Chapter 13. More Examples

 $ tar -xzmf debhello-0.2.tar.gz
 $ cd debhello-0.2
 $ sudo cp scripts/hello /bin/hello
 ...

 $ wget http://www.example.org/download/debhello-0.2.tar.gz
 ...
 $ tar -xzmf debhello-0.2.tar.gz
 $ tree
.
├── debhello-0.2
│   ├── README.md
│   ├── data
│   │   ├── hello.desktop
│   │   └── hello.png
│   ├── man
│   │   └── hello.1
│   └── scripts
│       └── hello
└── debhello-0.2.tar.gz

5 directories, 6 files

 $ cat debhello-0.2/scripts/hello
#!/bin/sh -e
echo "Hello from the shell!"
echo ""
echo -n "Type Enter to exit this program: "
read X

Here, hello.desktop supports the “Desktop Entry Specification”.

hello.desktop (v=0.2). 

 $ cat debhello-0.2/data/hello.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Hello
Name[fr]=Bonjour
Comment=Greetings
Comment[fr]=Salutations
Type=Application
Keywords=hello
Exec=hello
Terminal=true
Icon=hello.png
Categories=Utility;

Here, hello.png is the icon graphics file.

Let’s package this with the debmake command. Here, the -b':sh' option is used to specify that the generated binary package is a shell script.

 $ cd /path/to/debhello-0.2
 $ debmake -b':sh' -x1
I: set parameters
 ...
I: sanity check of parameters
I: pkg="debhello", ver="0.2", rev="1"
I: *** start packaging in "debhello-0.2". ***
I: provide debhello_0.2.orig.tar.gz for non-native Debian package
I: pwd = "/path/to"
I: $ ln -sf debhello-0.2.tar.gz debhello_0.2.orig.tar.gz
I: pwd = "/path/to/debhello-0.2"
I: parse binary package settings: :sh
I: binary package=debhello Type=script / Arch=all M-A=foreign
I: analyze the source tree
I: build_type = Unknown
I: scan source for copyright+license text and file extensions
I:  25 %, ext = md
 ...

Let’s inspect notable template files generated.

The source tree after the basic debmake execution. (v=0.2). 

 $ cd /path/to
 $ tree
.
├── debhello-0.2
│   ├── README.md
│   ├── data
│   │   ├── hello.desktop
│   │   └── hello.png
│   ├── debian
│   │   ├── README.Debian
│   │   ├── README.source
│   │   ├── changelog
│   │   ├── clean
│   │   ├── control
│   │   ├── copyright
│   │   ├── dirs
│   │   ├── gbp.conf
│   │   ├── install
│   │   ├── links
│   │   ├── patches
│   │   │   └── series
│   │   ├── rules
│   │   ├── salsa-ci.yml
│   │   ├── source
│   │   │   ├── format
│   │   │   ├── local-options.ex
│   │   │   └── local-patch-header.ex
│   │   ├── tests
│   │   │   └── control
│   │   ├── upstream
│   │   │   └── metadata
│   │   └── watch
│   ├── man
│   │   └── hello.1
│   └── scripts
│       └── hello
├── debhello-0.2.tar.gz
└── debhello_0.2.orig.tar.gz -> debhello-0.2.tar.gz

10 directories, 26 files

debian/rules (template file, v=0.2): 

 $ cd /path/to/debhello-0.2
 $ cat debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
# You must remove unused comment lines for the released package.
#export DH_VERBOSE = 1

%:
        dh $@

This is essentially the standard debian/rules file with the dh command. Since this is the script package, this template debian/rules file has no build flag related contents.

debian/control (template file, v=0.2): 

 $ cat debian/control
Source: debhello
Section: unknown
Priority: optional
Maintainer: "Osamu Aoki" <osamu@debian.org>
Build-Depends: debhelper-compat (= 13)
Standards-Version: 4.6.2
Homepage: <insert the upstream URL, if relevant>
Rules-Requires-Root: no
#Vcs-Git: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debhello.git
#Vcs-Browser: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debhello

Package: debhello
Architecture: all
Multi-Arch: foreign
Depends: ${misc:Depends}
Description: auto-generated package by debmake
 This Debian binary package was auto-generated by the
 debmake(1) command provided by the debmake package.

Since this is the shell script package, the debmake command sets “Architecture: all” and “Multi-Arch: foreign”. Also, it sets required substvar parameters as “Depends: ${misc:Depends}”. These are explained in “Chapter 6, Basics for packaging”.

Since this upstream source lacks the upstream Makefile, that functionality needs to be provided by the maintainer. This upstream source contains only a script file and data files and no C source files; the build process can be skipped but the install process needs to be implemented. For this case, this is achieved cleanly by adding the debian/install and debian/manpages files without complicating the debian/rules file.

Let’s make this Debian package better as the maintainer.

debian/rules (maintainer version, v=0.2): 

 $ cd /path/to/debhello-0.2
 $ vim debian/rules
 ... hack, hack, hack, ...
 $ cat debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
export DH_VERBOSE = 1

%:
        dh $@

debian/control (maintainer version, v=0.2): 

 $ vim debian/control
 ... hack, hack, hack, ...
 $ cat debian/control
Source: debhello
Section: devel
Priority: optional
Maintainer: Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org>
Build-Depends: debhelper-compat (= 13)
Standards-Version: 4.6.2
Homepage: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debmake-doc
Rules-Requires-Root: no

Package: debhello
Architecture: all
Multi-Arch: foreign
Depends: ${misc:Depends}
Description: Simple packaging example for debmake
 This Debian binary package is an example package.
 (This is an example only)

	Warning
	If you leave “Section: unknown” in the template debian/control file unchanged, the lintian error may cause a build failure.

debian/install (maintainer version, v=0.2): 

 $ vim debian/install
 ... hack, hack, hack, ...
 $ cat debian/install
data/hello.desktop usr/share/applications
data/hello.png usr/share/pixmaps
scripts/hello usr/bin

debian/manpages (maintainer version, v=0.2): 

 $ vim debian/manpages
 ... hack, hack, hack, ...
 $ cat debian/manpages
man/hello.1

There are several other template files under the debian/ directory. These also need to be updated.

Template files under debian/. (v=0.2): 

 $ rm -f debian/clean debian/dirs debian/links
 $ rm -f debian/README.source debian/source/*.ex
 $ rm -rf debian/patches
 $ tree -F debian
debian/
├── README.Debian
├── changelog
├── control
├── copyright
├── gbp.conf
├── install
├── manpages
├── rules*
├── salsa-ci.yml
├── source/
│   └── format
├── tests/
│   └── control
├── upstream/
│   └── metadata
└── watch

4 directories, 13 files

You can create a non-native Debian package using the debuild command (or its equivalents) in this source tree. The command output is very verbose and explains what it does as follows.

 $ cd /path/to/debhello-0.2
 $ debuild
 dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc -ui -i
dpkg-buildpackage: info: source package debhello
dpkg-buildpackage: info: source version 0.2-1
dpkg-buildpackage: info: source distribution unstable
dpkg-buildpackage: info: source changed by Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org>
 dpkg-source -i --before-build .
dpkg-buildpackage: info: host architecture amd64
 debian/rules clean
dh clean
   dh_clean
        rm -f debian/debhelper-build-stamp
 ...
 debian/rules binary
dh binary
   dh_update_autotools_config
   dh_autoreconf
   create-stamp debian/debhelper-build-stamp
   dh_prep
        rm -f -- debian/debhello.substvars
        rm -fr -- debian/.debhelper/generated/debhello/ debian/debhello/ debi...
   dh_auto_install --destdir=debian/debhello/
 ...
Finished running lintian.

Let’s inspect the result.

The generated files of debhello version 0.2 by the debuild command: 

 $ cd /path/to
 $ tree -FL 1
./
├── debhello-0.2/
├── debhello-0.2.tar.gz
├── debhello_0.2-1.debian.tar.xz
├── debhello_0.2-1.dsc
├── debhello_0.2-1_all.deb
├── debhello_0.2-1_amd64.build
├── debhello_0.2-1_amd64.buildinfo
├── debhello_0.2-1_amd64.changes
└── debhello_0.2.orig.tar.gz -> debhello-0.2.tar.gz

2 directories, 8 files

You see all the generated files.

The debhello_0.2-1.debian.tar.xz file contains the Debian changes to the upstream source as follows.

The compressed archive contents of debhello_0.2-1.debian.tar.xz: 

 $ tar -tzf debhello-0.2.tar.gz
debhello-0.2/
debhello-0.2/data/
debhello-0.2/data/hello.desktop
debhello-0.2/data/hello.png
debhello-0.2/man/
debhello-0.2/man/hello.1
debhello-0.2/scripts/
debhello-0.2/scripts/hello
debhello-0.2/README.md
 $ tar --xz -tf debhello_0.2-1.debian.tar.xz
debian/
debian/README.Debian
debian/changelog
debian/control
debian/copyright
debian/gbp.conf
debian/install
debian/manpages
debian/rules
debian/salsa-ci.yml
debian/source/
debian/source/format
debian/tests/
debian/tests/control
debian/upstream/
debian/upstream/metadata
debian/watch

The debhello_0.2-1_amd64.deb file contains the files to be installed as follows.

The binary package contents of debhello_0.2-1_all.deb: 

 $ dpkg -c debhello_0.2-1_all.deb
drwxr-xr-x root/root ...  ./
drwxr-xr-x root/root ...  ./usr/
drwxr-xr-x root/root ...  ./usr/bin/
-rwxr-xr-x root/root ...  ./usr/bin/hello
drwxr-xr-x root/root ...  ./usr/share/
drwxr-xr-x root/root ...  ./usr/share/applications/
-rw-r--r-- root/root ...  ./usr/share/applications/hello.desktop
drwxr-xr-x root/root ...  ./usr/share/doc/
drwxr-xr-x root/root ...  ./usr/share/doc/debhello/
-rw-r--r-- root/root ...  ./usr/share/doc/debhello/README.Debian
-rw-r--r-- root/root ...  ./usr/share/doc/debhello/changelog.Debian.gz
-rw-r--r-- root/root ...  ./usr/share/doc/debhello/copyright
drwxr-xr-x root/root ...  ./usr/share/man/
drwxr-xr-x root/root ...  ./usr/share/man/man1/
-rw-r--r-- root/root ...  ./usr/share/man/man1/hello.1.gz
drwxr-xr-x root/root ...  ./usr/share/pixmaps/
-rw-r--r-- root/root ...  ./usr/share/pixmaps/hello.png

Here is the generated dependency list of debhello_0.2-1_all.deb.

The generated dependency list of debhello_0.2-1_all.deb: 

 $ dpkg -f debhello_0.2-1_all.deb pre-depends \
            depends recommends conflicts breaks

(No extra dependency packages required since this is a POSIX shell program.)

