CDBS

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CDBS is a system that greatly aids in the creation of dpkg's, which are software packages that make the installation of software much easier on Debian GNU/Linux and its derivatives. CDBS is an acronym for Common Debian Build System. The latest version of dh make can generate CDBS rules files.

[edit] The need

Several files are necessary for the creation of a dpkg. One such file, the rules file, is a makefile that contains rules for creating a dpkg. The rules file performs several tasks, such as compiling the software, installing the into a temporary directory, building the dpkg from the temporary installed software, and cleaning up the temporary files that it created. Naturally, this can take a lot of code to accomplish, but much of the code will be duplicated among rules files, even if debhelper is used. This decreases readability of the rules files and makes them more difficult to maintain.

[edit] How it works

CDBS has makefile snippets that can be included in a Makefile. These snippets implement actions that usually would need to be typed directly into the rules file. If need be, these rules can be extended using double colon rules. This greatly reduces the size of rules files. For example, a typical rules file that uses only debhelper to automate frequently done tasks can be over 80 lines. Using CDBS, the rules file can be rewritten to be only 5 lines.