1dpkg-buildpackage(1) dpkg suite dpkg-buildpackage(1)
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6 dpkg-buildpackage - build binary or source packages from sources
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9 dpkg-buildpackage [option...]
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12 dpkg-buildpackage is a program that automates the process of building a
13 Debian package. It consists of the following steps:
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15 1. It prepares the build environment by setting various environment
16 variables (see ENVIRONMENT), runs the init hook, and calls dpkg-
17 source --before-build (unless -T or --target has been used).
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19 2. It checks that the build-dependencies and build-conflicts are
20 satisfied (unless -d or --no-check-builddeps is specified).
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22 3. If one or more specific targets have been selected with the -T or
23 --target option, it calls those targets and stops here. Otherwise
24 it runs the preclean hook and calls fakeroot debian/rules clean to
25 clean the build-tree (unless -nc or --no-pre-clean is specified).
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27 4. It runs the source hook and calls dpkg-source -b to generate the
28 source package (if a source build has been requested with --build
29 or equivalent options).
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31 5. It runs the build hook and calls debian/rules build-target, then
32 runs the binary hook followed by fakeroot debian/rules binary-
33 target (unless a source-only build has been requested with
34 --build=source or equivalent options). Note that build-target and
35 binary-target are either build and binary (default case, or if an
36 any and all build has been requested with --build or equivalent
37 options), or build-arch and binary-arch (if an any and not all
38 build has been requested with --build or equivalent options), or
39 build-indep and binary-indep (if an all and not any build has been
40 requested with --build or equivalent options).
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42 6. It runs the buildinfo hook and calls dpkg-genbuildinfo to generate
43 a .buildinfo file. Several dpkg-buildpackage options are forwarded
44 to dpkg-genbuildinfo.
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46 7. It runs the changes hook and calls dpkg-genchanges to generate a
47 .changes file. The name of the .changes file will depend on the
48 type of build and will be as specific as necessary but not more;
49 for a build that includes any the name will be source-name_binary-
50 version_arch.changes, or otherwise for a build that includes all
51 the name will be source-name_binary-version_all.changes, or
52 otherwise for a build that includes source the name will be source-
53 name_source-version_source.changes. Many dpkg-buildpackage options
54 are forwarded to dpkg-genchanges.
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56 8. It runs the postclean hook and if -tc or --post-clean is specified,
57 it will call fakeroot debian/rules clean again.
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59 9. It calls dpkg-source --after-build.
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61 10. It runs the check hook and calls a package checker for the .changes
62 file (if a command is specified in DEB_CHECK_COMMAND or with
63 --check-command).
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65 11. It runs the sign hook and signs using the OpenPGP backend (as long
66 as it is not an UNRELEASED build, or --no-sign is specified) to
67 sign the .dsc file (if any, unless -us or --unsigned-source is
68 specified), the .buildinfo file (unless -ui, --unsigned-buildinfo,
69 -uc or --unsigned-changes is specified) and the .changes file
70 (unless -uc or --unsigned-changes is specified).
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72 12. It runs the done hook.
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75 All long options can be specified both on the command line and in the
76 dpkg-buildpackage system and user configuration files. Each line in
77 the configuration file is either an option (exactly the same as the
78 command line option but without leading hyphens) or a comment (if it
79 starts with a ‘#’).
80
81 --build=type
82 Specifies the build type from a comma-separated list of components
83 (since dpkg 1.18.5). All the specified components get combined to
84 select the single build type to use, which implies a single build
85 run with a single .changes file generated. Passed to dpkg-
86 genchanges.
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88 The allowed values are:
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90 source
91 Builds the source package.
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93 Note: When using this value standalone and if what you want is
94 simply to (re-)build the source package from a clean source
95 tree, using dpkg-source directly is always a better option as
96 it does not require any build dependencies to be installed
97 which are otherwise needed to be able to call the clean target.
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99 any Builds the architecture specific binary packages.
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101 all Builds the architecture independent binary packages.
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103 binary
104 Builds the architecture specific and independent binary
105 packages. This is an alias for any,all.
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107 full
108 Builds everything. This is an alias for source,any,all, and
109 the same as the default case when no build option is specified.
110
111 -g Equivalent to --build=source,all (since dpkg 1.17.11).
