dpkg-buildpackage(1) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | ENVIRONMENT | FILES | NOTES | SECURITY | BUGS | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON

dpkg-buildpackage(1)            dpkg suite           dpkg-buildpackage(1)

NAME         top

       dpkg-buildpackage - build binary or source packages from sources

SYNOPSIS         top

       dpkg-buildpackage [option...] [--] [filename.dsc|directory]

DESCRIPTION         top

       dpkg-buildpackage is a program that automates the process of
       building a Debian package.

       The filename.dsc and directory arguments are supported since dpkg
       1.22.7.  Their semantics are experimental.

       It consists of the following steps:

       1.  It runs the preinit hook before reading any source file.  If a
           .dsc file has been specified it unpacks it anew and changes
           directory to it, if a directory has been specified it changes
           directory to it, otherwise it expects the current directory to
           contain the source tree.  It prepares the build environment by
           setting various environment variables (see ENVIRONMENT), runs
           the init hook, and calls dpkg-source --before-build (unless -T
           or --target has been used).

       2.  It checks that the build-dependencies and build-conflicts are
           satisfied (unless -d or --no-check-builddeps is specified).

       3.  If one or more specific targets have been selected with the -T
           or --target option, it calls those targets and stops here.
           Otherwise it runs the preclean hook and calls fakeroot
           debian/rules clean to clean the build-tree (unless -nc or
           --no-pre-clean is specified).

       4.  It runs the source hook and calls dpkg-source -b to generate
           the source package (if a source build has been requested with
           --build or equivalent options, and if no .dsc has been
           specified).

       5.  It runs the build hook and calls debian/rules build-target,
           then runs the binary hook followed by fakeroot debian/rules
           binary-target (unless a source-only build has been requested
           with --build=source or equivalent options).  Note that
           build-target and binary-target are either build and binary
           (default case, or if an any and all build has been requested
           with --build or equivalent options), or build-arch and
           binary-arch (if an any and not all build has been requested
           with --build or equivalent options), or build-indep and
           binary-indep (if an all and not any build has been requested
           with --build or equivalent options).

       6.  It runs the buildinfo hook and calls dpkg-genbuildinfo to
           generate a .buildinfo file.  Several dpkg-buildpackage options
           are forwarded to dpkg-genbuildinfo.  If a .dsc has been
           specified, then it will be referenced in the generated
           .buildinfo file, as we can ascertain the provenance of the
           source tree.

       7.  It runs the changes hook and calls dpkg-genchanges to generate
           a .changes file.  The name of the .changes file will depend on
           the type of build and will be as specific as necessary but not
           more; the name will be:

           source-name_binary-version_arch.changes
               for a build that includes any

           source-name_binary-version_all.changes
               otherwise for a build that includes all

           source-name_source-version_source.changes.
               otherwise for a build that includes source

           Many dpkg-buildpackage options are forwarded to
           dpkg-genchanges.

       8.  It runs the postclean hook and if -tc or --post-clean is
           specified, it will call fakeroot debian/rules clean again.

       9.  It calls dpkg-source --after-build.

       10. It runs the check hook and calls a package checker for the
           .changes file (if a command is specified in DEB_CHECK_COMMAND
           or with --check-command).

       11. It runs the sign hook and signs using the OpenPGP backend (as
           long as it is not an UNRELEASED build, or --no-sign is
           specified) to sign the .dsc file (if any, unless -us or
           --unsigned-source is specified), the .buildinfo file (unless
           -ui, --unsigned-buildinfo, -uc or --unsigned-changes is
           specified) and the .changes file (unless -uc or
           --unsigned-changes is specified).

       12. If a .dsc file has been specified, it removes the extracted
           source directory.

       13. It runs the done hook.

OPTIONS         top

       All long options can be specified both on the command line and in
       the dpkg-buildpackage system and user configuration files.  Each
       line in the configuration file is either an option (exactly the
       same as the command line option but without leading hyphens) or a
       comment (if it starts with a ‘#’).

