Chapter 4. Source packages

24

The

build

target must not do anything that might require root privilege.

The

build

target may need to run the

clean

target first   see below.

When a package has a configuration and build routine which takes a long time, or when

the makefiles are poorly designed, or when

build

needs to run

clean

first, it is a

good idea to

touch build

when the build process is complete. This will ensure that

if

debian/rules build

is run again it will not rebuild the whole program.

13

build arch

(optional),

build indep

(optional) A package may also provide both of the

targets

build arch

and

build indep

. The

build arch

target, if provided, should

perform all the configuration and compilation required for producing all architecture 

dependant binary packages (those packages for which the body of the

Architecture

field in

debian/control

is not

all

). Similarly, the

build indep

target, if pro 

vided, should perform all the configuration and compilation required for producing all

architecture independent binary packages (those packages for which the body of the

Architecture

field in

debian/control

is

all

). The

build

target should depend

on those of the targets

build arch

and

build indep

that are provided in the rules

file.

If one or both of the targets

build arch

and

build indep

are not provided, then

invoking

debian/rules

with one of the not provided targets as arguments should pro 

duce a exit status code of 2. Usually this is provided automatically by make if the target

is missing.

The

build arch

and

build indep

targets must not do anything that might require

root privilege.

binary

,

binary arch

,

binary indep

The

binary

target must be all that is necessary for

the user to build the binary package(s) produced from this source package. It is split into

two parts:

binary arch

builds the binary packages which are specific to a particular

architecture, and

binary indep

builds those which are not.

binary

may be (and commonly is) a target with no commands which simply depends

on

binary arch

and

binary indep

.

Both

binary *

targets should depend on the

build

target, or on the appropriate

build arch

or

build indep

target, if provided, so that the package is built if it

has not been already.

It should then create the relevant binary package(s), using

dpkg gencontrol

to make their control files and

dpkg deb

to build them and place

them in the parent of the top level directory.

Both the

binary arch

and

binary indep

targets must exist. If one of them has noth 

ing to do (which will always be the case if the source generates only a single binary

package, whether architecture dependent or not), it must still exist and must always suc 

ceed.

13

Another common way to do this is for

build

to depend on

build stamp

and to do nothing else, and for the

build stamp

target to do the building and to

touch build stamp

on completion. This is especially useful if

the build routine creates a file or directory called

build

; in such a case,

build

will need to be listed as a phony

target (i.e., as a dependency of the

.PHONY

target). See the documentation of

make

for more information on phony

targets.