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113 -G Equivalent to --build=source,any (since dpkg 1.17.11).
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115 -b Equivalent to --build=binary or --build=any,all.
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117 -B Equivalent to --build=any.
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119 -A Equivalent to --build=all.
120
121 -S Equivalent to --build=source.
122
123 -F Equivalent to --build=full, --build=source,binary or
124 --build=source,any,all (since dpkg 1.15.8).
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126 --target=target[,...]
127 --target target[,...]
128 -T, --rules-target=target[,...]
129 Calls debian/rules target once per target specified, after having
130 setup the build environment (except for calling dpkg-source
131 --before-build), and stops the package build process here (since
132 dpkg 1.15.0, long option since dpkg 1.18.8, multi-target support
133 since dpkg 1.18.16). If --as-root is also given, then the command
134 is executed as root (see --root-command). Note that known targets
135 that are required to be run as root do not need this option (i.e.
136 the clean, binary, binary-arch and binary-indep targets).
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138 --as-root
139 Only meaningful together with --target (since dpkg 1.15.0).
140 Requires that the target be run with root rights.
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142 -si
143 -sa
144 -sd
145 -vversion
146 -Cchanges-description
147 -mmaintainer-address
148 -emaintainer-address
149 Passed unchanged to dpkg-genchanges. See its manual page.
150
151 --build-by=maintainer-address
152 --source-by=maintainer-address (since dpkg 1.21.10)
153 Pass as -m to dpkg-genchanges. See its manual page.
154
155 --release-by=maintainer-address
156 --changed-by=maintainer-address (since dpkg 1.21.10)
157 Pass as -e to dpkg-genchanges. See its manual page.
158
159 -a, --host-arch architecture
160 Specify the Debian architecture we build for (long option since
161 dpkg 1.17.17). The architecture of the machine we build on is
162 determined automatically, and is also the default for the host
163 machine.
164
165 -t, --host-type gnu-system-type
166 Specify the GNU system type we build for (long option since dpkg
167 1.17.17). It can be used in place of --host-arch or as a
168 complement to override the default GNU system type of the host
169 Debian architecture.
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171 --target-arch architecture
172 Specify the Debian architecture the binaries built will build for
173 (since dpkg 1.17.17). The default value is the host machine.
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175 --target-type gnu-system-type
176 Specify the GNU system type the binaries built will build for
177 (since dpkg 1.17.17). It can be used in place of --target-arch or
178 as a complement to override the default GNU system type of the
179 target Debian architecture.
180
181 -P, --build-profiles=profile[,...]
182 Specify the profile(s) we build, as a comma-separated list (since
183 dpkg 1.17.2, long option since dpkg 1.18.8). The default behavior
184 is to build for no specific profile. Also sets them (as a space
185 separated list) as the DEB_BUILD_PROFILES environment variable
186 which allows, for example, debian/rules files to use this
187 information for conditional builds.
188
189 -j, --jobs[=jobs|auto]
190 Specifies the number of jobs allowed to be run simultaneously
191 (since dpkg 1.14.7, long option since dpkg 1.18.8). The number of
192 jobs matching the number of online processors if auto is specified
193 (since dpkg 1.17.10), or unlimited number if jobs is not specified.
194 The default behavior is auto (since dpkg 1.18.11) in non-forced
195 mode (since dpkg 1.21.10), and as such it is always safer to use
196 with any package including those that are not parallel-build safe.
197 Setting the number of jobs to 1 will restore serial execution.
198
199 Will add parallel=jobs or parallel to the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
200 environment variable which allows debian/rules files to opt-in to
201 use this information for their own purposes. The jobs value will
202 override the parallel=jobs or parallel option in the
203 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS environment variable. Note that the auto value
204 will get replaced by the actual number of currently active
205 processors, and as such will not get propagated to any child
206 process. If the number of online processors cannot be inferred then
207 the code will fallback to using serial execution (since dpkg
208 1.18.15), although this should only happen on exotic and
209 unsupported systems.
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211 -J, --jobs-try[=jobs|auto]
212 This option (since dpkg 1.18.2, long option since dpkg 1.18.8) is
213 equivalent to the -j above.
