello-2.1/lib/sharedlib.c
#include <stdio.h>
int
sharedlib()
{
printf("This is a shared library!\n");
return 0;
}

CMakeLists.txt (v=2.1):

$ cat debhello-2.1/CMakeLists.txt
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8)
project(debhello)
set(PACKAGE_AUTHOR "Osamu Aoki")
add_subdirectory(lib)
add_subdirectory(src)
add_subdirectory(man)
$ cat debhello-2.1/man/CMakeLists.txt
install(
FILES ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/hello.1
DESTINATION share/man/man1

115
CHAPTER 8. MORE EXAMPLES 8.12. CMAKE (MULTI-BINARY PACKAGE)

)
$ cat debhello-2.1/src/CMakeLists.txt
# Always define HAVE_CONFIG_H
add_definitions(-DHAVE_CONFIG_H)
# Generate config.h from config.h.in
configure_file(
"${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/config.h.in"
"${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/config.h"
)
include_directories("${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}")
include_directories("${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/lib")

add_executable(hello hello.c)
target_link_libraries(hello sharedlib)
install(TARGETS hello
RUNTIME DESTINATION bin
)

Let’s package this with the debmake command.

$ cd debhello-2.1
$ debmake -b',libsharedlib1,libsharedlib-dev'
I: set parameters
I: sanity check of parameters
I: pkg="debhello", ver="2.1", rev="1"
I: *** start packaging in "debhello-2.1". ***
I: provide debhello_2.1.orig.tar.gz for non-native Debian package
I: pwd = "/path/to"
I: $ ln -sf debhello-2.1.tar.gz debhello_2.1.orig.tar.gz
I: pwd = "/path/to/debhello-2.1"
I: parse binary package settings: ,libsharedlib1,libsharedlib-dev
I: binary package=debhello Type=bin / Arch=any M-A=foreign
...

The result is similar to Section 8.8 but not exactly the same.
Let’s inspect the notable template files generated.
debian/rules (template file, v=2.1):

$ cat debhello-2.1/debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
# You must remove unused comment lines for the released package.
#export DH_VERBOSE = 1
#export DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS = hardening=+all
#export DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wall -pedantic
#export DEB_LDFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wl,--as-needed

%:
dh $@

#override_dh_auto_configure:
# dh_auto_configure -- \
# -DCMAKE_LIBRARY_ARCHITECTURE="$(DEB_TARGET_MULTIARCH)"

Let’s make this Debian package better as the maintainer.

debian/rules (maintainer version, v=2.1):

$ vim debhello-2.1/debian/rules
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ cat debhello-2.1/debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
export DH_VERBOSE = 1
export DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS = hardening=+all

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CHAPTER 8. MORE EXAMPLES 8.12. CMAKE (MULTI-BINARY PACKAGE)

export DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wall -pedantic

export DEB_LDFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wl,--as-needed
DEB_HOST_MULTIARCH ?= $(shell dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_MULTIARCH)

%:
dh $@

override_dh_auto_configure:
dh_auto_configure -- \
-DCMAKE_LIBRARY_ARCHITECTURE="$(DEB_HOST_MULTIARCH)"

override_dh_install:
dh_install --list-missing

debian/control (maintainer version, v=2.1):

$ vim debhello-2.1/debian/control
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ cat debhello-2.1/debian/control
Source: debhello
Section: devel
Priority: optional
Maintainer: Osamu Aoki <[email protected]>
Build-Depends: cmake, debhelper (>=11~)
Standards-Version: 4.3.0
Homepage: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debmake-doc

Package: debhello
Architecture: any
Multi-Arch: foreign
Depends: libsharedlib1 (= ${binary:Version}),
${misc:Depends},
${shlibs:Depends}
Description: example executable package
This is an example package to demonstrate Debian packaging using
the debmake command.
.
The generated Debian package uses the dh command offered by the
debhelper package and the dpkg source format `3.0 (quilt)'.
.
This package provides the executable program.

Package: libsharedlib1
Section: libs
Architecture: any
Multi-Arch: same
Pre-Depends: ${misc:Pre-Depends}
Depends: ${misc:Depends}, ${shlibs:Depends}
Description: example shared library package
This is an example package to demonstrate Debian packaging using
the debmake command.
.
The generated Debian package uses the dh command offered by the
debhelper package and the dpkg source format `3.0 (quilt)'.
.
This package contains the shared library.

