Chapter C. Source packages (from old Packaging Manual)

117

C.2.5

debian/tmp

This is the canonical temporary location for the construction of binary packages by the

binary

target. The directory

tmp

serves as the root of the file system tree as it is being constructed (for

example, by using the package's upstream makefiles install targets and redirecting the output

there), and it also contains the

DEBIAN

subdirectory. See `Creating package files  

dpkg deb

'

on page

107

.

If several binary packages are generated from the same source tree it is usual to use several

debian/tmp

something

directories, for example

tmp a

or

tmp doc

.

Whatever

tmp

directories are created and used by

binary

must of course be removed by the

clean

target.

C.3 Source packages as archives

As it exists on the FTP site, a Debian source package consists of three related files. You must

have the right versions of all three to be able to use them.

Debian source control file  

.dsc

This file is a control file used by

dpkg source

to extract a

source package. See `Debian source control files  

.dsc

' on page

29

.

Original source archive  

package

_

upstream version

.orig.tar.gz

This is a com 

pressed (with

gzip  9

)

tar

file containing the source code from the upstream authors

of the program.

Debianisation diff  

package

_

upstream_version revision

.diff.gz

This is a unified

context diff (

diff  u

) giving the changes which are required to turn the original source

into the Debian source. These changes may only include editing and creating plain files.

The permissions of files, the targets of symbolic links and the characteristics of special

files or pipes may not be changed and no files may be removed or renamed.

All the directories in the diff must exist, except the

debian

subdirectory of the top of the

source tree, which will be created by

dpkg source

if necessary when unpacking.

The

dpkg source

program will automatically make the

debian/rules

file executable

(see below).

If there is no original source code   for example, if the package is specially prepared for Debian

or the Debian maintainer is the same as the upstream maintainer   the format is slightly differ 

ent: then there is no diff, and the tarfile is named

package

_

version

.tar.gz

, and preferably

contains a directory named

package

version

.

C.4 Unpacking a Debian source package without

dpkg source

dpkg source  x

is the recommended way to unpack a Debian source package. However, if

it is not available it is possible to unpack a Debian source archive as follows: