CDBS

CDBS is a system that greatly aids in the creation of Debian packages, 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. Recent versions of dh_make can generate CDBS "rules" files.

The need

Several files are necessary for the creation of a debian package. 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 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.

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.

ee also

*debhelper
*Debian build toolchain

External links

* [http://alioth.debian.org/projects/build-common/ CDBS alioth homepage]