Package: libsharedlib-dev
Section: libdevel
Architecture: any
Multi-Arch: same
Depends: libsharedlib1 (= ${binary:Version}), ${misc:Depends}
Description: example development package
This is an example package to demonstrate Debian packaging using

117
CHAPTER 8. MORE EXAMPLES 8.12. CMAKE (MULTI-BINARY PACKAGE)

the debmake command.

.
The generated Debian package uses the dh command offered by the
debhelper package and the dpkg source format `3.0 (quilt)'.
.
This package contains the development files.

debian/*.install (maintainer version, v=2.1):

$ vim debhello-2.1/debian/debhello.install
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ cat debhello-2.1/debian/debhello.install
usr/bin/*
usr/share/man/*
$ vim debhello-2.1/debian/libsharedlib1.install
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ cat debhello-2.1/debian/libsharedlib1.install
usr/lib/*/*.so.*
$ vim debhello-2.1/debian/libsharedlib-dev.install
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ cat debhello-2.1/debian/libsharedlib-dev.install
###usr/lib/*/pkgconfig/*.pc
usr/include
usr/lib/*/*.so

This upstream CMakeList.txt needs to be patched to cope with the multiarch path.
debian/patches/* (maintainer version, v=2.1):

... hack, hack, hack, ...

$ cat debhello-2.1/debian/libsharedlib1.symbols
libsharedlib.so.1 libsharedlib1 #MINVER#
sharedlib@Base 2.1

Since this upstream source creates the proper auto-generated Makefile, there is no need to create debian/install
and debian/manpages files.
There are several other template files under the debian/ directory. These also need to be updated.
Template files under debian/. (v=2.1):

$ tree debhello-2.1/debian
debhello-2.1/debian
├── README.Debian
├── changelog
├── compat
├── control
├── copyright
├── debhello.install
├── libsharedlib-dev.install
├── libsharedlib1.install
├── libsharedlib1.symbols
├── patches
│ ├── 000-cmake-multiarch.patch
│ └── series
├── rules
├── source
│ ├── format
│ └── local-options
└── watch

2 directories, 15 files

The rest of the packaging activities are practically the same as the one in Section 8.8.
Here are the generated dependency list of all binary packages.

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CHAPTER 8. MORE EXAMPLES 8.13. INTERNATIONALIZATION

The generated dependency list of all binary packages (v=2.1):

$ dpkg -f debhello-dbgsym_2.1-1_amd64.deb pre-depends depends recommends con...

Depends: debhello (= 2.1-1)
$ dpkg -f debhello_2.1-1_amd64.deb pre-depends depends recommends conflicts ...
Depends: libsharedlib1 (= 2.1-1), libc6 (>= 2.2.5)
$ dpkg -f libsharedlib-dev_2.1-1_amd64.deb pre-depends depends recommends co...
Depends: libsharedlib1 (= 2.1-1)
$ dpkg -f libsharedlib1-dbgsym_2.1-1_amd64.deb pre-depends depends recommend...
Depends: libsharedlib1 (= 2.1-1)
$ dpkg -f libsharedlib1_2.1-1_amd64.deb pre-depends depends recommends confl...
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.2.5)

8.13 Internationalization
Here is an example of updating the simple upstream C source debhello-2.0.tar.gz presented in Section 8.11 for
internationalization (i18n) and creating the updated upstream C source debhello-2.0.tar.gz.
In the real situation, the package should already be internationalized. So this example is educational for you to
understand how this internationalization is implemented.

Tip

The routine maintainer activity for the i18n is simply to add translation po files
reported to you via the Bug Tracking System (BTS) to the po/ directory and to
update the language list in the po/LINGUAS file.

Let’s get the source and make the Debian package.