	Note
	If you wish to replace upstream provided PNG file data/hello.png with maintainer provided one debian/hello.png, editing debian/install isn’t enough. When you add debian/hello.png, you need to add a line “include-binaries” to debian/source/options since PNG is a binary file. See dpkg-source(1).

 $ tar -xzmf debhello-1.0.tar.gz
 $ cd debhello-1.0
 $ make install

 $ wget http://www.example.org/download/debhello-1.0.tar.gz
 ...
 $ tar -xzmf debhello-1.0.tar.gz
 $ tree
.
├── debhello-1.0
│   ├── Makefile
│   ├── README.md
│   ├── data
│   │   ├── hello.desktop
│   │   └── hello.png
│   ├── man
│   │   └── hello.1
│   └── scripts
│       └── hello
└── debhello-1.0.tar.gz

5 directories, 7 files

Here, the Makefile uses $(DESTDIR) and $(prefix) properly. All other files are the same as in “Section 13.2, “No Makefile (shell, CLI)”” and most of the packaging activities are the same.

Makefile (v=1.0). 

 $ cat debhello-1.0/Makefile
prefix = /usr/local

all:
        : # do nothing

install:
        install -D scripts/hello \
                $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/bin/hello
        install -m 644 -D data/hello.desktop \
                $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/applications/hello.desktop
        install -m 644 -D data/hello.png \
                $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/pixmaps/hello.png
        install -m 644 -D man/hello.1 \
                $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/man/man1/hello.1

clean:
        : # do nothing

distclean: clean

uninstall:
        -rm -f $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/bin/hello
        -rm -f $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/applications/hello.desktop
        -rm -f $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/pixmaps/hello.png
        -rm -f $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/man/man1/hello.1

.PHONY: all install clean distclean uninstall

Let’s package this with the debmake command. Here, the -b':sh' option is used to specify that the generated binary package is a shell script.

 $ cd /path/to/debhello-1.0
 $ debmake -b':sh' -x1
I: set parameters
 ...
I: sanity check of parameters
I: pkg="debhello", ver="1.0", rev="1"
I: *** start packaging in "debhello-1.0". ***
I: provide debhello_1.0.orig.tar.gz for non-native Debian package
I: pwd = "/path/to"
I: $ ln -sf debhello-1.0.tar.gz debhello_1.0.orig.tar.gz
I: pwd = "/path/to/debhello-1.0"
I: parse binary package settings: :sh
I: binary package=debhello Type=script / Arch=all M-A=foreign
I: analyze the source tree
I: build_type = make
I: scan source for copyright+license text and file extensions
I:  25 %, ext = md
 ...

Let’s inspect the notable template files generated.

debian/rules (template file, v=1.0): 

 $ cd /path/to/debhello-1.0
 $ cat debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
# You must remove unused comment lines for the released package.
#export DH_VERBOSE = 1

%:
        dh $@

#override_dh_auto_install:
#       dh_auto_install -- prefix=/usr

#override_dh_install:
#       dh_install --list-missing -X.pyc -X.pyo

Let’s make this Debian package better as the maintainer.

debian/rules (maintainer version, v=1.0): 

 $ cd /path/to/debhello-1.0
 $ vim debian/rules
 ... hack, hack, hack, ...
 $ cat debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
export DH_VERBOSE = 1

%:
        dh $@

override_dh_auto_install:
        dh_auto_install -- prefix=/usr

Since this upstream source has the proper upstream Makefile, there is no need to create debian/install and debian/manpages files.

The debian/control file is exactly the same as the one in “Section 13.2, “No Makefile (shell, CLI)””.

There are several other template files under the debian/ directory. These also need to be updated.

Template files under debian/. (v=1.0): 

 $ rm -f debian/clean debian/dirs debian/install debian/links
 $ rm -f debian/README.source debian/source/*.ex
 $ rm -rf debian/patches
 $ tree -F debian
debian/
├── README.Debian
├── changelog
├── control
├── copyright
├── gbp.conf
├── rules*
├── salsa-ci.yml
├── source/
│   └── format
├── tests/
│   └── control
├── upstream/
│   └── metadata
└── watch

4 directories, 11 files

The rest of the packaging activities are practically the same as the ones in “Section 13.2, “No Makefile (shell, CLI)””.

 $ wget http://www.example.org/download/debhello-1.1.tar.gz
 ...
 $ tar -xzmf debhello-1.1.tar.gz
 $ tree
.
├── debhello-1.1
│   ├── LICENSE
│   ├── MANIFEST.in
│   ├── README.md
│   ├── data
│   │   ├── hello.desktop
│   │   └── hello.png
│   ├── manpages
│   │   └── hello.1
│   ├── pyproject.toml
│   └── src
│       └── debhello
│           ├── __init__.py
│           └── main.py
└── debhello-1.1.tar.gz

6 directories, 10 files

pyproject.toml (v=1.1) — PEP 517 configuration. 

 $ cat debhello-1.1/pyproject.toml
[build-system]
requires = ["setuptools >= 61.0"]  # REQUIRED if [build-system] table is used...
build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"  # If not defined, then legacy behavi...

[project]
name = "debhello"
version = "1.1.0"
description = "Hello Python (CLI)"
readme = {file = "README.md", content-type = "text/markdown"}
requires-python = ">=3.12"
license = {file = "LICENSE.txt"}
keywords = ["debhello"]
authors = [
  {name = "Osamu Aoki", email = "osamu@debian.org" },
]
maintainers = [
  {name = "Osamu Aoki", email = "osamu@debian.org" },
]
classifiers = [
  "Development Status :: 5 - Production/Stable",
  "Intended Audience :: Developers",
        "Topic :: System :: Archiving :: Packaging",
  "License :: OSI Approved :: MIT License",
  "Programming Language :: Python :: 3",
  "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12",
  "Programming Language :: Python :: 3 :: Only",
  # Others
  "Operating System :: POSIX :: Linux",
  "Natural Language :: English",
]
[project.urls]
"Homepage" = "https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debmake"
"Bug Reports" = "https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debmake/issues"
"Source" = "https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debmake"
[project.scripts]
hello = "debhello.main:main"
[tool.setuptools]
package-dir = {"" = "src"}
packages = ["debhello"]
include-package-data = true

MANIFEST.in (v=1.1) — for tar-ball. 

 $ cat debhello-1.1/MANIFEST.in
include data/*
include manpages/*

src/debhello/__init__.py (v=1.1). 

 $ cat debhello-1.1/src/debhello/__init__.py
"""
debhello program (CLI)
"""

src/debhello/main.py (v=1.1) — command entry point. 

 $ cat debhello-1.1/src/debhello/main.py
"""
debhello program
"""

import sys

__version__ = '1.1.0'

def main():  # needed for console script
    print(' ========== Hello Python3 ==========')
    print('argv = {}'.format(sys.argv))
    print('version = {}'.format(debhello.__version__))
    return

if __name__ == "__main__":
    sys.exit(main())

Let’s package this with the debmake command. Here, the -b':py3' option is used to specify the generated binary package containing Python3 script and module files.

 $ cd /path/to/debhello-1.1
 $ debmake -b':py3' -x1
I: set parameters
 ...
I: sanity check of parameters
I: pkg="debhello", ver="1.1", rev="1"
I: *** start packaging in "debhello-1.1". ***
I: provide debhello_1.1.orig.tar.gz for non-native Debian package
I: pwd = "/path/to"
I: $ ln -sf debhello-1.1.tar.gz debhello_1.1.orig.tar.gz
I: pwd = "/path/to/debhello-1.1"
I: parse binary package settings: :py3
I: binary package=debhello Type=python3 / Arch=all M-A=foreign
I: analyze the source tree
W: setuptools build system.
I: build_type = Python (pyproject.toml: PEP-518, PEP-621, PEP-660)
I: scan source for copyright+license text and file extensions
 ...

Let’s inspect the notable template files generated.

debian/rules (template file, v=1.1): 

 $ cd /path/to/debhello-1.1
 $ cat debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
# You must remove unused comment lines for the released package.
#export DH_VERBOSE = 1

%:
        dh $@ --with python3 --buildsystem=pybuild

This is essentially the standard debian/rules file with the dh command.

The use of the “--with python3” option invokes dh_python3 to calculate Python dependencies, add maintainer scripts to byte compiled files, etc. See dh_python3(1).

The use of the “--buildsystem=pybuild” option invokes various build systems for requested Python versions in order to build modules and extensions. See pybuild(1).

debian/control (template file, v=1.1): 

 $ cat debian/control
Source: debhello
Section: unknown
Priority: optional
Maintainer: "Osamu Aoki" <osamu@debian.org>
Build-Depends: debhelper-compat (= 13),
               dh-python,
               pybuild-plugin-pyproject,
               python3-all,
               python3-setuptools
Standards-Version: 4.6.2
Homepage: <insert the upstream URL, if relevant>
Rules-Requires-Root: no
#Vcs-Git: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debhello.git
#Vcs-Browser: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debhello
#X-Python3-Version: >= 3.7

Package: debhello
Architecture: all
Multi-Arch: foreign
Depends: ${misc:Depends}, ${python3:Depends}
Description: auto-generated package by debmake
 This Debian binary package was auto-generated by the
 debmake(1) command provided by the debmake package.

Since this is the Python3 package, the debmake command sets “Architecture: all” and “Multi-Arch: foreign”. Also, it sets required substvar parameters as “Depends: ${python3:Depends}, ${misc:Depends}”. These are explained in “Chapter 6, Basics for packaging”.

Let’s make this Debian package better as the maintainer.

debian/rules (maintainer version, v=1.1): 

 $ cd /path/to/debhello-1.1
 $ vim debian/rules
 ... hack, hack, hack, ...
 $ cat debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
export PYBUILD_NAME=debhello
export PYBUILD_VERBOSE=1
export DH_VERBOSE=1

%:
        dh $@ --with python3 --buildsystem=pybuild

debian/control (maintainer version, v=1.1): 

 $ vim debian/control
 ... hack, hack, hack, ...
 $ cat debian/control
Source: debhello
Section: devel
Priority: optional
Maintainer: Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org>
Build-Depends: debhelper-compat (= 13),
               pybuild-plugin-pyproject,
               python3-all
Standards-Version: 4.6.2
Rules-Requires-Root: no
Vcs-Browser: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debmake-doc
Vcs-Git: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debmake-doc.git
Homepage: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debmake-doc

Package: debhello
Architecture: all
Depends: ${misc:Depends}, ${python3:Depends}
Description: Simple packaging example for debmake
 This is an example package to demonstrate Debian packaging using
 the debmake command.
 .
 The generated Debian package uses the dh command offered by the
 debhelper package and the dpkg source format `3.0 (quilt)'.

There are several other template files under the debian/ directory. These also need to be updated.

