Chapter 2. Overview

# Chapter 2. Overview

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

    [base_dir] $ tar --xz -xvf package-1.0.tar.xz
    [base_dir] $ cd package-1.0
    [package-1.0] $ debmake
       ... Make manual adjustments of generated configuration files
    [package-1.0] $ debuild

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

| Caution
The debmake command only provides decent template files. These template files must be manually adjusted to their perfection to comply with the strict quality requirements of the Debian archive, if the generated package is intended for general consumption.

If you are new to Debian packaging, focus on understanding the overall process rather than worrying about the details.

If you are familiar with Debian packaging, you’ll notice that debmake is similar to the dh_make command. This is because debmake is designed to replace the functionality historically provided by dh_make. [3]

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 (see “Section 16.2, “debmake -b””, “Chapter 15, debmake(1) manpage”, and “Chapter 16, debmake options”)

- 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 Debian source format “3.0 (quilt)”, unless the -n option is explicitly specified.

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

| Tip
Ensure that you properly quote the arguments of the -b, -f, and -w options to protect them from shell interference.

| 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 obtained by following the instructions in “Section 14.14, “Details””.

[3] Before dh_make, the deb-make command was popular. The current debmake package starts its version from 4.0 to avoid version conflicts with the obsolete debmake package, which provided the “deb-make” command.

Chapter 1. Preface |  | Chapter 3. Prerequisites