Download debhello-2.0.tar.gz (i18n)

$ wget http://www.example.org/download/debhello-2.0.tar.gz
...
$ tar -xzmf debhello-2.0.tar.gz
$ tree
.
├── debhello-2.0
│ ├── Makefile.am
│ ├── configure.ac
│ ├── data
│ │ ├── hello.desktop
│ │ └── hello.png
│ ├── lib
│ │ ├── Makefile.am
│ │ ├── sharedlib.c
│ │ └── sharedlib.h
│ ├── man
│ │ ├── Makefile.am
│ │ └── hello.1
│ └── src
│ ├── Makefile.am
│ └── hello.c
└── debhello-2.0.tar.gz

5 directories, 12 files

Internationalize this source tree with the gettextize command and remove files auto-generated by Autotools.
run gettextize (i18n):

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CHAPTER 8. MORE EXAMPLES 8.13. INTERNATIONALIZATION

$ cd debhello-2.0
$ gettextize
Creating po/ subdirectory
Creating build-aux/ subdirectory
Copying file ABOUT-NLS
Copying file build-aux/config.rpath
Not copying intl/ directory.
Copying file po/Makefile.in.in
Copying file po/Makevars.template
Copying file po/Rules-quot
Copying file po/boldquot.sed
Copying file po/[email protected]
Copying file po/[email protected]
Copying file po/insert-header.sin
Copying file po/quot.sed
Copying file po/remove-potcdate.sin
Creating initial po/POTFILES.in
Creating po/ChangeLog
Creating directory m4
Copying file m4/gettext.m4
Copying file m4/iconv.m4
Copying file m4/lib-ld.m4
Copying file m4/lib-link.m4
Copying file m4/lib-prefix.m4
Copying file m4/nls.m4
Copying file m4/po.m4
Copying file m4/progtest.m4
Creating m4/ChangeLog
Updating Makefile.am (backup is in Makefile.am~)
Updating configure.ac (backup is in configure.ac~)
Creating ChangeLog

Please use AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external]) in order to cause autoconfiguration

to look for an external libintl.

Please create po/Makevars from the template in po/Makevars.template.

You can then remove po/Makevars.template.

Please fill po/POTFILES.in as described in the documentation.

Please run 'aclocal' to regenerate the aclocal.m4 file.

You need aclocal from GNU automake 1.9 (or newer) to do this.
Then run 'autoconf' to regenerate the configure file.

You will also need config.guess and config.sub, which you can get from the CV...
of the 'config' project at http://savannah.gnu.org/. The commands to fetch th...
are
$ wget 'http://savannah.gnu.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs/*checkout*/config/config/conf...
$ wget 'http://savannah.gnu.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs/*checkout*/config/config/conf...

You might also want to copy the convenience header file gettext.h
from the /usr/share/gettext directory into your package.
It is a wrapper around <libintl.h> that implements the configure --disable-nl...
option.

Press Return to acknowledge the previous 6 paragraphs.

$ rm -rf m4 build-aux *~

Let’s check generated files under the po/ directory.

files in po (i18n):

$ ls -l po
/build/debmake-doc-1.14/debhello-2.0-pkg2/step151.cmd: line 2: SOURCE_DATE_EP...

120
CHAPTER 8. MORE EXAMPLES 8.13. INTERNATIONALIZATION

total 60
-rw-r--r-- 1 pbuilder pbuilder 494 May 25 20:41 ChangeLog
-rw-r--r-- 1 pbuilder pbuilder 17577 May 25 20:41 Makefile.in.in
-rw-r--r-- 1 pbuilder pbuilder 3376 May 25 20:41 Makevars.template
-rw-r--r-- 1 pbuilder pbuilder 59 May 25 20:41 POTFILES.in
-rw-r--r-- 1 pbuilder pbuilder 2203 May 25 20:41 Rules-quot
-rw-r--r-- 1 pbuilder pbuilder 217 May 25 20:41 boldquot.sed
-rw-r--r-- 1 pbuilder pbuilder 1337 May 25 20:41 [email protected]
-rw-r--r-- 1 pbuilder pbuilder 1203 May 25 20:41 [email protected]
-rw-r--r-- 1 pbuilder pbuilder 672 May 25 20:41 insert-header.sin
-rw-r--r-- 1 pbuilder pbuilder 153 May 25 20:41 quot.sed
-rw-r--r-- 1 pbuilder pbuilder 432 May 25 20:41 remove-potcdate.sin

Let’s update the configure.ac by adding “AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external])”, etc..