       --build=type
           Specifies the build type from a comma-separated list of
           components (since dpkg 1.18.5).  All the specified components
           get combined to select the single build type to use, which
           implies a single build run with a single .changes file
           generated.  Passed to dpkg-genchanges.

           The allowed values are:

           source
               Builds the source package.

               Note: When using this value standalone and if what you
               want is simply to (re-)build the source package from a
               clean source tree, using dpkg-source directly is always a
               better option as it does not require any build
               dependencies to be installed which are otherwise needed to
               be able to call the clean target.

           any Builds the architecture specific binary packages.

           all Builds the architecture independent binary packages.

           binary
               Builds the architecture specific and independent binary
               packages.  This is an alias for any,all.

           full
               Builds everything.  This is an alias for source,any,all,
               and the same as the default case when no build option is
               specified.

       -g  Equivalent to --build=source,all (since dpkg 1.17.11).

       -G  Equivalent to --build=source,any (since dpkg 1.17.11).

       -b  Equivalent to --build=binary or --build=any,all.

       -B  Equivalent to --build=any.

       -A  Equivalent to --build=all.

       -S  Equivalent to --build=source.

       -F  Equivalent to --build=full, --build=source,binary or
           --build=source,any,all (since dpkg 1.15.8).

       --target=target[,...]
       --target target[,...]
       -T, --rules-target=target[,...]
           Calls debian/rules target once per target specified, after
           having setup the build environment (except for calling
           dpkg-source --before-build), and stops the package build
           process here (since dpkg 1.15.0, long option since dpkg
           1.18.8, multi-target support since dpkg 1.18.16).  If
           --as-root is also given, then the command is executed as root
           (see --root-command).  Note that known targets that are
           required to be run as root do not need this option (i.e. the
           clean, binary, binary-arch and binary-indep targets).

       --as-root
           Only meaningful together with --target (since dpkg 1.15.0).
           Requires that the target be run with root rights.

       -si
       -sa
       -sd
       -vversion
       -Cchanges-description
       -mmaintainer-address
       -emaintainer-address
           Passed unchanged to dpkg-genchanges.  See its manual page.

       --build-by=maintainer-address
       --source-by=maintainer-address (since dpkg 1.21.10)
           Pass as -m to dpkg-genchanges.  See its manual page.

       --release-by=maintainer-address
       --changed-by=maintainer-address (since dpkg 1.21.10)
           Pass as -e to dpkg-genchanges.  See its manual page.

       -a, --host-arch architecture
           Specify the Debian architecture we build for (long option
           since dpkg 1.17.17).  The architecture of the machine we build
           on is determined automatically, and is also the default for
           the host machine.

       -t, --host-type gnu-system-type
           Specify the GNU system type we build for (long option since
           dpkg 1.17.17).  It can be used in place of --host-arch or as a
           complement to override the default GNU system type of the host
           Debian architecture.

       --target-arch architecture
           Specify the Debian architecture the binaries built will build
           for (since dpkg 1.17.17).  The default value is the host
           machine.

       --target-type gnu-system-type
           Specify the GNU system type the binaries built will build for
           (since dpkg 1.17.17).  It can be used in place of
           --target-arch or as a complement to override the default GNU
           system type of the target Debian architecture.

       -P, --build-profiles=profile[,...]
           Specify the profile(s) we build, as a comma-separated list
           (since dpkg 1.17.2, long option since dpkg 1.18.8).  The
           default behavior is to build for no specific profile.  Also
           sets them (as a space separated list) as the
           DEB_BUILD_PROFILES environment variable which allows, for
           example, debian/rules files to use this information for
           conditional builds.

       -j, --jobs[=jobs|auto]
           Specifies the number of jobs allowed to be run simultaneously
           (since dpkg 1.14.7, long option since dpkg 1.18.8).  The
           number of jobs matching the number of online processors if
           auto is specified (since dpkg 1.17.10), or unlimited number if
           jobs is not specified.  The default behavior is auto (since
           dpkg 1.18.11) in non-forced mode (since dpkg 1.21.10), and as
           such it is always safer to use with any package including
           those that are not parallel-build safe.  Setting the number of
           jobs to 1 will restore serial execution.

