DEBMAKE(1)

NAME
debmake - program to make a Debian source package

SYNOPSIS

debmake [-h] [-n] [-p package] [-u version] [-r revision] [-z extension] [-b "binarypackage[:type], ...]" [-D value] [-e foo@example.org] [-f "firstname lastname"] [-i [debuild|sbuild|dgit sbuild|gbp buildpackage|dpkg-buildpackage| ...]] [-m] [-q] [-v] [-V] [-w "addon, ..."] [-x [01234]] [-y] [-B] [URL]

DESCRIPTION

debmake helps to build the Debian package from the upstream source.

Normally, this is done as follows:

    • The upstream source is obtained as a tarball from a remote web site or a cloned work tree using “git clone”.

        • For a tarball, it is expanded to many files in the source directory.

        • For a cloned work tree, it is used as the source directory.

    • debmake is typically invoked in the source directory without any argument.

        • The source directory is copied to ../package-version/ directory.

        • If ../package_version.orig.tar.xz is missing, it is generated.

        • The current directory is moved to ../package-version/.

        • Template files are generated in the ../package-version/debian/ directory

    • Files in the ../package-version/debian/ directory should be manually adjusted.

    • dpkg-buildpackage (usually from its wrapper debuild, sbuild, ...) is invoked in the ../package-version/ directory to make Debian source and binary packages.

Also, debmake can be invoked with an argument. This argument can be URL for a tarball hosted on a remote web site or for a source code accessed by “git clone”; or local PATH to the tarball or the source code.

Arguments to -b, -f, and -w options need to be quoted to protect them from the shell.

Other tools also offer ways to obtain the upstream tarball and creating required symlink to build a Debian package depending on your workflow. For example, origtargz, mk-origtargz, git-deborig, and pristine-tar.

POSITIONAL ARGUMENTS

URL
    acquire the source tree from the tarball, the git repository or the source tree at this URL (or PATH) (if missing, the source tree uses the current directory)

OPTIONS

-h, --help
    show this help message and exit

-n, --native make a native source package without .orig.tar.xz

-p, --package package
    set the Debian package name

-u, --upstreamversion version
    set the upstream package version ("@" in version is replaced by "0~yymmddHHMM" timestamp)

-r, --revision revision
    set the Debian package revision ("@" in revision is replaced by "0~yymmddHHMM" timestamp)

-z, --tarz extension
    set the tarball compression type for the missing upstream tarball, extension=(tar.xz|tar.gz|tar.bz2) (alias: z, b, x)

-b, --binaryspec "binarypackage[:type], ..."
    set the binary package specs by a comma separated list of binarypackage:type pairs. 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)

        • python3: Python (version 3) script package (all, foreign) (alias: py3, python, py)

        • ruby: Ruby script package (all, foreign) (alias: rb)

        • nodejs: Node.js based JavaScript package (all, foreign) (alias: js)

        • script: Shell and other interpreted language 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.

    Here are examples for typical binary package split scenarios where the upstream Debian source package name is foo:

        • Generating an executable binary package foo:

            • “-b’foo:bin'”, or its short form “-b'-'”, or no -b option

        • Generating an executable (python3) binary package python3-foo:

            • “-b’python3-foo:py'”, or its short form “-b’python3-foo'”

        • Generating a data package foo:

            • “-b’foo:data'”, or its short form “-b'-:data'”

        • Generating a executable binary package foo and a documentation one foo-doc:

            • “-b’foo:bin,foo-doc:doc'”, or its short form “-b'-:-doc'”

        • Generating a executable binary package foo, a library package libfoo1, and a library development package libfoo-dev:

            • “-b’foo:bin,libfoo1:lib,libfoo-dev:dev'” or its short form “-b'-,libfoo1,libfoo-dev'”

    If the source tree contents do not match settings for type, the debmake command warns you.

-e, --email foo@example.org
    set e-mail address

    The default is taken from the value of the environment variable $DEBEMAIL.

-D, --debug value
    set DEBUG environment variable to value for debug logging (substring of "spPd", use "_" to unset DEBUG)

-f, --fullname "firstname lastname"
    set the fullname

    The default is taken from the value of the environment variable $DEBFULLNAME.

