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HTML rendering created 2025-09-06 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
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NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | ENVIRONMENT | FILES | NOTES | SECURITY | BUGS | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON |
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dpkg-buildpackage(1) dpkg suite dpkg-buildpackage(1)
dpkg-buildpackage - build binary or source packages from sources
dpkg-buildpackage [option...] [--] [filename.dsc|directory]
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.
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.
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.
/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.
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.
Building binary or source packages should only be performed over
trusted source data.
It should be possible to specify spaces and shell metacharacters
and initial arguments for gain-root-command and sign-command.
/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).
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 2025-08-11. (At
that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in
the repository was 2025-08-06.) 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
[email protected]
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)
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HTML rendering created 2025-09-06 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
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