           Will add parallel=jobs or parallel to the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
           environment variable which allows debian/rules files to opt-in
           to use this information for their own purposes.  The jobs
           value will override the parallel=jobs or parallel option in
           the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS environment variable.  Note that the
           auto value will get replaced by the actual number of currently
           active processors, and as such will not get propagated to any
           child process.  If the number of online processors cannot be
           inferred then the code will fallback to using serial execution
           (since dpkg 1.18.15), although this should only happen on
           exotic and unsupported systems.

       -J, --jobs-try[=jobs|auto]
           This option (since dpkg 1.18.2, long option since dpkg 1.18.8)
           is equivalent to the -j above.

           Since the behavior for -j changed in dpkg 1.21.10 to the
           opt-in mode, you can use this option instead if you need to
           guarantee semantics across dpkg release series.

       --jobs-force[=jobs|auto]
           This option (since dpkg 1.21.10) is equivalent to the --jobs
           option except that it will enable forced parallel mode, by
           adding the make -j option with the computed number of parallel
           jobs to the MAKEFLAGS environment variable.

           This should cause all subsequent make invocations to inherit
           the option, thus forcing the parallel setting on the packaging
           (and possibly the upstream build system if that uses make(1))
           regardless of their support for parallel builds, which might
           cause build failures.

           Note: Any Makefile that is not parallel-safe should be
           considered to be buggy.  These should either be made
           parallel-safe, or marked as not being safe with the make(1)
           .NOTPARALLEL target.

       -D, --check-builddeps
           Check build dependencies and conflicts; abort if unsatisfied
           (long option since dpkg 1.18.8).  This is the default
           behavior.

       -d, --no-check-builddeps
           Do not check build dependencies and conflicts (long option
           since dpkg 1.18.8).

       --ignore-builtin-builddeps
           Do not check built-in build dependencies and conflicts (since
           dpkg 1.18.2).  These are the distribution specific implicit
           build dependencies usually required in a build environment,
           the so called Build-Essential package set.

       --rules-requires-root
           Do not honor the Rules-Requires-Root field, falling back to
           its legacy default value binary-targets (since dpkg 1.19.1).

       -nc, --no-pre-clean
           Do not clean the source tree before building (long option
           since dpkg 1.18.8).  Implies -b if nothing else has been
           selected among -F, -g, -G, -B, -A or -S.  Implies -d with -S
           (since dpkg 1.18.0).

       --pre-clean
           Clean the source tree before building (since dpkg 1.18.8).
           This is the default behavior.

       -tc, --post-clean
           Clean the source tree (using gain-root-command debian/rules
           clean) after the package has been built (long option since
           dpkg 1.18.8).

       --no-post-clean
           Do not clean the source tree after the package has been built
           (since dpkg 1.19.1).  This is the default behavior.

       --sanitize-env
           Sanitize the build environment (since dpkg 1.20.0).  This will
           reset or remove environment variables, umask, and any other
           process attributes that might otherwise adversely affect the
           build of packages.  Because the official entry point to build
           packages is debian/rules, packages cannot rely on these
           settings being in place, and thus should work even when they
           are not.  What to sanitize is vendor specific.

       -r, --root-command=gain-root-command
           When dpkg-buildpackage needs to execute part of the build
           process as root, it prefixes the command it executes with
           gain-root-command if one has been specified (long option since
           dpkg 1.18.8).  Otherwise, if none has been specified, fakeroot
           will be used by default, if the command is present.
           gain-root-command should start with the name of a program on
           the PATH and will get as arguments the name of the real
           command to run and the arguments it should take.
           gain-root-command can include parameters (they must be
           space-separated) but no shell metacharacters.
           gain-root-command might typically be fakeroot, sudo, super or
           really.  su is not suitable, since it can only invoke the
           user's shell with -c instead of passing arguments individually
           to the command to be run.