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215 Since the behavior for -j changed in dpkg 1.21.10 to the opt-in
216 mode, you can use this option instead if you need to guarantee
217 semantics across dpkg release series.
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219 --jobs-force[=jobs|auto]
220 This option (since dpkg 1.21.10) is equivalent to the --jobs option
221 except that it will enable forced parallel mode, by adding the make
222 -j option with the computed number of parallel jobs to the
223 MAKEFLAGS environment variable.
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225 This should cause all subsequent make invocations to inherit the
226 option, thus forcing the parallel setting on the packaging (and
227 possibly the upstream build system if that uses make(1)) regardless
228 of their support for parallel builds, which might cause build
229 failures.
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231 Note: Any Makefile that is not parallel-safe should be considered
232 to be buggy. These should either be made parallel-safe, or marked
233 as not being safe with the make(1) .NOTPARALLEL target.
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235 -D, --check-builddeps
236 Check build dependencies and conflicts; abort if unsatisfied (long
237 option since dpkg 1.18.8). This is the default behavior.
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239 -d, --no-check-builddeps
240 Do not check build dependencies and conflicts (long option since
241 dpkg 1.18.8).
242
243 --ignore-builtin-builddeps
244 Do not check built-in build dependencies and conflicts (since dpkg
245 1.18.2). These are the distribution specific implicit build
246 dependencies usually required in a build environment, the so called
247 Build-Essential package set.
248
249 --rules-requires-root
250 Do not honor the Rules-Requires-Root field, falling back to its
251 legacy default value (since dpkg 1.19.1).
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253 -nc, --no-pre-clean
254 Do not clean the source tree before building (long option since
255 dpkg 1.18.8). Implies -b if nothing else has been selected among
256 -F, -g, -G, -B, -A or -S. Implies -d with -S (since dpkg 1.18.0).
257
258 --pre-clean
259 Clean the source tree before building (since dpkg 1.18.8). This is
260 the default behavior.
261
262 -tc, --post-clean
263 Clean the source tree (using gain-root-command debian/rules clean)
264 after the package has been built (long option since dpkg 1.18.8).
265
266 --no-post-clean
267 Do not clean the source tree after the package has been built
268 (since dpkg 1.19.1). This is the default behavior.
269
270 --sanitize-env
271 Sanitize the build environment (since dpkg 1.20.0). This will
272 reset or remove environment variables, umask, and any other process
273 attributes that might otherwise adversely affect the build of
274 packages. Because the official entry point to build packages is
275 debian/rules, packages cannot rely on these settings being in
276 place, and thus should work even when they are not. What to
277 sanitize is vendor specific.
278
279 -r, --root-command=gain-root-command
280 When dpkg-buildpackage needs to execute part of the build process
281 as root, it prefixes the command it executes with gain-root-command
282 if one has been specified (long option since dpkg 1.18.8).
283 Otherwise, if none has been specified, fakeroot will be used by
284 default, if the command is present. gain-root-command should start
285 with the name of a program on the PATH and will get as arguments
286 the name of the real command to run and the arguments it should
287 take. gain-root-command can include parameters (they must be
288 space-separated) but no shell metacharacters. gain-root-command
289 might typically be fakeroot, sudo, super or really. su is not
290 suitable, since it can only invoke the user's shell with -c instead
291 of passing arguments individually to the command to be run.
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293 -R, --rules-file=rules-file
294 Building a Debian package usually involves invoking debian/rules as
295 a command with several standard parameters (since dpkg 1.14.17,
296 long option since dpkg 1.18.8). With this option it's possible to
297 use another program invocation to build the package (it can include
298 space separated parameters). Alternatively it can be used to
299 execute the standard rules file with another make program (for
300 example by using /usr/local/bin/make -f debian/rules as rules-
301 file).
302
303 --check-command=check-command
304 Command used to check the .changes file itself and any artifact
305 built referenced in the file (since dpkg 1.17.6). The command
306 should take the .changes pathname as an argument. This command will
307 usually be lintian.
308
309 --check-option=opt
310 Pass option opt to the check-command specified with
311 DEB_CHECK_COMMAND or --check-command (since dpkg 1.17.6). Can be
312 used multiple times.