This debhello command comes with the upstream-provided manpage and desktop file but the upstream pyproject.toml doesn’t install them. So you need to update debian/install and debian/manpages as follows:

debian/install (maintainer version, v=1.1): 

 $ vim debian/copyright
 ... hack, hack, hack, ...
 $ cat debian/copyright
Format: https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/
Upstream-Name: debhello
Upstream-Contact: Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org>
Source: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debmake-doc

Files:     *
Copyright: 2015-2024 Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org>
License:   Expat
 Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
 copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"),
 to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation
 the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,
 and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
 Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
 .
 The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included
 in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
 .
 THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS
 OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
 MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
 IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY
 CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,
 TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE
 SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

debian/manpages (maintainer version, v=1.1): 

 $ vim debian/install
 ... hack, hack, hack, ...
 $ cat debian/install
data/hello.desktop usr/share/applications
data/hello.png usr/share/pixmaps

The rest of the packaging activities are practically the same as the ones in “Section 13.3, “Makefile (shell, CLI)””.

Template files under debian/. (v=1.1): 

 $ rm -f debian/clean debian/dirs debian/links
 $ rm -f debian/README.source debian/source/*.ex
 $ rm -rf debian/patches
 $ tree -F debian
debian/
├── README.Debian
├── changelog
├── control
├── copyright
├── gbp.conf
├── install
├── manpages
├── rules*
├── salsa-ci.yml
├── source/
│   └── format
├── tests/
│   └── control
├── upstream/
│   └── metadata
└── watch

4 directories, 13 files

Here is the generated dependency list of debhello_1.1-1_all.deb.

The generated dependency list of debhello_1.1-1_all.deb: 

 $ dpkg -f debhello_1.1-1_all.deb pre-depends \
            depends recommends conflicts breaks
Depends: python3:any

This upstream is based on “Section 13.3, “Makefile (shell, CLI)”” with enhanced GUI support.

Let’s assume its upstream tarball to be debhello-1.2.tar.gz.

Let’s get the source and make the Debian package.

Download debhello-1.2.tar.gz. 

 $ wget http://www.example.org/download/debhello-1.2.tar.gz
 ...
 $ tar -xzmf debhello-1.2.tar.gz
 $ tree
.
├── debhello-1.2
│   ├── Makefile
│   ├── README.md
│   ├── data
│   │   ├── hello.desktop
│   │   └── hello.png
│   ├── man
│   │   └── hello.1
│   └── scripts
│       └── hello
└── debhello-1.2.tar.gz

5 directories, 7 files

Here, the hello has been re-written to use the zenity command to make this a GTK+ GUI program.

hello (v=1.2). 

 $ cat debhello-1.2/scripts/hello
#!/bin/sh -e
zenity --info --title "hello" --text "Hello from the shell!"

Here, the desktop file is updated to be Terminal=false as a GUI program.

hello.desktop (v=1.2). 

 $ cat debhello-1.2/data/hello.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Hello
Name[fr]=Bonjour
Comment=Greetings
Comment[fr]=Salutations
Type=Application
Keywords=hello
Exec=hello
Terminal=false
Icon=hello.png
Categories=Utility;

All other files are the same as in “Section 13.3, “Makefile (shell, CLI)””.

Let’s package this with the debmake command. Here, the “-b':sh'” option is used to specify that the generated binary package is a shell script.

 $ cd /path/to/debhello-1.2
 $ debmake -b':sh' -x1
I: set parameters
 ...
I: sanity check of parameters
I: pkg="debhello", ver="1.2", rev="1"
I: *** start packaging in "debhello-1.2". ***
I: provide debhello_1.2.orig.tar.gz for non-native Debian package
I: pwd = "/path/to"
I: $ ln -sf debhello-1.2.tar.gz debhello_1.2.orig.tar.gz
I: pwd = "/path/to/debhello-1.2"
I: parse binary package settings: :sh
I: binary package=debhello Type=script / Arch=all M-A=foreign
I: analyze the source tree
I: build_type = make
I: scan source for copyright+license text and file extensions
I:  25 %, ext = md
 ...

Let’s inspect the notable template files generated.

debian/control (template file, v=1.2): 

 $ cat debian/control
Source: debhello
Section: unknown
Priority: optional
Maintainer: "Osamu Aoki" <osamu@debian.org>
Build-Depends: debhelper-compat (= 13)
Standards-Version: 4.6.2
Homepage: <insert the upstream URL, if relevant>
Rules-Requires-Root: no
#Vcs-Git: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debhello.git
#Vcs-Browser: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debhello

Package: debhello
Architecture: all
Multi-Arch: foreign
Depends: ${misc:Depends}
Description: auto-generated package by debmake
 This Debian binary package was auto-generated by the
 debmake(1) command provided by the debmake package.

Let’s make this Debian package better as the maintainer.

debian/control (maintainer version, v=1.2): 

 $ vim debian/control
 ... hack, hack, hack, ...
 $ cat debian/control
Source: debhello
Section: devel
Priority: optional
Maintainer: Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org>
Build-Depends: debhelper-compat (= 13)
Standards-Version: 4.6.2
Homepage: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debmake-doc
Rules-Requires-Root: no

Package: debhello
Architecture: all
Multi-Arch: foreign
Depends: zenity, ${misc:Depends}
Description: Simple packaging example for debmake
 This Debian binary package is an example package.
 (This is an example only)

Please note the manually added zenity dependency.

The debian/rules file is exactly the same as the one in “Section 13.3, “Makefile (shell, CLI)””.

There are several other template files under the debian/ directory. These also need to be updated.

Template files under debian/. (v=1.2): 

 $ rm -f debian/clean debian/dirs debian/install debian/links
 $ rm -f debian/README.source debian/source/*.ex
 $ rm -rf debian/patches
 $ tree -F debian
debian/
├── README.Debian
├── changelog
├── control
├── copyright
├── gbp.conf
├── rules*
├── salsa-ci.yml
├── source/
│   └── format
├── tests/
│   └── control
├── upstream/
│   └── metadata
└── watch

4 directories, 11 files

The rest of the packaging activities are practically the same as in “Section 13.3, “Makefile (shell, CLI)””.

Here is the generated dependency list of debhello_1.2-1_all.deb.

The generated dependency list of debhello_1.2-1_all.deb: 

 $ dpkg -f debhello_1.2-1_all.deb pre-depends \
            depends recommends conflicts breaks
Depends: zenity

 $ wget http://www.example.org/download/debhello-1.3.tar.gz
 ...
 $ tar -xzmf debhello-1.3.tar.gz
 $ tree
.
├── debhello-1.3
│   ├── LICENSE
│   ├── MANIFEST.in
│   ├── README.md
│   ├── data
│   │   ├── hello.desktop
│   │   └── hello.png
│   ├── manpages
│   │   └── hello.1
│   ├── pyproject.toml
│   └── src
│       └── debhello
│           ├── __init__.py
│           └── main.py
└── debhello-1.3.tar.gz

6 directories, 10 files

pyproject.toml (v=1.3) — PEP 517 configuration. 

 $ cat debhello-1.3/pyproject.toml
[build-system]
requires = ["setuptools >= 61.0"]  # REQUIRED if [build-system] table is used...
build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"  # If not defined, then legacy behavi...

[project]
name = "debhello"
version = "1.3.0"
description = "Hello Python (GUI)"
readme = {file = "README.md", content-type = "text/markdown"}
requires-python = ">=3.12"
license = {file = "LICENSE.txt"}
keywords = ["debhello"]
authors = [
  {name = "Osamu Aoki", email = "osamu@debian.org" },
]
maintainers = [
  {name = "Osamu Aoki", email = "osamu@debian.org" },
]
classifiers = [
  "Development Status :: 5 - Production/Stable",
  "Intended Audience :: Developers",
        "Topic :: System :: Archiving :: Packaging",
  "License :: OSI Approved :: MIT License",
  "Programming Language :: Python :: 3",
  "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12",
  "Programming Language :: Python :: 3 :: Only",
  # Others
  "Operating System :: POSIX :: Linux",
  "Natural Language :: English",
]
[project.urls]
"Homepage" = "https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debmake"
"Bug Reports" = "https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debmake/issues"
"Source" = "https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debmake"
[project.scripts]
hello = "debhello.main:main"
[tool.setuptools]
package-dir = {"" = "src"}
packages = ["debhello"]
include-package-data = true

MANIFEST.in (v=1.3) — for tar-ball. 

 $ cat debhello-1.3/MANIFEST.in
include data/*
include manpages/*

src/debhello/__init__.py (v=1.3). 

 $ cat debhello-1.3/src/debhello/__init__.py
"""
debhello program (GUI)
"""

src/debhello/main.py (v=1.3) — command entry point. 

 $ cat debhello-1.3/src/debhello/main.py
#!/usr/bin/python3
from gi.repository import Gtk

__version__ = '1.3.0'

class TopWindow(Gtk.Window):

    def __init__(self):
        Gtk.Window.__init__(self)
        self.title = "Hello World!"
        self.counter = 0
        self.border_width = 10
        self.set_default_size(400, 100)
        self.set_position(Gtk.WindowPosition.CENTER)
        self.button = Gtk.Button(label="Click me!")
        self.button.connect("clicked", self.on_button_clicked)
        self.add(self.button)
        self.connect("delete-event", self.on_window_destroy)

    def on_window_destroy(self, *args):
        Gtk.main_quit(*args)

    def on_button_clicked(self, widget):
        self.counter += 1
        widget.set_label("Hello, World!\nClick count = %i" % self.counter)

def main():
    window = TopWindow()
    window.show_all()
    Gtk.main()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Let’s package this with the debmake command. Here, the -b':py3' option is used to specify that the generated binary package contains Python3 script and module files.

 $ cd /path/to/debhello-1.3
 $ debmake -b':py3' -x1
I: set parameters
 ...
I: sanity check of parameters
I: pkg="debhello", ver="1.3", rev="1"
I: *** start packaging in "debhello-1.3". ***
I: provide debhello_1.3.orig.tar.gz for non-native Debian package
I: pwd = "/path/to"
I: $ ln -sf debhello-1.3.tar.gz debhello_1.3.orig.tar.gz
I: pwd = "/path/to/debhello-1.3"
I: parse binary package settings: :py3
I: binary package=debhello Type=python3 / Arch=all M-A=foreign
I: analyze the source tree
W: setuptools build system.
I: build_type = Python (pyproject.toml: PEP-518, PEP-621, PEP-660)
I: scan source for copyright+license text and file extensions
 ...

The result is practically the same as in “Section 13.4, “pyproject.toml (Python3, CLI)””.

Let’s make this Debian package better as the maintainer.

debian/rules (maintainer version, v=1.3): 

 $ cd /path/to/debhello-1.3
 $ vim debian/rules
 ... hack, hack, hack, ...
 $ cat debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
export PYBUILD_NAME=debhello
export PYBUILD_VERBOSE=1
export DH_VERBOSE=1

%:
        dh $@ --with python3 --buildsystem=pybuild

debian/control (maintainer version, v=1.3): 

 $ vim debian/control
 ... hack, hack, hack, ...
 $ cat debian/control
Source: debhello
Section: devel
Priority: optional
Maintainer: Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org>
Build-Depends: debhelper-compat (= 13),
               pybuild-plugin-pyproject,
               python3-all
Standards-Version: 4.6.2
Homepage: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debmake-doc
Rules-Requires-Root: no

Package: debhello
Architecture: all
Multi-Arch: foreign
Depends: gir1.2-gtk-3.0, python3-gi, ${misc:Depends}, ${python3:Depends}
Description: Simple packaging example for debmake
 This Debian binary package is an example package.
 (This is an example only)

Please note the manually added python3-gi and gir1.2-gtk-3.0 dependencies.

