pbuilder

personal package builder for Debian packages

pbuilder constructs a chroot system, and builds a package inside the chroot. It is an ideal system to use to check that a package has correct build-dependencies. It uses apt extensively, and a local mirror, or a fast connection to a Debian mirror is ideal, but not necessary. "pbuilder create" uses debootstrap to create a chroot image. "pbuilder update" updates the image to the current state of testing/unstable/whatever "pbuilder build" takes a *.dsc file and builds a binary in the chroot image. pdebuild is a wrapper for Debian Developers, to allow running pbuilder just like "debuild", as a normal user.