-i, --invoke [debuild|sbuild|dgit sbuild|gbp buildpackage|dpkg-buildpackage| ...]
    invoke package build tool

-m, --monoarch
    force packages to be non-multiarch

-q, --quitearly
    quit early before creating files in the debian directory

-v, --version
    show version information

-V, --verbose
    use --verbose for shell commands if available

-w, --with "addon ..."
    set additional “dh --with” option arguments in debian/rules

    For Autotools based packages, if they install Python (version 3) programs, setting python3 as addon to the debmake command argument is needed since this is non-obvious. But for pyproject.toml based Python packages, setting python3 as addon to the debmake command argument is not needed since this is obvious and the debmake command automatically set it to the dh(1) command.

-x, --extra [01234]
    generate extra configuration files as templates (default: 2)

    Please note debian/changelog, debian/control, debian/copyright, debian/rules, and debian/source/format are required configuration files to build a modern Debian binary package.

    The number determines which configuration templates are generated.

        • -x0: all 5 required configuration template files. (selected option if any of these required files already exist)

        • -x1: all -x0 files + desirable configuration template files with binary package type supports.

        • -x2: all -x1 files + normal configuration template files with maintainer script supports. (default)

        • -x3: all -x2 files + optional configuration template files.

        • -x4: all -x3 files + deprecated configuration template files.

Some configuration template files are generated with the extra .ex suffix to ease their removal. To activate these, rename their file names to the ones without the .ex suffix and edit their contents. Existing configuration files are never overwritten. If you wish to update some of the existing configuration files, please rename them before running the debmake command and manually merge the generated configuration files with the old renamed ones.

-y, --yes
    use once to “force yes” for all prompts, twice to “force no”

-B, --backup
    keep the user editted ones without .ex suffix and create template files with .ex suffix

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.

For a typical C program source tree packaged with autoconf/automake:

    • debmake -i sbuild

For a typical Python (version 3) module source tree:

    • debmake -b":python3" -i sbuild

For a typical Python (version 3) module in the package-version.tar.xz archive:

    • debmake package-version.tar.xz -b":python3" -i sbuild

For a typical Perl module in the package-version.tar.xz archive:

    • debmake package-version.tar.xz -b":perl" -i sbuild

HELPER PACKAGES

Packaging may require installation of some additional specialty helper packages.

    • Python (version 3) programs may require the pybuild-plugin-pyproject package.

    • The Autotools (autoconf + automake) build system may require autotools-dev or dh-autoreconf package.

    • Ruby programs may require the gem2deb package.

    • Node.js based JavaScript programs may require the pkg-js-tools package.

    • Java programs may require the javahelper package.

    • Gnome programs may require the gobject-introspection package.

    • etc.

CAVEAT

Although debmake is meant to provide template files for the package maintainer to work on, actual packaging activities are often performed without using debmake while referencing only existing similar packages and “All template files generated by debmake are required to be modified manually.

There are some points for debmake:

    • debmake helps to write terse packaging tutorial “(debmake-doc package).

    • debmake provides short extracted license texts as debian/copyright in decent accuracy to help license review.

    • “Guide for Debian Maintainers” also serves as a tutorial with examples for the usage of debmake.

    • debmake internally calls licensecheck from the licensecheck package to create debian/copyright if it doesn’t exist.

    • debmake internally calls lrc from the licenserecon package to verify debian/copyright if it already exists.

There are some limitations for what characters may be used as a part of the Debian package. The most notable 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 “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.

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.

    • s: program progress logging

    • p: key para[..] value logging

    • P: all para[..] value logging

    • d: para["debs"] value logging

Use this feature as:

    [base_dir] $ export DEBUG=spd; debmake ...

or

    [base_dir] $ debmake -D spd ...

See README.md in the source for more.

AUTHOR

Copyright © 2014-2026 Osamu Aoki

LICENSE

Expat License

SEE ALSO

The debmake-doc package provides the “in plain text, HTML and PDF formats under the /usr/share/doc/debmake-doc/ directory.

See also licensecheck(1), lrc(1), dpkg-source(1), deb-control(5), debhelper(7), dh(1), dpkg-buildpackage(1), debuild(1), quilt(1), dpkg-depcheck(1), sbuild(1), gbp-buildpackage(1), and gbp-pq(1) manpages.