The rest of the packaging activities are practically the same as in <pyproject>>.

Here is the generated dependency list of debhello_1.3-1_all.deb.

The generated dependency list of debhello_1.3-1_all.deb: 

 $ dpkg -f debhello_1.3-1_all.deb pre-depends \
            depends recommends conflicts breaks
Depends: gir1.2-gtk-3.0, python3-gi, python3:any

This is an enhanced upstream source example for “Chapter 5, Simple packaging”. This comes with the manpage, the desktop file, and the desktop icon. This also links to an external library libm to be a more practical example.

Let’s assume this upstream tarball to be debhello-1.4.tar.gz.

This type of source is meant to be installed as a non-system file as:

 $ tar -xzmf debhello-1.4.tar.gz
 $ cd debhello-1.4
 $ make
 $ make install

Debian packaging requires changing this “make install” process to install files into the target system image location instead of the normal location under /usr/local.

Let’s get the source and make the Debian package.

Download debhello-1.4.tar.gz. 

 $ wget http://www.example.org/download/debhello-1.4.tar.gz
 ...
 $ tar -xzmf debhello-1.4.tar.gz
 $ tree
.
├── debhello-1.4
│   ├── LICENSE
│   ├── Makefile
│   ├── README.md
│   ├── data
│   │   ├── hello.desktop
│   │   └── hello.png
│   ├── man
│   │   └── hello.1
│   └── src
│       ├── config.h
│       └── hello.c
└── debhello-1.4.tar.gz

5 directories, 9 files

Here, the contents of this source are as follows.

src/hello.c (v=1.4): 

 $ cat debhello-1.4/src/hello.c
#include "config.h"
#include <math.h>
#include <stdio.h>
int
main()
{
        printf("Hello, I am " PACKAGE_AUTHOR "!\n");
        printf("4.0 * atan(1.0) = %10f8\n", 4.0*atan(1.0));
        return 0;
}

src/config.h (v=1.4): 

 $ cat debhello-1.4/Makefile
prefix = /usr/local

all: src/hello

src/hello: src/hello.c
        $(CC) $(CPPFLAGS) $(CFLAGS) $(LDFLAGS) -o $@ $^ -lm

install: src/hello
        install -D src/hello \
                $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/bin/hello
        install -m 644 -D data/hello.desktop \
                $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/applications/hello.desktop
        install -m 644 -D data/hello.png \
                $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/pixmaps/hello.png
        install -m 644 -D man/hello.1 \
                $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/man/man1/hello.1

clean:
        -rm -f src/hello

distclean: clean

uninstall:
        -rm -f $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/bin/hello
        -rm -f $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/applications/hello.desktop
        -rm -f $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/pixmaps/hello.png
        -rm -f $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/man/man1/hello.1

.PHONY: all install clean distclean uninstall

Makefile (v=1.4): 

 $ cat debhello-1.4/src/config.h
#define PACKAGE_AUTHOR "Osamu Aoki"

Please note that this Makefile has the proper install target for the manpage, the desktop file, and the desktop icon.

Let’s package this with the debmake command.

 $ cd /path/to/debhello-1.4
 $ debmake -x1
I: set parameters
 ...
I: sanity check of parameters
I: pkg="debhello", ver="1.4", rev="1"
I: *** start packaging in "debhello-1.4". ***
I: provide debhello_1.4.orig.tar.gz for non-native Debian package
I: pwd = "/path/to"
I: $ ln -sf debhello-1.4.tar.gz debhello_1.4.orig.tar.gz
I: pwd = "/path/to/debhello-1.4"
I: parse binary package settings:
I: binary package=debhello Type=bin / Arch=any M-A=foreign
I: analyze the source tree
I: build_type = make
I: scan source for copyright+license text and file extensions
I:  33 %, ext = c
 ...

The result is practically the same as in “Section 5.6, “Step 2: Generate template files with debmake””.

Let’s make this Debian package, which is practically the same as in “Section 5.7, “Step 3: Modification to the template files””, better as the maintainer.

If the DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS environment variable is not exported in debian/rules, lintian warns “W: debhello: hardening-no-relro usr/bin/hello” for the linking of libm.

The debian/control file makes it exactly the same as the one in “Section 5.7, “Step 3: Modification to the template files””, since the libm library is always available as a part of libc6 (Priority: required).

There are several other template files under the debian/ directory. These also need to be updated.

Template files under debian/. (v=1.4): 

 $ rm -f debian/clean debian/dirs debian/links
 $ rm -f debian/README.source debian/source/*.ex
 $ rm -rf debian/patches
 $ tree -F debian
debian/
├── README.Debian
├── changelog
├── control
├── copyright
├── gbp.conf
├── install
├── rules*
├── salsa-ci.yml
├── source/
│   └── format
├── tests/
│   └── control
├── upstream/
│   └── metadata
└── watch

4 directories, 12 files

The rest of the packaging activities are practically the same as the one in “Section 5.8, “Step 4: Building package with debuild””.

Here is the generated dependency list of all binary packages.

The generated dependency list of all binary packages (v=1.4): 

 $ dpkg -f debhello-dbgsym_1.4-1_amd64.deb pre-depends \
            depends recommends conflicts breaks
Depends: debhello (= 1.4-1)
 $ dpkg -f debhello_1.4-1_amd64.deb pre-depends \
            depends recommends conflicts breaks
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.34)

This is an enhanced upstream source example for “Section 13.7, “Makefile (single-binary package)””. This also links to an external library, libm, and this source is configurable using arguments to the configure script, which generates the Makefile and src/config.h files.

Let’s assume this upstream tarball to be debhello-1.5.tar.gz.

This type of source is meant to be installed as a non-system file, for example, as:

 $ tar -xzmf debhello-1.5.tar.gz
 $ cd debhello-1.5
 $ ./configure --with-math
 $ make
 $ make install

Let’s get the source and make the Debian package.

Download debhello-1.5.tar.gz. 

 $ wget http://www.example.org/download/debhello-1.5.tar.gz
 ...
 $ tar -xzmf debhello-1.5.tar.gz
 $ tree
.
├── debhello-1.5
│   ├── LICENSE
│   ├── Makefile.in
│   ├── README.md
│   ├── configure
│   ├── data
│   │   ├── hello.desktop
│   │   └── hello.png
│   ├── man
│   │   └── hello.1
│   └── src
│       └── hello.c
└── debhello-1.5.tar.gz

5 directories, 9 files

Here, the contents of this source are as follows.

src/hello.c (v=1.5): 

 $ cat debhello-1.5/src/hello.c
#include "config.h"
#ifdef WITH_MATH
#  include <math.h>
#endif
#include <stdio.h>
int
main()
{
        printf("Hello, I am " PACKAGE_AUTHOR "!\n");
#ifdef WITH_MATH
        printf("4.0 * atan(1.0) = %10f8\n", 4.0*atan(1.0));
#else
        printf("I can't do MATH!\n");
#endif
        return 0;
}

Makefile.in (v=1.5): 

 $ cat debhello-1.5/Makefile.in
prefix = @prefix@

all: src/hello

src/hello: src/hello.c
        $(CC) @VERBOSE@ \
                $(CPPFLAGS) \
                $(CFLAGS) \
                $(LDFLAGS) \
                -o $@ $^ \
                @LINKLIB@

install: src/hello
        install -D src/hello \
                $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/bin/hello
        install -m 644 -D data/hello.desktop \
                $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/applications/hello.desktop
        install -m 644 -D data/hello.png \
                $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/pixmaps/hello.png
        install -m 644 -D man/hello.1 \
                $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/man/man1/hello.1

clean:
        -rm -f src/hello

distclean: clean

uninstall:
        -rm -f $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/bin/hello
        -rm -f $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/applications/hello.desktop
        -rm -f $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/pixmaps/hello.png
        -rm -f $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/share/man/man1/hello.1

.PHONY: all install clean distclean uninstall

configure (v=1.5): 

 $ cat debhello-1.5/configure
#!/bin/sh -e
# default values
PREFIX="/usr/local"
VERBOSE=""
WITH_MATH="0"
LINKLIB=""
PACKAGE_AUTHOR="John Doe"

# parse arguments
while [ "${1}" != "" ]; do
  VAR="${1%=*}" # Drop suffix =*
  VAL="${1#*=}" # Drop prefix *=
  case "${VAR}" in
  --prefix)
    PREFIX="${VAL}"
    ;;
  --verbose|-v)
    VERBOSE="-v"
    ;;
  --with-math)
    WITH_MATH="1"
    LINKLIB="-lm"
    ;;
  --author)
    PACKAGE_AUTHOR="${VAL}"
    ;;
  *)
    echo "W: Unknown argument: ${1}"
  esac
  shift
done

# setup configured Makefile and src/config.h
sed -e "s,@prefix@,${PREFIX}," \
    -e "s,@VERBOSE@,${VERBOSE}," \
    -e "s,@LINKLIB@,${LINKLIB}," \
    <Makefile.in >Makefile
if [ "${WITH_MATH}" = 1 ]; then
echo "#define WITH_MATH" >src/config.h
else
echo "/* not defined: WITH_MATH */" >src/config.h
fi
echo "#define PACKAGE_AUTHOR \"${PACKAGE_AUTHOR}\"" >>src/config.h

Please note that the configure command replaces strings with @…​@ in Makefile.in to produce Makefile and creates src/config.h.

Let’s package this with the debmake command.

 $ cd /path/to/debhello-1.5
 $ debmake -x1
I: set parameters
 ...
I: sanity check of parameters
I: pkg="debhello", ver="1.5", rev="1"
I: *** start packaging in "debhello-1.5". ***
I: provide debhello_1.5.orig.tar.gz for non-native Debian package
I: pwd = "/path/to"
I: $ ln -sf debhello-1.5.tar.gz debhello_1.5.orig.tar.gz
I: pwd = "/path/to/debhello-1.5"
I: parse binary package settings:
I: binary package=debhello Type=bin / Arch=any M-A=foreign
I: analyze the source tree
I: build_type = configure
I: scan source for copyright+license text and file extensions
I:  17 %, ext = in
 ...

The result is similar to “Section 5.6, “Step 2: Generate template files with debmake”” but not exactly the same.