313
314 --hook-hook-name=hook-command
315 Set the specified shell code hook-command as the hook hook-name,
316 which will run at the times specified in the run steps (since dpkg
317 1.17.6). The hooks will always be executed even if the following
318 action is not performed (except for the binary hook). All the
319 hooks will run in the unpacked source directory.
320
321 Note: Hooks can affect the build process, and cause build failures
322 if their commands fail, so watch out for unintended consequences.
323
324 The current hook-name supported are:
325
326 init preclean source build binary buildinfo changes postclean check
327 sign done
328
329 The hook-command supports the following substitution format string,
330 which will get applied to it before execution:
331
332 %% A single % character.
333
334 %a A boolean value (0 or 1), representing whether the following
335 action is being performed.
336
337 %p The source package name.
338
339 %v The source package version.
340
341 %s The source package version (without the epoch).
342
343 %u The upstream version.
344
345 --buildinfo-file=filename
346 Set the filename for the generated .buildinfo file (since dpkg
347 1.21.0).
348
349 --buildinfo-option=opt
350 Pass option opt to dpkg-genbuildinfo (since dpkg 1.18.11). Can be
351 used multiple times.
352
353 --sign-backend=sign-backend
354 Specify an OpenPGP backend interface to use when invoking the sign-
355 command (since dpkg 1.21.10).
356
357 The default is auto, where the best current backend available will
358 be used. The specific OpenPGP backends supported in order of
359 preference are:
360
361 sop (any conforming Stateless OpenPGP implementation)
362 sq (from Sequoia-PGP)
363 gpg (from GnuPG)
364 -p, --sign-command=sign-command
365 When dpkg-buildpackage needs to execute an OpenPGP backend command
366 to sign a source control (.dsc) file or a .changes file it will run
367 sign-command (searching the PATH if necessary) instead of the
368 default or auto-detected backend command (long option since dpkg
369 1.18.8). sign-command will get all the arguments defined by the
370 --sign-backend. sign-command should not contain spaces or any
371 other shell metacharacters.
372
373 -k, --sign-keyid=key-id
374 --sign-key=key-id
375 Specify an OpenPGP key-ID (either a fingerprint or a user-ID) for
376 the secret key to use when signing packages (--sign-key since dpkg
377 1.18.8, --sign-keyid since dpkg 1.21.10).
378
379 --sign-keyfile=key-file
380 Specify an OpenPGP key-file containing the secret key to use when
381 signing packages (since dpkg 1.21.10).
382
383 Note: For security reasons the key-file is best kept locked with a
384 password.
385
386 -us, --unsigned-source
387 Do not sign the source package (long option since dpkg 1.18.8).
388
389 -ui, --unsigned-buildinfo
390 Do not sign the .buildinfo file (since dpkg 1.18.19).
391
392 -uc, --unsigned-changes
393 Do not sign the .buildinfo and .changes files (long option since
394 dpkg 1.18.8).
395
396 --no-sign
397 Do not sign any file, this includes the source package, the
398 .buildinfo file and the .changes file (since dpkg 1.18.20).
399
400 --force-sign
401 Force the signing of the resulting files (since dpkg 1.17.0),
402 regardless of -us, --unsigned-source, -ui, --unsigned-buildinfo,
403 -uc, --unsigned-changes or other internal heuristics.
404
405 -sn
406 -ss
407 -sA
408 -sk
409 -su
410 -sr
411 -sK
412 -sU
413 -sR
414 -i, --diff-ignore[=regex]
415 -I, --tar-ignore[=pattern]
416 -z, --compression-level=level
417 -Z, --compression=compressor
418 Passed unchanged to dpkg-source. See its manual page.
419
420 --source-option=opt
421 Pass option opt to dpkg-source (since dpkg 1.15.6). Can be used
422 multiple times.
423
424 --changes-file=filename
425 Set the filename for the generated .changes file (since dpkg
426 1.21.0).
427
428 --changes-option=opt
429 Pass option opt to dpkg-genchanges (since dpkg 1.15.6). Can be
430 used multiple times.
431
432 --admindir=dir
433 --admindir dir
434 Change the location of the dpkg database (since dpkg 1.14.0). The
435 default location is /var/lib/dpkg.
