MK-BUILD-DEPS(1)

💖 MK-BUILD-DEPS 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the manual page for mk-build-deps — that's the mk-build-deps(1) situation, a lil Debian Utilities icon, and she is here to serve 💅

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✨ NAME ✨

mk-build-deps — build a package that satisfies a package's build-dependencies 🫶

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

mk-build-deps --help|--version

mk-build-deps [options] control file | package name ...

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so like. you hand her a package name and/or a control file, and mk-build-deps will use equivs to generate a binary package that you can install to satisfy all the build dependencies of that package. that's the whole gig. slay ✨

and if you pass --build-dep and/or --build-indep, then the resulting binary package(s) will depend solely on the Build-Depends / Build-Depends-Indep dependencies respectively. no extras, no add-ons, just the vibes you asked for 💖

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

• -i, --install — installs the generated packages and the build-dependencies that come with them. the full package deal 🎀
• -t, --tool — when installing the generated package, use the tool you specify here. the default is apt-get -o Debug::pkgProblemResolver=yes --no-install-recommends — yes girl, that's literally the default, memorize it 😭
• -r, --remove — removes the package file after installing it. ngl this one gets ignored if you use it without the --install switch, so don't be surprised 🙈
• -a foo, --arch foo — sets the architecture of the produced binary package to foo. here's the little flowchart bestie: if you don't give this option, she falls back to the value given by --host-arch. if you give neither this option nor --host-arch, but the Build-Depends contain architecture restrictions, she uses the value printed by dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_ARCH. otherwise? she uses all.

The package architecture must be equal to the host architecture, except if the package architecture is all.

The package architecture cannot be all if the build and host architecture differ. periodt.

• --host-arch foo — sets the host architecture the binary package is built for. this defaults to whatever dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_ARCH prints out. use this option when you wanna create a binary package that's able to satisfy crossbuild dependencies 👑

If you use this option together with --arch, then the two must be equal — except if the value of --arch is all.

And if --arch is not given, then this option also sets the package architecture. multitasking icon ✨

• --build-arch foo — sets the build architecture the binary package is built for. this defaults to the value printed by dpkg-architecture -qDEB_BUILD_ARCH. again, this is for making a binary package that can satisfy crossbuild dependencies 💪
• -B, --build-dep — generates a package that only depends on the source package's Build-Depends dependencies. just those ones 💖
• -A, --build-indep — generates a package that only depends on the source package's Build-Depends-Indep dependencies. the independent lil sibling 🌸
• -P, --build-profiles profile[,...] — generates a package that only depends on build dependencies with the build profile(s), given as a comma-separated list. the default behavior is to use no specific profile at all. and heads up: setting this option overrides the DEB_BUILD_PROFILES environment variable 🔥
• -h, --help — shows a summary of options. your little map 🗺️
• -v, --version — shows version and copyright information. the receipts 🧾
• -s, --root-cmd — uses the specified tool to gain root privileges before installing. ignored if you use it without the --install switch. so yeah, needs her buddy --install to actually do anything 🙈

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🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

🔮 External environment 🔮

• DEB_BUILD_PROFILES — if this is set, it will be used as the active build profile(s) for the build dependencies to be installed. it's a space separated list of profile names. and it gets overridden by the -P option, so -P always wins that argument 💅

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

mk-build-deps is copyright by Vincent Fourmond, and was modified for the devscripts package by Adam D. Barratt <adam@adam-barratt.org.uk>. give them their flowers 💐

This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. You are free to redistribute this code under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2 or later. read that again bestie, ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, no cap 😭

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okay that's the whole page, you ate this 🍓 and just so you know where this all came from: Debian Utilities, dated 2026-09-21 — bye bestie, go build something gorgeous 💜✨