Let’s inspect the notable template files generated.

debian/rules (template file, v=1.5): 

 $ cd /path/to/debhello-1.5
 $ cat debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
# You must remove unused comment lines for the released package.
#export DH_VERBOSE = 1
#export DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS = hardening=+all
#export DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND  = -Wall -pedantic
#export DEB_LDFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wl,-O1

%:
        dh $@

Let’s make this Debian package better as the maintainer.

debian/rules (maintainer version, v=1.5): 

 $ cd /path/to/debhello-1.5
 $ vim debian/rules
 ... hack, hack, hack, ...
 $ cat debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
export DH_VERBOSE = 1
export DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS = hardening=+all
export DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND  = -Wall -pedantic
export DEB_LDFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wl,--as-needed

%:
        dh $@

override_dh_auto_configure:
        dh_auto_configure -- \
                --with-math \
                --author="Osamu Aoki"

There are several other template files under the debian/ directory. These also need to be updated.

The rest of the packaging activities are practically the same as the one in “Section 5.8, “Step 4: Building package with debuild””.

This source usually comes with the upstream auto-generated Makefile.in and configure files, too. This source can be packaged using these files as in “Section 13.8, “Makefile.in + configure (single-binary package)”” with the help of the autotools-dev package.

The better alternative is to regenerate these files using the latest Autoconf and Automake packages if the upstream provided Makefile.am and configure.ac are compatible with the latest version. This is advantageous for porting to new CPU architectures, etc. This can be automated by using the “--with autoreconf” option for the dh command.

Let’s assume this upstream tarball to be debhello-1.6.tar.gz.

This type of source is meant to be installed as a non-system file, for example, as:

 $ tar -xzmf debhello-1.6.tar.gz
 $ cd debhello-1.6
 $ autoreconf -ivf # optional
 $ ./configure --with-math
 $ make
 $ make install

Let’s get the source and make the Debian package.

Download debhello-1.6.tar.gz. 

 $ wget http://www.example.org/download/debhello-1.6.tar.gz
 ...
 $ tar -xzmf debhello-1.6.tar.gz
 $ tree
.
├── debhello-1.6
│   ├── LICENSE
│   ├── Makefile.am
│   ├── README.md
│   ├── configure.ac
│   ├── data
│   │   ├── hello.desktop
│   │   └── hello.png
│   ├── man
│   │   ├── Makefile.am
│   │   └── hello.1
│   └── src
│       ├── Makefile.am
│       └── hello.c
└── debhello-1.6.tar.gz

5 directories, 11 files

Here, the contents of this source are as follows.

src/hello.c (v=1.6): 

 $ cat debhello-1.6/src/hello.c
#include "config.h"
#ifdef WITH_MATH
#  include <math.h>
#endif
#include <stdio.h>
int
main()
{
        printf("Hello, I am " PACKAGE_AUTHOR "!\n");
#ifdef WITH_MATH
        printf("4.0 * atan(1.0) = %10f8\n", 4.0*atan(1.0));
#else
        printf("I can't do MATH!\n");
#endif
        return 0;
}

Makefile.am (v=1.6): 

 $ cat debhello-1.6/Makefile.am
SUBDIRS = src man
 $ cat debhello-1.6/man/Makefile.am
dist_man_MANS = hello.1
 $ cat debhello-1.6/src/Makefile.am
bin_PROGRAMS = hello
hello_SOURCES = hello.c

configure.ac (v=1.6): 

 $ cat debhello-1.6/configure.ac
#                                               -*- Autoconf -*-
# Process this file with autoconf to produce a configure script.
AC_PREREQ([2.69])
AC_INIT([debhello],[2.1],[foo@example.org])
AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([src/hello.c])
AC_CONFIG_HEADERS([config.h])
echo "Standard customization chores"
AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([build-aux])
AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([foreign])
# Add #define PACKAGE_AUTHOR ... in config.h with a comment
AC_DEFINE(PACKAGE_AUTHOR, ["Osamu Aoki"], [Define PACKAGE_AUTHOR])
echo "Add --with-math option functionality to ./configure"
AC_ARG_WITH([math],
  [AS_HELP_STRING([--with-math],
    [compile with math library  @<:@default=yes@:>@])],
  [],
  [with_math="yes"]
  )
echo "==== withval   := \"$withval\""
echo "==== with_math := \"$with_math\""
# m4sh if-else construct
AS_IF([test "x$with_math" != "xno"],[
  echo "==== Check include: math.h"
  AC_CHECK_HEADER(math.h,[],[
    AC_MSG_ERROR([Couldn't find math.h.] )
  ])
  echo "==== Check library: libm"
  AC_SEARCH_LIBS(atan, [m])
  #AC_CHECK_LIB(m, atan)
  echo "==== Build with LIBS := \"$LIBS\""
  AC_DEFINE(WITH_MATH, [1], [Build with the math library])
],[
  echo "==== Skip building with math.h."
  AH_TEMPLATE(WITH_MATH, [Build without the math library])
])
# Checks for programs.
AC_PROG_CC
AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile
                 man/Makefile
                 src/Makefile])
AC_OUTPUT

	Tip
	Without “foreign” strictness level specified in AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE() as above, automake defaults to “gnu” strictness level requiring several files in the top-level directory. See “3.2 Strictness” in the automake document.

Let’s package this with the debmake command.

 $ cd /path/to/debhello-1.6
 $ debmake -x1
I: set parameters
 ...
I: sanity check of parameters
I: pkg="debhello", ver="1.6", rev="1"
I: *** start packaging in "debhello-1.6". ***
I: provide debhello_1.6.orig.tar.gz for non-native Debian package
I: pwd = "/path/to"
I: $ ln -sf debhello-1.6.tar.gz debhello_1.6.orig.tar.gz
I: pwd = "/path/to/debhello-1.6"
I: parse binary package settings:
I: binary package=debhello Type=bin / Arch=any M-A=foreign
I: analyze the source tree
I: build_type = Autotools with autoreconf
I: scan source for copyright+license text and file extensions
I:  33 %, ext = am
 ...

The result is similar to “Section 13.8, “Makefile.in + configure (single-binary package)”” but not exactly the same.

Let’s inspect the notable template files generated.

debian/rules (template file, v=1.6): 

 $ cd /path/to/debhello-1.6
 $ cat debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
# You must remove unused comment lines for the released package.
#export DH_VERBOSE = 1
#export DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS = hardening=+all
#export DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND  = -Wall -pedantic
#export DEB_LDFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wl,-O1

%:
        dh $@ --with autoreconf

#override_dh_install:
#       dh_install --list-missing -X.la -X.pyc -X.pyo

Let’s make this Debian package better as the maintainer.

debian/rules (maintainer version, v=1.6): 

 $ cd /path/to/debhello-1.6
 $ vim debian/rules
 ... hack, hack, hack, ...
 $ cat debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
export DH_VERBOSE = 1
export DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS = hardening=+all
export DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND  = -Wall -pedantic
export DEB_LDFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wl,--as-needed

%:
        dh $@ --with autoreconf

override_dh_auto_configure:
        dh_auto_configure -- \
                --with-math

There are several other template files under the debian/ directory. These also need to be updated.

The rest of the packaging activities are practically the same as the one in “Section 5.8, “Step 4: Building package with debuild””.

 $ tar -xzmf debhello-1.7.tar.gz
 $ cd debhello-1.7
 $ mkdir obj-x86_64-linux-gnu # for out-of-tree build
 $ cd obj-x86_64-linux-gnu
 $ cmake ..
 $ make
 $ make install

 $ wget http://www.example.org/download/debhello-1.7.tar.gz
 ...
 $ tar -xzmf debhello-1.7.tar.gz
 $ tree
.
├── debhello-1.7
│   ├── CMakeLists.txt
│   ├── LICENSE
│   ├── README.md
│   ├── data
│   │   ├── hello.desktop
│   │   └── hello.png
│   ├── man
│   │   ├── CMakeLists.txt
│   │   └── hello.1
│   └── src
│       ├── CMakeLists.txt
│       ├── config.h.in
│       └── hello.c
└── debhello-1.7.tar.gz

5 directories, 11 files

 $ cat debhello-1.7/src/hello.c
#include "config.h"
#ifdef WITH_MATH
#  include <math.h>
#endif
#include <stdio.h>
int
main()
{
        printf("Hello, I am " PACKAGE_AUTHOR "!\n");
#ifdef WITH_MATH
        printf("4.0 * atan(1.0) = %10f8\n", 4.0*atan(1.0));
#else
        printf("I can't do MATH!\n");
#endif
        return 0;
}

 $ cat debhello-1.7/src/config.h.in
/* name of the package author */
#define PACKAGE_AUTHOR "@PACKAGE_AUTHOR@"
/* math library support */
#cmakedefine WITH_MATH

 $ cat debhello-1.7/CMakeLists.txt
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8)
project(debhello)
set(PACKAGE_AUTHOR "Osamu Aoki")
add_subdirectory(src)
add_subdirectory(man)
 $ cat debhello-1.7/man/CMakeLists.txt
install(
  FILES ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/hello.1
  DESTINATION share/man/man1
)
 $ cat debhello-1.7/src/CMakeLists.txt
# Always define HAVE_CONFIG_H
add_definitions(-DHAVE_CONFIG_H)
# Interactively define WITH_MATH
option(WITH_MATH "Build with math support" OFF)
#variable_watch(WITH_MATH)
# Generate config.h from config.h.in
configure_file(
  "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/config.h.in"
  "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/config.h"
)
include_directories("${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}")
add_executable(hello hello.c)
install(TARGETS hello
  RUNTIME DESTINATION bin
)

 $ cd /path/to/debhello-1.7
 $ debmake -x1
I: set parameters
 ...
I: sanity check of parameters
I: pkg="debhello", ver="1.7", rev="1"
I: *** start packaging in "debhello-1.7". ***
I: provide debhello_1.7.orig.tar.gz for non-native Debian package
I: pwd = "/path/to"
I: $ ln -sf debhello-1.7.tar.gz debhello_1.7.orig.tar.gz
I: pwd = "/path/to/debhello-1.7"
I: parse binary package settings:
I: binary package=debhello Type=bin / Arch=any M-A=foreign
I: analyze the source tree
I: build_type = Cmake
I: scan source for copyright+license text and file extensions
I:  33 %, ext = text
 ...

The result is similar to “Section 13.8, “Makefile.in + configure (single-binary package)”” but not exactly the same.

Let’s inspect the notable template files generated.

debian/rules (template file, v=1.7): 

 $ cd /path/to/debhello-1.7
 $ cat debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
# You must remove unused comment lines for the released package.
#export DH_VERBOSE = 1
#export DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS = hardening=+all
#export DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND  = -Wall -pedantic
#export DEB_LDFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wl,-O1

%:
        dh $@

#override_dh_auto_configure:
#       dh_auto_configure -- \
#             -DCMAKE_LIBRARY_ARCHITECTURE="$(DEB_TARGET_MULTIARCH)"

debian/control (template file, v=1.7): 

 $ cat debian/control
Source: debhello
Section: unknown
Priority: optional
Maintainer: "Osamu Aoki" <osamu@debian.org>
Build-Depends: cmake, debhelper-compat (= 13)
Standards-Version: 4.6.2
Homepage: <insert the upstream URL, if relevant>
Rules-Requires-Root: no
#Vcs-Git: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debhello.git
#Vcs-Browser: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debhello

Package: debhello
Architecture: any
Multi-Arch: foreign
Depends: ${misc:Depends}, ${shlibs:Depends}
Description: auto-generated package by debmake
 This Debian binary package was auto-generated by the
 debmake(1) command provided by the debmake package.