configure.ac (i18n):

$ vim configure.ac
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ cat configure.ac
# -*- Autoconf -*-
# Process this file with autoconf to produce a configure script.
AC_PREREQ([2.69])
AC_INIT([debhello],[2.2],[[email protected]])
AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([src/hello.c])
AC_CONFIG_HEADERS([config.h])
echo "Standard customization chores"
AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([build-aux])

AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([foreign])

# Set default to --enable-shared --disable-static

LT_INIT([shared disable-static])

# find the libltdl sources in the libltdl sub-directory

LT_CONFIG_LTDL_DIR([libltdl])

# choose one
LTDL_INIT([recursive])
#LTDL_INIT([subproject])
#LTDL_INIT([nonrecursive])

# Add #define PACKAGE_AUTHOR ... in config.h with a comment

AC_DEFINE(PACKAGE_AUTHOR, ["Osamu Aoki"], [Define PACKAGE_AUTHOR])
# Checks for programs.
AC_PROG_CC

# desktop file support required

AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION([0.19.3])
AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external])

# only for the recursive case

AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile
po/Makefile.in
lib/Makefile
man/Makefile
src/Makefile])
AC_OUTPUT

Let’s create the po/Makevars file from the po/Makevars.template file.

po/Makevars (i18n):

... hack, hack, hack, ...

$ diff -u po/Makevars.template po/Makevars

121
CHAPTER 8. MORE EXAMPLES 8.13. INTERNATIONALIZATION

--- po/Makevars.template 2019-03-26 17:03:20.165623558 +0000

+++ po/Makevars 2019-03-26 17:03:20.245621814 +0000
@@ -18,14 +18,14 @@
# or entity, or to disclaim their copyright. The empty string stands for
# the public domain; in this case the translators are expected to disclaim
# their copyright.
-COPYRIGHT_HOLDER = Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+COPYRIGHT_HOLDER = Osamu Aoki <[email protected]>

# This tells whether or not to prepend "GNU " prefix to the package
# name that gets inserted into the header of the $(DOMAIN).pot file.
# Possible values are "yes", "no", or empty. If it is empty, try to
# detect it automatically by scanning the files in $(top_srcdir) for
# "GNU packagename" string.
-PACKAGE_GNU =
+PACKAGE_GNU = no

# This is the email address or URL to which the translators shall report
# bugs in the untranslated strings:
$ rm po/Makevars.template

Let’s update C sources for the i18n version by wrapping strings with _(…).
src/hello.c (i18n):

... hack, hack, hack, ...

$ cat src/hello.c
#include "config.h"
#include <stdio.h>
#include <sharedlib.h>
#define _(string) gettext (string)
int
main()
{
printf(_("Hello, I am " PACKAGE_AUTHOR "!\n"));
sharedlib();
return 0;
}

lib/sharedlib.c (i18n):

... hack, hack, hack, ...

$ cat lib/sharedlib.c
#include <stdio.h>
#define _(string) gettext (string)
int
sharedlib()
{
printf(_("This is a shared library!\n"));
return 0;
}

The new gettext (v=0.19) can handle the i18n version of the desktop file directly.
data/hello.desktop.in (i18n):

$ fgrep -v '[ja]=' data/hello.desktop > data/hello.desktop.in

$ rm data/hello.desktop
$ cat data/hello.desktop.in
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Hello
Comment=Greetings
Type=Application
Keywords=hello

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CHAPTER 8. MORE EXAMPLES 8.13. INTERNATIONALIZATION

Exec=hello
Terminal=true
Icon=hello.png
Categories=Utility;

Let’s list the input files to extract translatable strings in po/POTFILES.in.

po/POTFILES.in (i18n):

... hack, hack, hack, ...