436
437 -?, --help
438 Show the usage message and exit.
439
440 --version
441 Show the version and exit.
442
444 External environment
445 DEB_CHECK_COMMAND
446 If set, it will be used as the command to check the .changes file
447 (since dpkg 1.17.6). Overridden by the --check-command option.
448
449 DEB_SIGN_KEYID
450 If set, it will be used to sign the .changes, .buildinfo and .dsc
451 files (since dpkg 1.17.2). Overridden by the --sign-key option.
452
453 DEB_SIGN_KEYFILE
454 If set, it will be used to sign the .changes, .buildinfo and .dsc
455 files (since dpkg 1.21.10). Overridden by the --sign-keyfile
456 option.
457
458 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
459 If set, it will contain a space-separated list of options that
460 might affect the build process in debian/rules, and the behavior of
461 some dpkg commands.
462
463 With nocheck the DEB_CHECK_COMMAND variable will be ignored. With
464 parallel=N the parallel jobs will be set to N, overridden by the
465 --jobs-try option.
466
467 DEB_BUILD_PROFILES
468 If set, it will be used as the active build profile(s) for the
469 package being built (since dpkg 1.17.2). It is a space separated
470 list of profile names. Overridden by the -P option.
471
472 DPKG_COLORS
473 Sets the color mode (since dpkg 1.18.5). The currently accepted
474 values are: auto (default), always and never.
475
476 DPKG_NLS
477 If set, it will be used to decide whether to activate Native
478 Language Support, also known as internationalization (or i18n)
479 support (since dpkg 1.19.0). The accepted values are: 0 and 1
480 (default).
481
482 Internal environment
483 Even if dpkg-buildpackage exports some variables, debian/rules should
484 not rely on their presence and should instead use the respective
485 interface to retrieve the needed values, because that file is the main
486 entry point to build packages and running it standalone should be
487 supported.
488
489 DEB_BUILD_*
490 DEB_HOST_*
491 DEB_TARGET_*
492 dpkg-architecture is called with the -a and -t parameters
493 forwarded. Any variable that is output by its -s option is
494 integrated in the build environment.
495
496 DEB_RULES_REQUIRES_ROOT
497 This variable is set to the value obtained from the Rules-Requires-
498 Root field or from the command-line. When set, it will be a valid
499 value for the Rules-Requires-Root field. It is used to notify
500 debian/rules whether the rootless-builds.txt specification is
501 supported.
502
503 DEB_GAIN_ROOT_CMD
504 This variable is set to gain-root-command when the field Rules-
505 Requires-Root is set to a value different to no and binary-targets.
506
507 SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
508 This variable is set to the Unix timestamp since the epoch of the
509 latest entry in debian/changelog, if it is not already defined.
510
512 /etc/dpkg/buildpackage.conf
513 System wide configuration file
514
515 $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/dpkg/buildpackage.conf or
516 $HOME/.config/dpkg/buildpackage.conf
517 User configuration file.
518
520 Compiler flags are no longer exported
521 Between dpkg 1.14.17 and 1.16.1, dpkg-buildpackage exported compiler
522 flags (CFLAGS, CXXFLAGS, FFLAGS, CPPFLAGS and LDFLAGS) with values as
523 returned by dpkg-buildflags. This is no longer the case.
524
525 Default build targets
526 dpkg-buildpackage is using the build-arch and build-indep targets since
527 dpkg 1.16.2. Those targets are thus mandatory. But to avoid breakages
528 of existing packages, and ease the transition, if the source package
529 does not build both architecture independent and dependent binary
530 packages (since dpkg 1.18.8) it will fallback to use the build target
531 if make -f debian/rules -qn build-target returns 2 as exit code.
532
534 It should be possible to specify spaces and shell metacharacters and
535 initial arguments for gain-root-command and sign-command.
536
538 /usr/share/doc/dpkg/spec/rootless-builds.txt, dpkg-source(1), dpkg-
539 architecture(1), dpkg-buildflags(1), dpkg-genbuildinfo(1), dpkg-
540 genchanges(1), fakeroot(1), lintian(1),
541 <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-dkg-openpgp-stateless-cli/>,
542 sq(1), gpg(1).
543
544
545
5461.21.21 2023-02-25 dpkg-buildpackage(1)