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. By abstracting away the particulars of your environment, it helps ensure that your packages install correctly on other machines.

Setup

Start by getting your hands on a Labs instance with a misc::package-builder Puppet role (you can add this role if necessary). This will drop a clean install image in /var/cache/pbuilder/distribution.tgz. If you prefer to do so, you can create a clean install image manually using pbuilder create<tt>. For example:

# pbuilder create --distribution feisty

Notably, pbuilder doesn't set up a correct APT <tt>/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