deb-bui...t-gather(1)

💖 NAME 💖

deb-build-artifact-gather — grab the artifacts out of a Debian package build 🎀

(this lil cutie lives in the Debian Aritfact gathering tooling manual, bestie, and yes we're gonna read it together)

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

deb-build-artifact-gather collect-into /desired/output/directory [from-chroot /path/to/chroot]

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

Okay so real talk: deb-build-artifact-gather is your standardized, no-chaos way to extract artifacts from a Debian package build. The artifacts in question? Think configure logs, test results, or even those Internal Compiler Error (ICE) logs that make you want to scream into a pillow 😭. All of it, scooped up, in one place.

And the command has a whole cast of stakeholders it talks to. Let's introduce them:

• Chroot providers — think sbuild or other build wrapping tools (like debuild). These are expected to do a lil bit of setup, then call deb-build-artifact-gather with the relevant options. That setup includes setting DEB_ARTIFACTS_EXTRACTION_IPC_DIR so the build tools and deb-build-artifact-gather have a reliable way to communicate 🫶.

Afterwards, they get handed a directory of artifacts to extract 💅. They might also need to do a bit of cleanup when deb-build-artifact-gather is called from the host system.

• Standard build tools like debhelper and debputy. These icons can drop hints to deb-build-artifact-gather in the form of variable definitions. Like, they usually know what the build-dir is?? Yeah. Gifted behavior ✨.

They interface via the DEB_ARTIFACTS_EXTRACTION_IPC_DIR.

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🎀 EXAMPLES 🎀

Minimal example of collection usage in shell for running deb-build-artifact-gather inside the chroot:

# setup chroot, install build depends and enter chroot

# Any path that is writable to the build process **inside** the chroot. It should either not exist
# or be an empty directory.
#
# "$(mktemp -d)" is a perfectly fine alternative.
DEB_ARTIFACTS_EXTRACTION_IPC_DIR="../artifact-variable-dir"
export DEB_ARTIFACTS_EXTRACTION_IPC_DIR

cd /path/to/unpacked-source-root

dpkg-buildpackage

apt-get install -y deb-build-artifact-gather
if deb-build-artifact-gather collect-into ../artifacts-from-build.tar.xz; then
    # Copy ../artifacts-from-build.tar.xz out of the chroot somehow
    rm -fr ../artifacts-from-build.tar.xz
fi

[ -e "${DEB_ARTIFACTS_EXTRACTION_IPC_DIR}"] && rm -fr "${DEB_ARTIFACTS_EXTRACTION_IPC_DIR}"

This example assumes that every command shown is run inside the chroot 🦋.

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Minimal example of collection usage in shell for running deb-build-artifact-gather outside the chroot:

# setup-chroot-dir creates the root directory, installs build depends inside it, etc.
CHROOT_DIR="$(setup-chroot-dir)"

# Any path that is writable to the build process **inside** the chroot.  It should either not exist
# or be an empty directory.
#
# If you use `mktemp -d` (or similar), then remember to run it **inside** the chroot
DEB_ARTIFACTS_EXTRACTION_IPC_DIR="../artifact-variable-dir"
export DEB_ARTIFACTS_EXTRACTION_IPC_DIR

run-in-chroot "cd /path/to/unpacked-source-root && dpkg-buildpackage"

cd /host/path/to/unpacked-source-root

if deb-build-artifact-gather collect-into ../artifacts-from-build from-chroot.tar.xz from-chroot-dir "${CHROOT_DIR} ; then
    # copy ../artifacts-from-build.tar.xz to its desired place as needed.
    rm -fr ../artifacts-from-build.tar.xz
fi

[ -e "${DEB_ARTIFACTS_EXTRACTION_IPC_DIR}"] && rm -fr "${DEB_ARTIFACTS_EXTRACTION_IPC_DIR}"

In this example, setup-chroot-dir and run-in-chroot represent the creation of the chroot and explicitly running certain commands inside the chroot. Everything else is run on the host system. 🌈

ngl bestie, if you read all the way here you're lowkey the main character of build tooling 👑

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That's the whole vibe, babe. This page is from perl v5.40.1, dated 2026-04-02, and honestly? Slay. Go collect your artifacts 💖✨🎀