$ cat po/POTFILES.in
src/hello.c
lib/sharedlib.c
data/hello.desktop.in

Here is the updated root Makefile.am with po added to the SUBDIRS environment variable.
Makefile.am (i18n):

$ cat Makefile.am
# recursively process `Makefile.am` in SUBDIRS
SUBDIRS = po lib src man

ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4

EXTRA_DIST = build-aux/config.rpath m4/ChangeLog

Let’s make a translation template file, debhello.pot.

po/debhello.pot (i18n):

$ xgettext -f po/POTFILES.in -d debhello -o po/debhello.pot -k_

$ cat po/debhello.pot
# SOME DESCRIPTIVE TITLE.
# Copyright (C) YEAR THE PACKAGE'S COPYRIGHT HOLDER
# This file is distributed under the same license as the PACKAGE package.
# FIRST AUTHOR <EMAIL@ADDRESS>, YEAR.
#
#, fuzzy
msgid ""
msgstr ""
"Project-Id-Version: PACKAGE VERSION\n"
"Report-Msgid-Bugs-To: \n"
"POT-Creation-Date: 2019-03-26 17:03+0000\n"
"PO-Revision-Date: YEAR-MO-DA HO:MI+ZONE\n"
"Last-Translator: FULL NAME <EMAIL@ADDRESS>\n"
"Language-Team: LANGUAGE <[email protected]>\n"
"Language: \n"
"MIME-Version: 1.0\n"
"Content-Type: text/plain; charset=CHARSET\n"
"Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit\n"

#: src/hello.c:8
#, c-format
msgid "Hello, I am "
msgstr ""

#: lib/sharedlib.c:6
#, c-format
msgid "This is a shared library!\n"
msgstr ""

#: data/hello.desktop.in:3
msgid "Hello"
msgstr ""

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CHAPTER 8. MORE EXAMPLES 8.13. INTERNATIONALIZATION

#: data/hello.desktop.in:4
msgid "Greetings"
msgstr ""

#: data/hello.desktop.in:6
msgid "hello"
msgstr ""

#: data/hello.desktop.in:9
msgid "hello.png"
msgstr ""

Let’s add a translation for French.

po/LINGUAS and po/fr.po (i18n):

$ echo 'fr' > po/LINGUAS

$ cp po/debhello.pot po/fr.po
$ vim po/fr.po
... hack, hack, hack, ...
$ cat po/fr.po
# SOME DESCRIPTIVE TITLE.
# This file is put in the public domain.
# FIRST AUTHOR <EMAIL@ADDRESS>, YEAR.
#
msgid ""
msgstr ""
"Project-Id-Version: debhello 2.2\n"
"Report-Msgid-Bugs-To: [email protected]\n"
"POT-Creation-Date: 2015-03-01 20:22+0900\n"
"PO-Revision-Date: 2015-02-21 23:18+0900\n"
"Last-Translator: Osamu Aoki <[email protected]>\n"
"Language-Team: French <[email protected]>\n"
"Language: ja\n"
"MIME-Version: 1.0\n"
"Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8\n"
"Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit\n"

#: src/hello.c:34
#, c-format
msgid "Hello, my name is %s!\n"
msgstr "Bonjour, je m'appelle %s!\n"

#: lib/sharedlib.c:29
#, c-format
msgid "This is a shared library!\n"
msgstr "Ceci est une bibliothèque partagée!\n"

#: data/hello.desktop.in:3
msgid "Hello"
msgstr ""

#: data/hello.desktop.in:4
msgid "Greetings"
msgstr "Salutations"

#: data/hello.desktop.in:6
msgid "hello"
msgstr ""

#: data/hello.desktop.in:9
msgid "hello.png"
msgstr ""

124
CHAPTER 8. MORE EXAMPLES 8.14. DETAILS

The packaging activities are practically the same as the one in Section 8.11.
You can find more i18n examples in Section 8.14 for
• the POSIX shell script with Makefile (v=3.0),
• the Python3 script with distutils (v=3.1),
• the C source with Makefile.in + configure (v=3.2),

• the C source with Autotools (v=3.3), and

• the C source with CMake (v=3.4).