       -R, --rules-file=rules-file
           Building a Debian package usually involves invoking
           debian/rules as a command with several standard parameters
           (since dpkg 1.14.17, long option since dpkg 1.18.8).  With
           this option it's possible to use another program invocation to
           build the package (it can include space separated parameters).
           Alternatively it can be used to execute the standard rules
           file with another make program (for example by using
           /usr/local/bin/make -f debian/rules as rules-file).

       --check-command=check-command
           Command used to check the .changes file itself and any
           artifact built referenced in the file (since dpkg 1.17.6).
           The command should take the .changes pathname as an argument.
           This command will usually be lintian.

       --check-option=opt
           Pass option opt to the check-command specified with
           DEB_CHECK_COMMAND or --check-command (since dpkg 1.17.6).  Can
           be used multiple times.

       --hook-hook-name=hook-command
           Set the specified shell code hook-command as the hook
           hook-name, which will run at the times specified in the run
           steps (since dpkg 1.17.6).  The hooks will always be executed
           even if the following action is not performed (except for the
           binary hook).  All the hooks will run in the unpacked source
           directory.

           Some hooks can receive addition information through
           environment variables (since dpkg 1.22.0).  All hooks get the
           hook name in the DPKG_BUILDPACKAGE_HOOK_NAME environment
           variable (since dpkg 1.22.0).

           Note: Hooks can affect the build process, and cause build
           failures if their commands fail, so watch out for unintended
           consequences.

           The current hook-name supported are:

           preinit
           init
           preclean
           source
               Gets DPKG_BUILDPACKAGE_HOOK_SOURCE_OPTIONS with the
               space-separated lists of options that will passed to the
               dpkg-source call.

           build
               Gets DPKG_BUILDPACKAGE_HOOK_BUILD_TARGET with the name of
               the debian/rules build target called.  Before dpkg 1.22.7
               the variable was only set if the target was called.

           binary
               Gets DPKG_BUILDPACKAGE_HOOK_BINARY_TARGET with the name of
               the debian/rules binary target called, but only if called.

           buildinfo
               Gets DPKG_BUILDPACKAGE_HOOK_BUILDINFO_OPTIONS with the
               space-separated lists of options that will passed to the
               dpkg-genbuildinfo call.

           changes
               Gets DPKG_BUILDPACKAGE_HOOK_CHANGES_OPTIONS with the
               space-separated lists of options that will passed to the
               dpkg-genchanges call.

           postclean
           check
               Gets DPKG_BUILDPACKAGE_HOOK_CHECK_OPTIONS with the
               space-separated lists of options that will passed to the
               check command call.

           sign
           done

           The hook-command supports the following substitution format
           string, which will get applied to it before execution:

           %%  A single % character.

           %a  A boolean value (0 or 1), representing whether the
               following action is being performed.

           %p  The source package name.

           %v  The source package version.

           %s  The source package version (without the epoch).

           %u  The upstream version.

       --buildinfo-file=filename
           Set the filename for the generated .buildinfo file (since dpkg
           1.21.0).

       --buildinfo-option=opt
           Pass option opt to dpkg-genbuildinfo (since dpkg 1.18.11).
           Can be used multiple times.

       --sign-backend=sign-backend
           Specify an OpenPGP backend interface to use when invoking the
           sign-command (since dpkg 1.21.10).

           The default is auto, where the best current backend available
           will be used.  The specific OpenPGP backends supported in
           order of preference are:

           sop (any conforming Stateless OpenPGP implementation)

           sq  (from Sequoia-PGP)

           gpg (from GnuPG)

       -p, --sign-command=sign-command
           When dpkg-buildpackage needs to execute an OpenPGP backend
           command to sign a source control (.dsc) file, a .buildinfo
           file or a .changes file it will run sign-command (searching
           the PATH if necessary) instead of the default or auto-detected
           backend command (long option since dpkg 1.18.8).  sign-command
           will get all the backend specific arguments according to the
           --sign-backend selected.  sign-command should not contain
           spaces or any other shell metacharacters.