Let’s make this Debian package better as the maintainer.

debian/rules (maintainer version, v=1.7): 

 $ cd /path/to/debhello-1.7
 $ vim debian/rules
 ... hack, hack, hack, ...
 $ cat debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
export DH_VERBOSE = 1
export DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS = hardening=+all
export DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND  = -Wall -pedantic
export DEB_LDFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wl,--as-needed

%:
        dh $@

override_dh_auto_configure:
        dh_auto_configure -- -DWITH-MATH=1

debian/control (maintainer version, v=1.7): 

 $ vim debian/control
 ... hack, hack, hack, ...
 $ cat debian/control
Source: debhello
Section: devel
Priority: optional
Maintainer: Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org>
Build-Depends: cmake, debhelper-compat (= 13)
Standards-Version: 4.6.2
Homepage: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debmake-doc
Rules-Requires-Root: no

Package: debhello
Architecture: any
Multi-Arch: foreign
Depends: ${misc:Depends}, ${shlibs:Depends}
Description: Simple packaging example for debmake
 This Debian binary package is an example package.
 (This is an example only)

There are several other template files under the debian/ directory. These also need to be updated.

The rest of the packaging activities are practically the same as the one in “Section 13.8, “Makefile.in + configure (single-binary package)””.

Let’s package this in the same way as in “Section 13.9, “Autotools (single-binary package)””.

Let’s assume this upstream tarball to be debhello-2.0.tar.gz.

This type of source is meant to be installed as a non-system file, for example, as:

 $ tar -xzmf debhello-2.0.tar.gz
 $ cd debhello-2.0
 $ autoreconf -ivf # optional
 $ ./configure --with-math
 $ make
 $ make install

Let’s get the source and make the Debian package.

Download debhello-2.0.tar.gz. 

 $ wget http://www.example.org/download/debhello-2.0.tar.gz
 ...
 $ tar -xzmf debhello-2.0.tar.gz
 $ tree
.
├── debhello-2.0
│   ├── LICENSE
│   ├── Makefile.am
│   ├── README.md
│   ├── configure.ac
│   ├── data
│   │   ├── hello.desktop
│   │   └── hello.png
│   ├── lib
│   │   ├── Makefile.am
│   │   ├── sharedlib.c
│   │   └── sharedlib.h
│   ├── man
│   │   ├── Makefile.am
│   │   └── hello.1
│   └── src
│       ├── Makefile.am
│       └── hello.c
└── debhello-2.0.tar.gz

6 directories, 14 files

Here, the contents of this source are as follows.

src/hello.c (v=2.0): 

 $ cat debhello-2.0/src/hello.c
#include "config.h"
#include <stdio.h>
#include <sharedlib.h>
int
main()
{
        printf("Hello, I am " PACKAGE_AUTHOR "!\n");
        sharedlib();
        return 0;
}

lib/sharedlib.h and lib/sharedlib.c (v=1.6): 

 $ cat debhello-2.0/lib/sharedlib.h
int sharedlib();
 $ cat debhello-2.0/lib/sharedlib.c
#include <stdio.h>
int
sharedlib()
{
        printf("This is a shared library!\n");
        return 0;
}

Makefile.am (v=2.0): 

 $ cat debhello-2.0/Makefile.am
# recursively process `Makefile.am` in SUBDIRS
SUBDIRS = lib src man
 $ cat debhello-2.0/man/Makefile.am
# manpages (distributed in the source package)
dist_man_MANS = hello.1
 $ cat debhello-2.0/lib/Makefile.am
# libtool librares to be produced
lib_LTLIBRARIES = libsharedlib.la

# source files used for lib_LTLIBRARIES
libsharedlib_la_SOURCES = sharedlib.c

# C pre-processor flags used for lib_LTLIBRARIES
#libsharedlib_la_CPPFLAGS =

# Headers files to be installed in <prefix>/include
include_HEADERS = sharedlib.h

# Versioning Libtool Libraries with version triplets
libsharedlib_la_LDFLAGS = -version-info 1:0:0
 $ cat debhello-2.0/src/Makefile.am
# program executables to be produced
bin_PROGRAMS = hello

# source files used for bin_PROGRAMS
hello_SOURCES = hello.c

# C pre-processor flags used for bin_PROGRAMS
AM_CPPFLAGS = -I$(srcdir) -I$(top_srcdir)/lib

# Extra options for the linker for hello
# hello_LDFLAGS =

# Libraries the `hello` binary to be linked
hello_LDADD = $(top_srcdir)/lib/libsharedlib.la

configure.ac (v=2.0): 

 $ cat debhello-2.0/configure.ac
#                                               -*- Autoconf -*-
# Process this file with autoconf to produce a configure script.
AC_PREREQ([2.69])
AC_INIT([debhello],[2.2],[foo@example.org])
AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([src/hello.c])
AC_CONFIG_HEADERS([config.h])
echo "Standard customization chores"
AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([build-aux])

AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([foreign])

# Set default to --enable-shared --disable-static
LT_INIT([shared disable-static])

# find the libltdl sources in the libltdl sub-directory
LT_CONFIG_LTDL_DIR([libltdl])

# choose one
LTDL_INIT([recursive])
#LTDL_INIT([subproject])
#LTDL_INIT([nonrecursive])

# Add #define PACKAGE_AUTHOR ... in config.h with a comment
AC_DEFINE(PACKAGE_AUTHOR, ["Osamu Aoki"], [Define PACKAGE_AUTHOR])
# Checks for programs.
AC_PROG_CC

# only for the recursive case
AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile
                 lib/Makefile
                 man/Makefile
                 src/Makefile])
AC_OUTPUT

Let’s package this with the debmake command into multiple packages:

Here, the -b\',libsharedlib1,libsharedlib-dev' option is used to specify the generated binary packages.

 $ cd /path/to/debhello-2.0
 $ debmake -b',libsharedlib1,libsharedlib-dev' -x1
I: set parameters
 ...
I: sanity check of parameters
I: pkg="debhello", ver="2.0", rev="1"
I: *** start packaging in "debhello-2.0". ***
I: provide debhello_2.0.orig.tar.gz for non-native Debian package
I: pwd = "/path/to"
I: $ ln -sf debhello-2.0.tar.gz debhello_2.0.orig.tar.gz
I: pwd = "/path/to/debhello-2.0"
I: parse binary package settings: ,libsharedlib1,libsharedlib-dev
I: binary package=debhello Type=bin / Arch=any M-A=foreign
I: binary package=libsharedlib1 Type=lib / Arch=any M-A=same
I: binary package=libsharedlib-dev Type=dev / Arch=any M-A=same
I: analyze the source tree
I: build_type = Autotools with autoreconf
 ...

The result is similar to “Section 13.8, “Makefile.in + configure (single-binary package)”” but with more template files.

Let’s inspect the notable template files generated.

debian/rules (template file, v=2.0): 

 $ cd /path/to/debhello-2.0
 $ cat debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
# You must remove unused comment lines for the released package.
#export DH_VERBOSE = 1
#export DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS = hardening=+all
#export DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND  = -Wall -pedantic
#export DEB_LDFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wl,-O1

%:
        dh $@ --with autoreconf

#override_dh_install:
#       dh_install --list-missing -X.la -X.pyc -X.pyo

Let’s make this Debian package better as the maintainer.

debian/rules (maintainer version, v=2.0): 

 $ cd /path/to/debhello-2.0
 $ vim debian/rules
 ... hack, hack, hack, ...
 $ cat debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
export DH_VERBOSE = 1
export DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS = hardening=+all
export DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND  = -Wall -pedantic
export DEB_LDFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wl,--as-needed

%:
        dh $@ --with autoreconf

override_dh_missing:
        dh_missing -X.la

debian/control (maintainer version, v=2.0): 

 $ vim debian/control
 ... hack, hack, hack, ...
 $ cat debian/control
Source: debhello
Section: devel
Priority: optional
Maintainer: Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org>
Build-Depends: debhelper-compat (= 13), dh-autoreconf
Standards-Version: 4.6.2
Homepage: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debmake-doc
Rules-Requires-Root: no

Package: debhello
Architecture: any
Multi-Arch: foreign
Depends: libsharedlib1 (= ${binary:Version}),
         ${misc:Depends},
         ${shlibs:Depends}
Description: Simple packaging example for debmake
 This package contains the compiled binary executable.
 .
 This Debian binary package is an example package.
 (This is an example only)

Package: libsharedlib1
Section: libs
Architecture: any
Multi-Arch: same
Pre-Depends: ${misc:Pre-Depends}
Depends: ${misc:Depends}, ${shlibs:Depends}
Description: Simple packaging example for debmake
 This package contains the shared library.

Package: libsharedlib-dev
Section: libdevel
Architecture: any
Multi-Arch: same
Depends: libsharedlib1 (= ${binary:Version}), ${misc:Depends}
Description: Simple packaging example for debmake
 This package contains the development files.

debian/*.install (maintainer version, v=2.0): 

 $ vim debian/copyright
 ... hack, hack, hack, ...
 $ cat debian/copyright
Format: https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/
Upstream-Name: debhello
Upstream-Contact: Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org>
Source: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debmake-doc

Files:     *
Copyright: 2015-2021 Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org>
License:   Expat
 Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
 copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"),
 to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation
 the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,
 and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
 Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
 .
 The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included
 in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
 .
 THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS
 OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
 MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
 IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY
 CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,
 TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE
 SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Since this upstream source creates the proper auto-generated Makefile, there is no need to create debian/install and debian/manpages files.

There are several other template files under the debian/ directory. These also need to be updated.

Template files under debian/. (v=2.0): 

 $ rm -f debian/clean debian/dirs debian/install debian/links
 $ rm -f debian/README.source debian/source/*.ex
 $ rm -rf debian/patches
 $ tree -F debian
debian/
├── README.Debian
├── changelog
├── control
├── copyright
├── debhello.dirs
├── debhello.doc-base
├── debhello.docs
├── debhello.examples
├── debhello.info
├── debhello.install
├── debhello.links
├── debhello.manpages
├── gbp.conf
├── libsharedlib-dev.install
├── libsharedlib1.install
├── libsharedlib1.symbols
├── rules*
├── salsa-ci.yml
├── source/
│   └── format
├── tests/
│   └── control
├── upstream/
│   └── metadata
└── watch

4 directories, 22 files

The rest of the packaging activities are practically the same as the one in “Section 13.8, “Makefile.in + configure (single-binary package)””.

