Knowledge Base (Posts about build)

Debuild package misc recommends

bgstack15 — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 13:45:00 GMT

I wanted to add a recommended package to one of the packages I build for myself. I wanted to use my existing logic in Makefiles for DEPLIST, deptype, etc., which is demonstrated in gmm's debian/rules file.

override_dh_gencontrol:
  printf "misc:Depends=" > debian/${APPNAME}.substvars
  make -C src deplist DISTRO=devuan DEPTYPE=dep SEPARATOR=',' | grep -vE 'make\[[0-9]' >> debian/${APPNAME}.substvars
  dh_gencontrol

I had to update d/control and d/rules. It was very easy.

diff --git a/debian/control b/debian/control
index 5dd9849..a6638af 100644
--- a/debian/control
+++ b/debian/control
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ Package: stackrpms-acer-chromebook
 Architecture: all
 Multi-Arch: foreign
 Depends: ${misc:Depends}, ${shlibs:Depends}
+Recommends: ${misc:Recommends}
 Description: Common files for Acer Chromebook platform
  Useful configs and scripts for Stackrpms Acer Chromebook
  systems
diff --git a/debian/rules b/debian/rules
index 45b851e..d07d83a 100755
--- a/debian/rules
+++ b/debian/rules
@@ -15,6 +15,8 @@ override_dh_auto_install:
 override_dh_gencontrol:
        printf "misc:Depends=" > debian/${APPNAME}.substvars
        make -C src deplist DISTRO=devuan DEPTYPE=dep SEPARATOR=',' | grep -vE 'make\[[0-9]' >> debian/${APPNAME}.substvars
+       printf "misc:Recommends=" >> debian/${APPNAME}.substvars
+       make -C src deplist DISTRO=devuan DEPTYPE=rec SEPARATOR=',' | grep -vE 'make\[[0-9]' >> debian/${APPNAME}.substvars
        dh_gencontrol

 execute_after_dh_auto_clean:

I also just had to add the relevant rec-devuan: firmware-atheros in one of the source files.

Reference 1 was all I needed, to make it so my additional contents in the substvars file got added in the correct spot in my package.

Because I'd already written the Makefile logic to parse depends, recommends, and suggests, for a given target type, this small dpkg addition can hook into that logic without a lot of extra work!

References

https://codesearch.debian.net/search?q=misc%3ARecommends&literal=1

git_1:2.51.0-1/debian/control

 perl, libcgi-pm-perl
Pre-Depends: ${misc:Pre-Depends}
Recommends: ${misc:Recommends}, libhttp-date-perl | libtime-parsedate-perl
Breaks: apache2.2-common (<< 2.3~)
Suggests: httpd-cgi | libcgi-fast-perl, git-doc

Initialize a dpkg for building

bgstack15 — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 13:38:00 GMT

I talk about debuild a lot. Sometimes I build a new package that has no dpkg recipe yet, but I have to start somewhere.

To build a suitable tarball without git archive stuff (no scm in today's case), you can run this.

debmake -p paint -u 0.0.1 -r '1+stackrpms' -z=tar.gz -t

Customize the build recipe. For quite a while now, I've been putting the install process in file src/Makefile, and my debian/rules points to that source directory. It's nice and simple, with minimal effort needed on the dpkg instructions level. I want to be flexible in case I get around to building rpms again, or change package formats. I don't see that happening, but you never know. Make is probably the lowest common denominator: Pretty much any package manager will be able to use one.

And then a nice short debuild to build the package.

Install build dependencies from source files, dpkg and rpm

bgstack15 — Sat, 08 Feb 2020 13:41:47 GMT

For a dpkg

cd $packagedir ;
mk-build-deps
sudo apt-get install ./${package}-build-deps*.deb

Source: ubuntu - Given a debian source package - How do I install the build- deps? - Server Fault

For an rpm

yum-builddep my-package.spec

dnf builddep my-package.spec

fedora - Automatically install build dependencies prior to building an RPM package - Stack Overflow/13228992#13228992

dnf install build deps

bgstack15 — Thu, 29 Nov 2018 13:42:53 GMT

If you want to build a package, but need all of its buildrequires packages, use this command:

sudo dnf builddep wxGTK3

I leave my source repositories off, so be sure to do any --enablerepo=fedora-source,updates-source as necessary.

For debian family

Try a cool tool named "mk-build-deps" as documented over at https://www.guyrutenberg.com/2017/09/23/use-mk-build-deps-instead-of-apt-get- build-dep/

References

Weblinks

Automatically install build dependencies prior to building an RPM package [stackoverflow.com]

xfe spec Fedora 26 with proper build dependencies

bgstack15 — Sat, 25 Nov 2017 13:57:13 GMT

See the spec file at https://gist.github.com/bgstack15/ec1677daa1d19a9e1f5124068619e813. The wonderful X File Explorer does not properly describe what is needed to compile it. So here is my research to help anyone else trying to compile it on Fedora 26.

dnf install rpm-build intltool fox-devel glib-devel libpng-devel libXft-devel freetype-devel gcc-c++

https://gist.github.com/bgstack15/ec1677daa1d19a9e1f5124068619e813