Here are some notable tools around Debian packaging.

	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 encouraged to search and read all the pertinent documents associated with the commands used.

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

12.1. 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.

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 binary upload

12.2. 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

12.3. 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.

12.4. 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.

12.5. git deborig

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

This is basically for -1 revisions.

12.6. 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 the patch application status from the existance of .pc/applied-patches.

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

12.7. dpkg-source -x

The “dpkg-source -x” command extracts 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 10.6, “Patch applied Git repository””.)

The “dpkg-source -x --skip-patches” command extracts source tree only. It doesn’t add .pc/applied-patches. (See “Section 10.5, “Patch unapplied Git repository””.)

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

12.8. debc

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

$ debc package_version-rev_arch.changes

12.9. piuparts

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

$ sudo piuparts package_version-rev_arch.changes

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

12.10. 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


Chapter 11. Tips		Chapter 13. More Examples