       -k, --sign-keyid=key-id
       --sign-key=key-id
           Specify an OpenPGP key-ID (either a fingerprint or a user-ID)
           for the secret key to use when signing packages (--sign-key
           since dpkg 1.18.8, --sign-keyid since dpkg 1.21.10).

       --sign-keyfile=key-file
           Specify an OpenPGP key-file containing the secret key to use
           when signing packages (since dpkg 1.21.10).

           Note: For security reasons the key-file is best kept locked
           with a password.

       -us, --unsigned-source
           Do not sign the source package (long option since dpkg
           1.18.8).

       -ui, --unsigned-buildinfo
           Do not sign the .buildinfo file (since dpkg 1.18.19).

       -uc, --unsigned-changes
           Do not sign the .buildinfo and .changes files (long option
           since dpkg 1.18.8).

       --no-sign
           Do not sign any file, this includes the source package, the
           .buildinfo file and the .changes file (since dpkg 1.18.20).

       --force-sign
           Force the signing of the resulting files (since dpkg 1.17.0),
           regardless of -us, --unsigned-source, -ui,
           --unsigned-buildinfo, -uc, --unsigned-changes or other
           internal heuristics.

       -sn
       -ss
       -sA
       -sk
       -su
       -sr
       -sK
       -sU
       -sR
       -i, --diff-ignore[=regex]
       -I, --tar-ignore[=pattern]
       -z, --compression-level=level
       -Z, --compression=compressor
           Passed unchanged to dpkg-source.  See its manual page.

       --source-option=opt
           Pass option opt to dpkg-source (since dpkg 1.15.6).  Can be
           used multiple times.

       --changes-file=filename
           Set the filename for the generated .changes file (since dpkg
           1.21.0).

       --changes-option=opt
           Pass option opt to dpkg-genchanges (since dpkg 1.15.6).  Can
           be used multiple times.

       --admindir=dir
       --admindir dir
           Change the location of the dpkg database (since dpkg 1.14.0).
           The default location is /usr/local/var/lib/dpkg.

       -?, --help
           Show the usage message and exit.

       --version
           Show the version and exit.

ENVIRONMENT         top

   External environment
       DEB_CHECK_COMMAND
           If set, it will be used as the command to check the .changes
           file (since dpkg 1.17.6).  Overridden by the --check-command
           option.

       DEB_SIGN_KEYID
           If set, it will be used to sign the .changes, .buildinfo and
           .dsc files (since dpkg 1.17.2).  Overridden by the
           --sign-keyid option.

       DEB_SIGN_KEYFILE
           If set, it will be used to sign the .changes, .buildinfo and
           .dsc files (since dpkg 1.21.10).  Overridden by the
           --sign-keyfile option.

       DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
           If set, it will contain a space-separated list of options that
           affect the behavior of some dpkg tools involved in package
           building, and might affect the package build process if the
           code in debian/rules honors them.  These options can have
           parameters specified immediately after an equal sign (‘=‘).
           For options that support multiple parameters, these will not
           be separated by spaces, as these are reserved to separate
           options.

           The following are the options known and supported by dpkg
           tools, other options honored by debian/rules might be defined
           by distribution specific policies.

           parallel=N
               The debian/rules in the packaging might use this option to
               set up the build process to use N parallel jobs.  It is
               overridden by the --jobs and --jobs-force options.

           nocheck
               dpkg-buildpackage will ignore the DEB_CHECK_COMMAND
               variable.  The debian/rules in the packaging is not
               expected to run test suites during the build.

           noopt
               If debian/rules calls dpkg-buildflags to set up the build
               flags, those will be set to not enable any optimizations.

           nostrip
               The debian/rules in the packaging should ensure that
               objects do not get the debugging information stripped.  If
               debian/rules includes the mk/buildtools.mk make fragment
               the STRIP make variable will respect this option.

           terse
               dpkg-buildpackage will append the --no-print-directory
               make(1) flag to the MAKEFLAGS environment variable.  The
               debian/rules in the packaging should reduce verbosity,
               while not being completely quiet.

           hardening=feature-spec
           reproducible=feature-spec
           abi=feature-spec
           future=feature-spec
           qa=feature-spec
           optimize=feature-spec
           sanitize=feature-spec
               These are feature areas that control build flag features.
               See dpkg-buildflags(1) for further details.