8.14 Details
Actual details of the examples presented and their variants can be obtained by the following.
How to get details

$ apt-get source debmake-doc

$ sudo apt-get install devscripts build-essentials
$ cd debmake-doc*
$ sudo apt-get build-dep ./
$ make

Each directory with the -pkg[0-9] suffix contains the Debian packaging example.
• emulated console command line activity log: the .log file
• emulated console command line activity log (short): the .slog file

• snapshot source tree image after the debmake command: the debmake directory
• snapshot source tree image after proper packaging: the packge directory
• snapshot source tree image after the debuild command: the test directory

125
Appendix A

debmake(1) manpage

A.1 NAME
debmake - program to make a Debian source package

A.2 SYNOPSIS
debmake [-h] [-c | -k] [-n | -a package-version.orig.tar.gz | -d | -t ] [-p package] [-u version] [-r revision] [-z exten-
sion] [-b ”binarypackage, …]” [-e [email protected]] [-f ”firstname lastname”] [-i ”buildtool” | -j] [-l license_file]
[-m] [-o file] [-q] [-s] [-v] [-w ”addon, …”] [-x [01234]] [-y] [-L] [-P] [-T]

A.3 DESCRIPTION
debmake helps to build a Debian package from the upstream source. Normally, this is done as follows:
• The upstream tarball is downloaded as the package-version.tar.gz file.
• It is untarred to create many files under the package-version/ directory.
• debmake is invoked in the package-version/ directory, possibly without any arguments.

• Files in the package-version/debian/ directory are manually adjusted.

• dpkg-buildpackage (usually from its wrapper debuild or pdebuild) is invoked in the package-version/
directory to make Debian packages.
Make sure to protect the arguments of the -b, -f, -l, and -w options from shell interference by quoting them
properly.

A.3.1 optional arguments:

-h, --help show this help message and exit.

-c, --copyright scan source for copyright+license text and exit.

• -c: simple output style

• -cc: normal output style (similar to the debian/copyright file)
• -ccc: debug output style

-k, --kludge compare the debian/copyright file with the source and exit.
The debian/copyright file must be organized to list the generic file patterns before the specific exceptions.

• -k: basic output style

• -kk: verbose output style

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APPENDIX A. DEBMAKE(1) MANPAGE A.3. DESCRIPTION

-n, --native make a native Debian source package without .orig.tar.gz. This makes a “3.0 (native)” format pack-
age.
If you are thinking of packaging a Debian-specific source tree with debian/* in it into a native Debian pack-
age, please think otherwise. You can use the “debmake -d -i debuild” or “debmake -t -i debuild” commands
to make a “3.0 (quilt)” format non-native Debian package. The only difference is that the debian/changelog
file must use the non-native version scheme: version-revision. The non-native package is more friendly to
downstream distributions.
-a package-version.tar.gz, --archive package-version.tar.gz use the upstream source tarball directly. (-p, -u, -z:
overridden)
The upstream tarball may be specified as package_version.orig.tar.gz and tar.gz. For other cases, it may be
tar.bz2, or tar.xz.
If the specified upstream tarball name contains uppercase letters, the Debian package name is generated by
converting them to lowercase letters.
If the specified argument is the URL (http://, https://, or ftp://) to the upstream tarball, the upstream tarball is
downloaded from the URL using wget or curl.
-d, --dist run the “make dist” command equivalents first to generate the upstream tarball and use it.
The “debmake -d” command is designed to run in the package/ directory hosting the upstream VCS with
the build system supporting the “make dist” command equivalents. (automake/autoconf, Python distutils,
…)
-t, --tar run the “tar” command to generate the upstream tarball and use it.
The “debmake -t” command is designed to run in the package/ directory hosting the upstream VCS. Unless
you provide the upstream version with the -u option or with the debian/changelog file, a snapshot upstream
version is generated in the 0~%y%m%d%H%M format, e.g., 0~1403012359, from the UTC date and time.
The generated tarball excludes the debian/ directory found in the upstream VCS. (It also excludes typical
VCS directories: .git/ .hg/ .svn/ .CVS/.)
-p package, --package package set the Debian package name.
-u version, --upstreamversion version set the upstream package version.
-r revision, --revision revision set the Debian package revision.
-z extension, --targz extension set the tarball type, extension=(tar.gz|tar.bz2|tar.xz). (alias: z, b, x)
-b ”binarypackage[:type],…”, --binaryspec ”binarypackage[:type],…” set the binary package specs by a comma
separated list of binarypackage:type pairs, e.g., in the full form “foo:bin,foo-doc:doc,libfoo1:lib,libfoo-
dev:dev” or in the short form, “-doc,libfoo1,libfoo-dev”.
Here, binarypackage is the binary package name, and the optional type is chosen from the following type
values:
• bin: C/C++ compiled ELF binary code package (any, foreign) (default, alias: ””, i.e., null-string)
• data: Data (fonts, graphics, …) package (all, foreign) (alias: da)
• dev: Library development package (any, same) (alias: de)
• doc: Documentation package (all, foreign) (alias: do)
• lib: Library package (any, same) (alias: l)
• perl: Perl script package (all, foreign) (alias: pl)
• python: Python script package (all, foreign) (alias: py)
• python3: Python3 script package (all, foreign) (alias: py3)
• ruby: Ruby script package (all, foreign) (alias: rb)
• script: Shell script package (all, foreign) (alias: sh)
The pair values in the parentheses, such as (any, foreign), are the Architecture and Multi-Arch stanza values
set in the debian/control file.
In many cases, the debmake command makes good guesses for type from binarypackage. If type is not
obvious, type is set to bin. For example, libfoo sets type to lib, and font-bar sets type to data, …
If the source tree contents do not match settings for type, the debmake command warns you.