Here are the generated dependency list of all binary packages.

The generated dependency list of all binary packages (v=2.0): 

 $ dpkg -f debhello-dbgsym_2.0-1_amd64.deb pre-depends \
            depends recommends conflicts breaks
Depends: debhello (= 2.0-1)
 $ dpkg -f debhello_2.0-1_amd64.deb pre-depends \
            depends recommends conflicts breaks
Depends: libsharedlib1 (= 2.0-1), libc6 (>= 2.34)
 $ dpkg -f libsharedlib-dev_2.0-1_amd64.deb pre-depends \
            depends recommends conflicts breaks
Depends: libsharedlib1 (= 2.0-1)
 $ dpkg -f libsharedlib1-dbgsym_2.0-1_amd64.deb pre-depends \
            depends recommends conflicts breaks
Depends: libsharedlib1 (= 2.0-1)
 $ dpkg -f libsharedlib1_2.0-1_amd64.deb pre-depends \
            depends recommends conflicts breaks
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.2.5)

 $ tar -xzmf debhello-2.1.tar.gz
 $ cd debhello-2.1
 $ mkdir obj-x86_64-linux-gnu
 $ cd obj-x86_64-linux-gnu
 $ cmake ..
 $ make
 $ make install

 $ wget http://www.example.org/download/debhello-2.1.tar.gz
 ...
 $ tar -xzmf debhello-2.1.tar.gz
 $ tree
.
├── debhello-2.1
│   ├── CMakeLists.txt
│   ├── LICENSE
│   ├── README.md
│   ├── data
│   │   ├── hello.desktop
│   │   └── hello.png
│   ├── lib
│   │   ├── CMakeLists.txt
│   │   ├── sharedlib.c
│   │   └── sharedlib.h
│   ├── man
│   │   ├── CMakeLists.txt
│   │   └── hello.1
│   └── src
│       ├── CMakeLists.txt
│       ├── config.h.in
│       └── hello.c
└── debhello-2.1.tar.gz

6 directories, 14 files

 $ cat debhello-2.1/src/hello.c
#include "config.h"
#include <stdio.h>
#include <sharedlib.h>
int
main()
{
        printf("Hello, I am " PACKAGE_AUTHOR "!\n");
        sharedlib();
        return 0;
}

 $ cat debhello-2.1/src/config.h.in
/* name of the package author */
#define PACKAGE_AUTHOR "@PACKAGE_AUTHOR@"

 $ cat debhello-2.1/lib/sharedlib.h
int sharedlib();
 $ cat debhello-2.1/lib/sharedlib.c
#include <stdio.h>
int
sharedlib()
{
        printf("This is a shared library!\n");
        return 0;
}

 $ cat debhello-2.1/CMakeLists.txt
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8)
project(debhello)
set(PACKAGE_AUTHOR "Osamu Aoki")
add_subdirectory(lib)
add_subdirectory(src)
add_subdirectory(man)
 $ cat debhello-2.1/man/CMakeLists.txt
install(
  FILES ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/hello.1
  DESTINATION share/man/man1
)
 $ cat debhello-2.1/src/CMakeLists.txt
# Always define HAVE_CONFIG_H
add_definitions(-DHAVE_CONFIG_H)
# Generate config.h from config.h.in
configure_file(
  "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/config.h.in"
  "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/config.h"
  )
include_directories("${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}")
include_directories("${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/lib")

add_executable(hello hello.c)
target_link_libraries(hello sharedlib)
install(TARGETS hello
  RUNTIME DESTINATION bin
)

 $ cd /path/to/debhello-2.1
 $ debmake -b',libsharedlib1,libsharedlib-dev' -x1
I: set parameters
 ...
I: sanity check of parameters
I: pkg="debhello", ver="2.1", rev="1"
I: *** start packaging in "debhello-2.1". ***
I: provide debhello_2.1.orig.tar.gz for non-native Debian package
I: pwd = "/path/to"
I: $ ln -sf debhello-2.1.tar.gz debhello_2.1.orig.tar.gz
I: pwd = "/path/to/debhello-2.1"
I: parse binary package settings: ,libsharedlib1,libsharedlib-dev
I: binary package=debhello Type=bin / Arch=any M-A=foreign
I: binary package=libsharedlib1 Type=lib / Arch=any M-A=same
I: binary package=libsharedlib-dev Type=dev / Arch=any M-A=same
I: analyze the source tree
I: build_type = Cmake
 ...

The result is similar to “Section 13.8, “Makefile.in + configure (single-binary package)”” but not exactly the same.

Let’s inspect the notable template files generated.

debian/rules (template file, v=2.1): 

 $ cd /path/to/debhello-2.1
 $ cat debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
# You must remove unused comment lines for the released package.
#export DH_VERBOSE = 1
#export DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS = hardening=+all
#export DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND  = -Wall -pedantic
#export DEB_LDFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wl,-O1

%:
        dh $@

#override_dh_auto_configure:
#       dh_auto_configure -- \
#             -DCMAKE_LIBRARY_ARCHITECTURE="$(DEB_TARGET_MULTIARCH)"

Let’s make this Debian package better as the maintainer.

debian/rules (maintainer version, v=2.1): 

 $ cd /path/to/debhello-2.1
 $ vim debian/rules
 ... hack, hack, hack, ...
 $ cat debian/rules
#!/usr/bin/make -f
export DH_VERBOSE = 1
export DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS = hardening=+all
export DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND  = -Wall -pedantic
export DEB_LDFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -Wl,--as-needed
DEB_HOST_MULTIARCH ?= $(shell dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_MULTIARCH)

%:
        dh $@

override_dh_auto_configure:
        dh_auto_configure -- \
              -DCMAKE_LIBRARY_ARCHITECTURE="$(DEB_HOST_MULTIARCH)"

debian/control (maintainer version, v=2.1): 

 $ vim debian/control
 ... hack, hack, hack, ...
 $ cat debian/control
Source: debhello
Section: devel
Priority: optional
Maintainer: Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org>
Build-Depends: cmake, debhelper-compat (= 13)
Standards-Version: 4.6.2
Homepage: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debmake-doc
Rules-Requires-Root: no

Package: debhello
Architecture: any
Multi-Arch: foreign
Depends: libsharedlib1 (= ${binary:Version}),
         ${misc:Depends},
         ${shlibs:Depends}
Description: Simple packaging example for debmake
 This package contains the compiled binary executable.
 .
 This Debian binary package is an example package.
 (This is an example only)

Package: libsharedlib1
Section: libs
Architecture: any
Multi-Arch: same
Pre-Depends: ${misc:Pre-Depends}
Depends: ${misc:Depends}, ${shlibs:Depends}
Description: Simple packaging example for debmake
 This package contains the shared library.

Package: libsharedlib-dev
Section: libdevel
Architecture: any
Multi-Arch: same
Depends: libsharedlib1 (= ${binary:Version}), ${misc:Depends}
Description: Simple packaging example for debmake
 This package contains the development files.

debian/*.install (maintainer version, v=2.1): 

 $ vim debian/copyright
 ... hack, hack, hack, ...
 $ cat debian/copyright
Format: https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/
Upstream-Name: debhello
Upstream-Contact: Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org>
Source: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debmake-doc

Files:     *
Copyright: 2015-2021 Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org>
License:   Expat
 Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
 copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"),
 to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation
 the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,
 and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
 Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
 .
 The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included
 in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
 .
 THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS
 OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
 MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
 IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY
 CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,
 TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE
 SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

This upstream CMakeList.txt needs to be patched to cope with the multiarch path.

debian/patches/* (maintainer version, v=2.1): 

 ... hack, hack, hack, ...
 $ cat debian/libsharedlib1.symbols
libsharedlib.so.1 libsharedlib1 #MINVER#
 sharedlib@Base 2.1

Since this upstream source creates the proper auto-generated Makefile, there is no need to create debian/install and debian/manpages files.

There are several other template files under the debian/ directory. These also need to be updated.

Template files under debian/. (v=2.1): 

 $ rm -f debian/clean debian/dirs debian/install debian/links
 $ rm -f debian/README.source debian/source/*.ex
 $ tree -F debian
debian/
├── README.Debian
├── changelog
├── control
├── copyright
├── debhello.dirs
├── debhello.doc-base
├── debhello.docs
├── debhello.examples
├── debhello.info
├── debhello.install
├── debhello.links
├── debhello.manpages
├── gbp.conf
├── libsharedlib-dev.install
├── libsharedlib1.install
├── libsharedlib1.symbols
├── patches/
│   ├── 000-cmake-multiarch.patch
│   └── series
├── rules*
├── salsa-ci.yml
├── source/
│   └── format
├── tests/
│   └── control
├── upstream/
│   └── metadata
└── watch

5 directories, 24 files

The rest of the packaging activities are practically the same as the one in “Section 13.8, “Makefile.in + configure (single-binary package)””.

Here are the generated dependency list of all binary packages.

The generated dependency list of all binary packages (v=2.1): 

 $ dpkg -f debhello-dbgsym_2.1-1_amd64.deb pre-depends \
            depends recommends conflicts breaks
Depends: debhello (= 2.1-1)
 $ dpkg -f debhello_2.1-1_amd64.deb pre-depends \
            depends recommends conflicts breaks
Depends: libsharedlib1 (= 2.1-1), libc6 (>= 2.34)
 $ dpkg -f libsharedlib-dev_2.1-1_amd64.deb pre-depends \
            depends recommends conflicts breaks
Depends: libsharedlib1 (= 2.1-1)
 $ dpkg -f libsharedlib1-dbgsym_2.1-1_amd64.deb pre-depends \
            depends recommends conflicts breaks
Depends: libsharedlib1 (= 2.1-1)
 $ dpkg -f libsharedlib1_2.1-1_amd64.deb pre-depends \
            depends recommends conflicts breaks
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.2.5)

Here is an example of updating the simple upstream C source debhello-2.0.tar.gz presented in “Section 13.11, “Autotools (multi-binary package)”” for internationalization (i18n) and creating the updated upstream C source debhello-2.0.tar.gz.

In the real situation, the package should already be internationalized. So this example is educational for you to understand how this internationalization is implemented.

	Tip
	The routine maintainer activity for the i18n is simply to add translation po files reported to you via the Bug Tracking System (BTS) to the po/ directory and to update the language list in the po/LINGUAS file.

Let’s get the source and make the Debian package.

Download debhello-2.0.tar.gz (i18n). 