       DEB_BUILD_PROFILES
           If set, it will be used as the active build profile(s) for the
           package being built (since dpkg 1.17.2).  It is a space
           separated list of profile names.  Overridden by the -P option.

       DPKG_COLORS
           Sets the color mode (since dpkg 1.18.5).  The currently
           accepted values are: auto (default), always and never.

       DPKG_NLS
           If set, it will be used to decide whether to activate Native
           Language Support, also known as internationalization (or i18n)
           support (since dpkg 1.19.0).  The accepted values are: 0 and 1
           (default).

   Internal environment
       Even if dpkg-buildpackage exports some variables, debian/rules
       should not rely on their presence and should instead use the
       respective interface to retrieve the needed values, because that
       file is the main entry point to build packages and running it
       standalone should be supported.

       DEB_BUILD_*
       DEB_HOST_*
       DEB_TARGET_*
           dpkg-architecture is called with the -a and -t parameters
           forwarded.  Any variable that is output by its -s option is
           integrated in the build environment.

       DEB_RULES_REQUIRES_ROOT
           This variable is set to the value obtained from the
           Rules-Requires-Root field, the dpkg-build-api level or from
           the command-line.  When set, it will be a valid value for the
           Rules-Requires-Root field.  It is used to notify debian/rules
           whether the rootless-builds.txt specification is supported.

       DEB_GAIN_ROOT_CMD
           This variable is set to gain-root-command when the field
           Rules-Requires-Root is set to a value different to no and
           binary-targets.

       SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
           This variable is set to the Unix timestamp since the epoch of
           the latest entry in debian/changelog, if it is not already
           defined.

FILES         top

       /usr/local/etc/dpkg/buildpackage.conf
           System wide configuration file

       $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/dpkg/buildpackage.conf or
       $HOME/.config/dpkg/buildpackage.conf
           User configuration file.

NOTES         top

   Compiler flags are no longer exported
       Between dpkg 1.14.17 and 1.16.1, dpkg-buildpackage exported
       compiler flags (CFLAGS, CXXFLAGS, FFLAGS, CPPFLAGS and LDFLAGS)
       with values as returned by dpkg-buildflags.  This is no longer the
       case.

   Default build targets
       dpkg-buildpackage is using the build-arch and build-indep targets
       since dpkg 1.16.2.  Before dpkg 1.22.7, there was code to try to
       detect the missing targets and fallback on the build target.
       Those targets are thus mandatory.

SECURITY         top

       Building binary or source packages should only be performed over
       trusted source data.

BUGS         top

       It should be possible to specify spaces and shell metacharacters
       and initial arguments for gain-root-command and sign-command.

SEE ALSO         top

       /usr/local/share/doc/dpkg/spec/rootless-builds.txt,
       dpkg-source(1), dpkg-architecture(1), dpkg-buildflags(1),
       dpkg-genbuildinfo(1), dpkg-genchanges(1), fakeroot(1), lintian(1),
       <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-dkg-openpgp-stateless-cli/>,
       sq(1), gpg(1).

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the dpkg (Debian Package Manager) project.
       Information about the project can be found at 
       ⟨https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Dpkg/⟩.  If you have a bug report
       for this manual page, see
       ⟨http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?src=dpkg⟩.  This
       page was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository ⟨git
       clone https://git.dpkg.org/git/dpkg/dpkg.git⟩ on 2025-02-02.  (At
       that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in
       the repository was 2025-01-16.)  If you discover any rendering
       problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is
       a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
       corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
       (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       man-pages@man7.org

1.22.12-10-g32fee               2025-01-01           dpkg-buildpackage(1)

Pages that refer to this page: dpkg-architecture(1)dpkg-buildapi(1)dpkg-buildflags(1)debhelper-compat-upgrade-checklist(7)