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APPENDIX A. DEBMAKE(1) MANPAGE A.3. DESCRIPTION

-e [email protected], --email [email protected] set e-mail address.

The default is taken from the value of the environment variable $DEBEMAIL.
-f ”firstname lastname”, --fullname ”firstname lastname” set the fullname.
The default is taken from the value of the environment variable $DEBFULLNAME.
-i ”buildtool”, --invoke ”buildtool” invoke ”buildtool” at the end of execution. buildtool may be “dpkg-buildpackage”,
“debuild”, “pdebuild”, “pdebuild --pbuilder cowbuilder”, etc.
The default is not to execute any program.
Setting this option automatically sets the --local option.
-j, --judge run dpkg-depcheck to judge build dependencies and identify file paths. Log files are in the parent
directory.

• package.build-dep.log: Log file for dpkg-depcheck.

• package.install.log: Log file recording files in the debian/tmp directory.

-l ”license_file,…”, --license ”license_file,…” add formatted license text to the end of the debian/copyright file
holding license scan results.
The default is to add COPYING and LICENSE, and license_file needs to list only the additional file names
all separated by “,”.
-m, --monoarch force packages to be non-multiarch.
-o file, --option file read optional parameters from file. (This is not for everyday use.)
The content of file is sourced as the Python3 code at the end of para.py. For example, the package description
can be specified by the following file.

para['desc'] = 'program short description'

para['desc_long'] = '''\
program long description which you wish to include.
.
Empty line is space + .
You keep going on ...
'''

-q, --quitearly quit early before creating files in the debian/ directory.
-s, --spec use upstream spec (setup.py for Python, etc.) for the package description.
-v, --version show version information.
-w ”addon,…”, --with ”addon,…” add extra arguments to the --with option of the dh(1) command as addon in
debian/rules.
The addon values are listed all separated by “,”, e.g., “-w ”python2,autoreconf””.
For Autotools based packages, setting autoreconf as addon forces running “autoreconf -i -v -f” for every
package building. Otherwise, autotools-dev as addon is used as the default.
For Autotools based packages, if they install Python programs, python2 as addon is needed for packages
with “compat < 9” since this is non-obvious. But for setup.py based packages, python2 as addon is not
needed since this is obvious and it is automatically set for the dh(1) command by the debmake command
when it is required.
-x n, --extra n generate configuration files as templates. (Please note debian/changelog, debian/control, de-
bian/copyright, and debian/rules are bare minimum configuration files to build a Debian binary package.)
The number n determines which configuration templates are generated.
• -x0: bare minimum configuration files. (default option if any of bare minimum configuration files
already exist)

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APPENDIX A. DEBMAKE(1) MANPAGE A.4. EXAMPLES

• -x1: all -x0 files + desirable configuration files for the single binary package. (default option for the
single binary package if none of bare minimum configuration files exist)
• -x2: all -x1 files + desirable configuration files for the multi binary package. (default option for the
multi binary package if none of bare minimum configuration files exist)
• -x3: all -x2 files + unusual configuration template files. Unsual configuration template files are gen-
erated with the extra .ex suffix to ease their removal. To use these as configuration files, rename their
file names to ones without the .ex suffix.
• -x4: all -x3 files + copyright file examples.
-y, --yes “force yes” for all prompts. (without option: “ask [Y/n]”; doubled option: “force no”)
-L, --local generate configuration files for the local package to fool lintian(1) checks.

