PYTHON-MKDEBIAN(1)

💖 PYTHON-MKDEBIAN 💖

okay bestie, so you know how the manual calls this PYTHON-MKDEBIAN(1) and files it under User Commands? Yeah. It's a little command-line cutie and she's about to change your whole packaging life. Sit down, grab a strawberry 🍓, and let's get into it.

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✨ NAME ✨

python-mkdebian — the girl who generates a suitable Debian source package for a standard distutils application. no cap. she does the boring Debian Policy homework so you don't have to. 💅

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

python-mkdebian [options]

that's it. that's the whole vibe. you pass her some options and she goes to work.

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

So here's the tea. This script generates a reasonably Debian Policy compliant Debian source package for a Python application — but only if that application uses distutils properly. Like, correctly correctly. She's picky, but in a fair way.

She assumes there are no public Python modules, and she generates just a single application binary package. One package. One icon. Main character energy. 👑

Where does she get her info? From the .egg-info file that setup.py generates. She pulls out:

• author
• project name
• description
• version
• upstream source
• license
• required and provided Python modules — and these get translated to Debian python library package names and automatically added as package dependencies. yes bestie, auto-deps. obsessed. 😭✨

She also generates a simple cdbs/python-support rules file.

💡 Real talk: python-mkdebian was designed to be used with the DistUtilsExtra.auto module, which calculates required Python dependencies automatically. That's her ideal collab.

But — and this is important — she makes no explicit assumptions about DistUtilsExtra. So if your setup.py has complete information, she will work with any distutils setup. She's flexible like that. 🧚

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

okay this is the good part. the flags. let's go one by one, no skipping, we don't do that here.

• --force-control=FORCE_CONTROL — Force control file behaviour. She accepts exactly one of these three values:
  • none — keep the control file unchanged
  • deps — only update dependencies
  • full — recreate the whole file

And the default? It's deps, so by default only dependencies get updated. lowkey the safest option, highkey the smartest one.

• --force-copyright — Force the whole copyright file to be recreated. By default she will not touch an already existing copyright file, so that you can customize it. she respects your edits, periodt. 🫶
• --force-rules — Force the whole rules file to be recreated. Same deal: by default she will not touch an already existing rules file, so you can customize it. your rules, your world. ✨
• --changelog=CHANGELOG — Add a changelog entry to debian/changelog. And yes, you can specify this multiple times. stack 'em up. 📚
• --dependency=PACKAGENAME — Add an additional Debian package dependency. Also can be specified multiple times. more deps, more love. 💜
• --prefix=PREFIX — Ask for installing all your modules in the dedicated PREFIX. The default is /usr. classic. iconic. 💫
• --version — Show the program's version number and exit. short, sweet, informative.
• -h, --help — Show this help message and exit. when in doubt, ask for help, bestie. no shame in it. 🙈

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• Python help for the distutils module — go read it, iykyk 📖

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

python-mkdebian is developed by Martin Pitt <martin.pitt@ubuntu.com>. absolute legend, we stan. 🎀

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! 🌟 this was python-mkdebian from the May 2010 release, living in the python-mkdebian section of your friendly neighbourhood User Commands manual. go forth and package responsibly. mwah. 💖🦋🌸