Pbuilder

Update: If you are used to building packages on ragweed, note that the current recommendation is to use a Labs instance.

pbuilder is a tool to automatically build packages in a clean chroot of an arbitrary Debian/Ubuntu distribution.

Setup

This is now done by misc::package-builder in Puppet automatically. Modify misc::package-builder if it's not to your needs, or alternatively do it manually using the following steps. The first time, create a clean install image using e.g.:

# pbuilder create --distribution feisty

Notably, pbuilder doesn't set up a correct APT /etc/apt/sources.list in the chroot image, so it's best to use pbuilder login --save-after-login once after creating it, and replace its sources.list with an actual correct one.

Building

Then, when you want to build a package using this distribution image, use:

# pbuilder build --basetgz /var/cache/pbuilder/distribution.tgz package.dsc

If all goes well, you'll find the resulting package(s) in /var/cache/pbuilder/result.

Create a new distribution image using another filename:

# pbuilder create --distribution feisty --debootstrapopts --arch --debootstrapopts i386 --basetgz /var/cache/pbuilder/base-i386.tgz

Then to build a 32 bit package:

# linux32 pbuilder build --basetgz /var/cache/pbuilder/base-i386.tgz --debbuildopts "-sa" package.dsc

The debbuildopts argument forces the inclusion of the package source, a requirement for inclusion in the Wikimedia repository.

Modifying the base image

To change something in the base image, for example to add an APT repository, use:

# pbuilder login --save-after-login

External documentation

• pbuilder documentation