-P, --pedantic pedantically check auto-generated files.

-T, --tutorial output tutorial comment lines in template files.

A.4 EXAMPLES
For a well behaving source, you can build a good-for-local-use installable single Debian binary package easily
with one command. Test install of such a package generated in this way offers a good alternative to the traditional
“make install” command installing into the /usr/local directory since the Debian package can be removed cleanly
by the “dpkg -P …” command. Here are some examples of how to build such test packages. (These should work
in most cases. If the -d option does not work, try the -t option instead.)
For a typical C program source tree packaged with autoconf/automake:

• debmake -d -i debuild
For a typical Python module source tree:
• debmake -s -d -b”:python” -i debuild
For a typical Python module in the package-version.tar.gz archive:

• debmake -s -a package-version.tar.gz -b”:python” -i debuild

For a typical Perl module in the package-version.tar.gz archive:
• debmake -a package-version.tar.gz -b”:perl” -i debuild

A.5 HELPER PACKAGES

Packaging may require installation of some additional specialty helper packages.
• Python3 programs may require the dh-python package.
• The Autotools (Autoconf + Automake) build system may require autotools-dev or dh-autoreconf package.

• Ruby programs may require the gem2deb package.

• Java programs may require the javahelper package.
• Gnome programs may require the gobject-introspection package.

• etc.

129
APPENDIX A. DEBMAKE(1) MANPAGE A.6. CAVEAT

A.6 CAVEAT
debmake is meant to provide template files for the package maintainer to work on. Comment lines started by #
contain the tutorial text. You must remove or edit such comment lines before uploading to the Debian archive.
The license extraction and assignment process involves a lot of heuristics; it may fail in some cases. It is highly
recommended to use other tools such as licensecheck from the devscripts package in conjunction with debmake.
There are some limitations for what characters may be used as a part of the Debian package. The most no-
table limitation is the prohibition of uppercase letters in the package name. Here is a summary as a set of regular
expressions:
• Upstream package name (-p): [-+.a-z0-9]{2,}
• Binary package name (-b): [-+.a-z0-9]{2,}

• Upstream version (-u): [0-9][-+.:~a-z0-9A-Z]*

• Debian revision (-r): [0-9][+.~a-z0-9A-Z]*
See the exact definition in Chapter 5 - Control files and their fields in the “Debian Policy Manual”.
debmake assumes relatively simple packaging cases. So all programs related to the interpreter are assumed to
be ”Architecture: all”. This is not always true.

A.7 DEBUG
Please report bugs to the debmake package using the reportbug command.
The character set in the environment variable $DEBUG determines the logging output level.

• i: print information
• p: list all global parameters
• d: list parsed parameters for all binary packages
• f: input filename for the copyright scan

• y: year/name split of copyright line

• s: line scanner for format_state
• b: content_state scan loop: begin-loop

• m: content_state scan loop: after regex match

• e: content_state scan loop: end-loop
• c: print copyright section text
• l: print license section text

• a: print author/translator section text

• k: sort key for debian/copyright stanza
• n: scan result of debian/copyright (“debmake -k”)

Use this as:

$ DEBUG=pdfbmeclak debmake ...

See README.developer in the source for more.

A.8 AUTHOR
Copyright © 2014-2017 Osamu Aoki <[email protected]>

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APPENDIX A. DEBMAKE(1) MANPAGE A.9. LICENSE

A.9 LICENSE
Expat License

A.10 SEE ALSO

The debmake-doc package provides the “Guide for Debian Maintainers” in plain text, HTML and PDF formats
under the /usr/share/doc/debmake-doc/ directory.
See also dpkg-source(1), deb-control(5), debhelper(7), dh(1), dpkg-buildpackage(1), debuild(1), quilt(1),
dpkg-depcheck(1), pdebuild(1), pbuilder(8), cowbuilder(8), gbp-buildpackage(1), gbp-pq(1), and git-pbuilder(1)
manpages.

131