Chapter 13. Tool usages

# Chapter 13. Tool usages

Here are some notable tools around Debian packaging.

| Note
The descriptions in this section are intentionally brief. Prospective maintainers are strongly encouraged to search for and read all relevant documentation associated with these commands.

| Note
Examples here use the gz-compression. The xz-compression may be used instead.

## 13.1. debdiff

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

    [base_dir] $ debdiff old-package.dsc new-package.dsc

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

    [base_dir] $ 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.

Debian now enforces the source-only upload when developing packages. So there may be 2 different *.changes files:

- package_version-revision_source.changes for the normal source-only upload
- package_version-revision_arch.changes for the source+binary upload

## 13.2. dget

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

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

## 13.3. mk-origtargz

You can make the upstream tarball ../foo-newversion.tar.[xg]z accessible from the Debian source tree as ../foo_newversion.orig.tar.[xg]z. This command is useful for renaming and symlinking the upstream tarball to the expected Debian naming convention.

## 13.4. origtargz

You can fetch the pre-existing orig tarball of a Debian package from various sources, and unpack it with origtargz command.

This is basically for -2, -3, …​ revisions.

| Note
When the upstream tarball is missing, debmake automatically produces a required tarball. This is a convenient feature and good enough for making a private Debian package. But when making a Debian package for the official Debian repository, you must use exactly the same upstream tarball as the -1 revision. For such case, origtargz should be used.

## 13.5. git deborig

If the upstream project is hosted in a Git repository without an official tarball release, you can generate its orig tarball from the git repository for use by the Debian source package. Execute “git deborig” from the root of the checked-out source tree.

This is basically for -1 revisions.

## 13.6. dpkg-source -b

The “dpkg-source -b” command packs the upstream source tree into the Debian source package.

It expects a series of patches in the debian/patches/ directory and their application sequence in debian/patches/series.

It is compatible with dquilt (see “Section 4.4, “quilt setup””) operations and understands the patch application status from the existence of .pc/applied-patches.

The dpkg-buildpackage command invokes “dpkg-source -b”.

## 13.7. dpkg-source -x

The “dpkg-source -x” command extracts the source tree and applies the patches in the debian/patches/ directory using the sequence specified in debian/patches/series to the upstream source tree. It also adds .pc/applied-patches. (See “Section 11.13, “Patch applied Git repository””.)

The “dpkg-source -x --skip-patches” command extracts source tree only. It doesn’t add .pc/applied-patches. (See “Section 11.5, “Patch unapplied Git repository””.)

Both extracted source trees are ready for building Debian binary packages with dpkg-buildpackage, dbuild, sbuild, etc..

## 13.8. debc

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

    [base_dir] $ debc package_version-rev_arch.changes

## 13.9. 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

## 13.10. dpkg-depcheck

You can use dpkg-depcheck(1) to obtain a good first approximation to the Build-Depends line needed by a Debian package.

    [foo-1.0] $ dpkg-depcheck -b debian/rules build

Chapter 12. Tips |  | Chapter 14. More Examples