 $ wget http://www.example.org/download/debhello-2.0.tar.gz
 ...
 $ tar -xzmf debhello-2.0.tar.gz
 $ tree
.
├── debhello-2.0
│   ├── LICENSE
│   ├── Makefile.am
│   ├── README.md
│   ├── configure.ac
│   ├── data
│   │   ├── hello.desktop
│   │   └── hello.png
│   ├── lib
│   │   ├── Makefile.am
│   │   ├── sharedlib.c
│   │   └── sharedlib.h
│   ├── man
│   │   ├── Makefile.am
│   │   └── hello.1
│   └── src
│       ├── Makefile.am
│       └── hello.c
└── debhello-2.0.tar.gz

6 directories, 14 files

Internationalize this source tree with the gettextize command and remove files auto-generated by Autotools.

run gettextize (i18n): 

 $ cd /path/to/debhello-2.0
 $ gettextize
Creating po/ subdirectory
Creating build-aux/ subdirectory
Copying file ABOUT-NLS
Copying file build-aux/config.rpath
Not copying intl/ directory.
Copying file po/Makefile.in.in
Copying file po/Makevars.template
Copying file po/Rules-quot
Copying file po/boldquot.sed
Copying file po/en@boldquot.header
Copying file po/en@quot.header
Copying file po/insert-header.sin
Copying file po/quot.sed
Copying file po/remove-potcdate.sin
Creating initial po/POTFILES.in
Creating po/ChangeLog
Creating directory m4
Copying file m4/gettext.m4
Copying file m4/iconv.m4
Copying file m4/lib-ld.m4
Copying file m4/lib-link.m4
Copying file m4/lib-prefix.m4
Copying file m4/nls.m4
Copying file m4/po.m4
Copying file m4/progtest.m4
Creating m4/ChangeLog
Updating Makefile.am (backup is in Makefile.am~)
Updating configure.ac (backup is in configure.ac~)
Creating ChangeLog

Please use AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external]) in order to cause autoconfiguration
to look for an external libintl.

Please create po/Makevars from the template in po/Makevars.template.
You can then remove po/Makevars.template.

Please fill po/POTFILES.in as described in the documentation.

Please run 'aclocal' to regenerate the aclocal.m4 file.
You need aclocal from GNU automake 1.9 (or newer) to do this.
Then run 'autoconf' to regenerate the configure file.

You will also need config.guess and config.sub, which you can get from the CV...
of the 'config' project at http://savannah.gnu.org/. The commands to fetch th...
are
$ wget 'http://savannah.gnu.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs/*checkout*/config/config/conf...
$ wget 'http://savannah.gnu.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs/*checkout*/config/config/conf...

You might also want to copy the convenience header file gettext.h
from the /usr/share/gettext directory into your package.
It is a wrapper around <libintl.h> that implements the configure --disable-nl...
option.

Press Return to acknowledge the previous 6 paragraphs.
 $ rm -rf m4 build-aux *~

Let’s check generated files under the po/ directory.

files in po (i18n): 

 $ ls -l po
total 60
-rw-rw-r-- 1 osamu osamu   494 Jul 24 10:14 ChangeLog
-rw-rw-r-- 1 osamu osamu 17577 Jul 24 10:14 Makefile.in.in
-rw-rw-r-- 1 osamu osamu  3376 Jul 24 10:14 Makevars.template
-rw-rw-r-- 1 osamu osamu    59 Jul 24 10:14 POTFILES.in
-rw-rw-r-- 1 osamu osamu  2203 Jul 24 10:14 Rules-quot
-rw-rw-r-- 1 osamu osamu   217 Jul 24 10:14 boldquot.sed
-rw-rw-r-- 1 osamu osamu  1337 Jul 24 10:14 en@boldquot.header
-rw-rw-r-- 1 osamu osamu  1203 Jul 24 10:14 en@quot.header
-rw-rw-r-- 1 osamu osamu   672 Jul 24 10:14 insert-header.sin
-rw-rw-r-- 1 osamu osamu   153 Jul 24 10:14 quot.sed
-rw-rw-r-- 1 osamu osamu   432 Jul 24 10:14 remove-potcdate.sin

Let’s update the configure.ac by adding “AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external])”, etc..

configure.ac (i18n): 

 $ vim configure.ac
 ... hack, hack, hack, ...
 $ cat configure.ac
#                                               -*- Autoconf -*-
# Process this file with autoconf to produce a configure script.
AC_PREREQ([2.69])
AC_INIT([debhello],[2.2],[foo@example.org])
AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([src/hello.c])
AC_CONFIG_HEADERS([config.h])
echo "Standard customization chores"
AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([build-aux])

AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([foreign])

# Set default to --enable-shared --disable-static
LT_INIT([shared disable-static])

# find the libltdl sources in the libltdl sub-directory
LT_CONFIG_LTDL_DIR([libltdl])

# choose one
LTDL_INIT([recursive])
#LTDL_INIT([subproject])
#LTDL_INIT([nonrecursive])

# Add #define PACKAGE_AUTHOR ... in config.h with a comment
AC_DEFINE(PACKAGE_AUTHOR, ["Osamu Aoki"], [Define PACKAGE_AUTHOR])
# Checks for programs.
AC_PROG_CC

# desktop file support required
AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION([0.19.3])
AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external])

# only for the recursive case
AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile
                 po/Makefile.in
                 lib/Makefile
                 man/Makefile
                 src/Makefile])
AC_OUTPUT

Let’s create the po/Makevars file from the po/Makevars.template file.

po/Makevars (i18n): 

 ... hack, hack, hack, ...
 $ diff -u po/Makevars.template po/Makevars
--- po/Makevars.template        2024-07-24 10:14:46.440850967 +0900
+++ po/Makevars 2024-07-24 10:14:46.520852183 +0900
@@ -18,14 +18,14 @@
 # or entity, or to disclaim their copyright.  The empty string stands for
 # the public domain; in this case the translators are expected to disclaim
 # their copyright.
-COPYRIGHT_HOLDER = Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+COPYRIGHT_HOLDER = Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org>

 # This tells whether or not to prepend "GNU " prefix to the package
 # name that gets inserted into the header of the $(DOMAIN).pot file.
 # Possible values are "yes", "no", or empty.  If it is empty, try to
 # detect it automatically by scanning the files in $(top_srcdir) for
 # "GNU packagename" string.
-PACKAGE_GNU =
+PACKAGE_GNU = no

 # This is the email address or URL to which the translators shall report
 # bugs in the untranslated strings:
 $ rm po/Makevars.template

Let’s update C sources for the i18n version by wrapping strings with _(…​).

src/hello.c (i18n): 

 ... hack, hack, hack, ...
 $ cat src/hello.c
#include "config.h"
#include <stdio.h>
#include <sharedlib.h>
#include <libintl.h>
#define _(string) gettext (string)
int
main()
{
        printf(_("Hello, I am " PACKAGE_AUTHOR "!\n"));
        sharedlib();
        return 0;
}

lib/sharedlib.c (i18n): 

 ... hack, hack, hack, ...
 $ cat lib/sharedlib.c
#include <stdio.h>
#include <libintl.h>
#define _(string) gettext (string)
int
sharedlib()
{
        printf(_("This is a shared library!\n"));
        return 0;
}

The new gettext (v=0.19) can handle the i18n version of the desktop file directly.

data/hello.desktop.in (i18n): 

 $ fgrep -v '[ja]=' data/hello.desktop > data/hello.desktop.in
 $ rm data/hello.desktop
 $ cat data/hello.desktop.in
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Hello
Comment=Greetings
Type=Application
Keywords=hello
Exec=hello
Terminal=true
Icon=hello.png
Categories=Utility;

Let’s list the input files to extract translatable strings in po/POTFILES.in.

po/POTFILES.in (i18n): 

 ... hack, hack, hack, ...
 $ cat po/POTFILES.in
src/hello.c
lib/sharedlib.c
data/hello.desktop.in

Here is the updated root Makefile.am with po added to the SUBDIRS environment variable.

Makefile.am (i18n): 

 $ cat Makefile.am
# recursively process `Makefile.am` in SUBDIRS
SUBDIRS = po lib src man

ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4

EXTRA_DIST = build-aux/config.rpath m4/ChangeLog

Let’s make a translation template file, debhello.pot.

po/debhello.pot (i18n): 

 $ xgettext -f po/POTFILES.in -d debhello -o po/debhello.pot -k_
 $ cat po/debhello.pot
# SOME DESCRIPTIVE TITLE.
# Copyright (C) YEAR THE PACKAGE'S COPYRIGHT HOLDER
# This file is distributed under the same license as the PACKAGE package.
# FIRST AUTHOR <EMAIL@ADDRESS>, YEAR.
#
#, fuzzy
msgid ""
msgstr ""
"Project-Id-Version: PACKAGE VERSION\n"
"Report-Msgid-Bugs-To: \n"
"POT-Creation-Date: 2024-07-24 10:14+0900\n"
"PO-Revision-Date: YEAR-MO-DA HO:MI+ZONE\n"
"Last-Translator: FULL NAME <EMAIL@ADDRESS>\n"
"Language-Team: LANGUAGE <LL@li.org>\n"
"Language: \n"
"MIME-Version: 1.0\n"
"Content-Type: text/plain; charset=CHARSET\n"
"Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit\n"

#: src/hello.c:9
#, c-format
msgid "Hello, I am "
msgstr ""

#: lib/sharedlib.c:7
#, c-format
msgid "This is a shared library!\n"
msgstr ""

#: data/hello.desktop.in:3
msgid "Hello"
msgstr ""

#: data/hello.desktop.in:4
msgid "Greetings"
msgstr ""

#: data/hello.desktop.in:6
msgid "hello"
msgstr ""

Let’s add a translation for French.

po/LINGUAS and po/fr.po (i18n): 

 $ echo 'fr' > po/LINGUAS
 $ cp po/debhello.pot po/fr.po
 $ vim po/fr.po
 ... hack, hack, hack, ...
 $ cat po/fr.po
# SOME DESCRIPTIVE TITLE.
# This file is put in the public domain.
# FIRST AUTHOR <EMAIL@ADDRESS>, YEAR.
#
msgid ""
msgstr ""
"Project-Id-Version: debhello 2.2\n"
"Report-Msgid-Bugs-To: foo@example.org\n"
"POT-Creation-Date: 2015-03-01 20:22+0900\n"
"PO-Revision-Date: 2015-02-21 23:18+0900\n"
"Last-Translator: Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org>\n"
"Language-Team: French <LL@li.org>\n"
"Language: ja\n"
"MIME-Version: 1.0\n"
"Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8\n"
"Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit\n"

#: src/hello.c:34
#, c-format
msgid "Hello, my name is %s!\n"
msgstr "Bonjour, je m'appelle %s!\n"

#: lib/sharedlib.c:29
#, c-format
msgid "This is a shared library!\n"
msgstr "Ceci est une bibliothèque partagée!\n"

#: data/hello.desktop.in:3
msgid "Hello"
msgstr ""

#: data/hello.desktop.in:4
msgid "Greetings"
msgstr "Salutations"

#: data/hello.desktop.in:6
msgid "hello"
msgstr ""

#: data/hello.desktop.in:9
msgid "hello.png"
msgstr ""

The packaging activities are practically the same as the one in “Section 13.11, “Autotools (multi-binary package)””.

You can find more i18n examples by following “Section 13.14, “Details””.