I created a very simple C project and want to build a debian package from it.
Manually building the C project via the Makefile works as expected, it build the binary and can be installed in /usr/local/bin. When trying to build a debian packages however it fails with
dh_usrlocal: error: debian/myhelloworld/usr/local/bin/myhelloworld is not a directory
The Makefile looks like this:
prefix = /usr/local/bin
all: src/myhelloworld
src/hello: src/myhelloworld.c
@echo "CFLAGS=$(CFLAGS)" | \
fold -s -w 70 | \
sed -e 's/^/# /'
$(CC) $(CPPFLAGS) $(CFLAGS) $(LDCFLAGS) -o $@ $^
install: src/myhelloworld
install -D src/myhelloworld \
$(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/myhelloworld
clean:
-rm -f src/myhelloworld
distclean: clean
uninstall:
-rm -f $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/myhelloworld
.PHONY: all install clean distclean uninstall
The debian directory is created with debmake and i use debuild for building.
The project structure looks like:
.
├── debian
│ ├── changelog
│ ├── control
│ ├── copyright
│ ├── debhelper-build-stamp
│ ├── files
│ ├── myhelloworld
│ │ ├── DEBIAN
│ │ │ ├── control
│ │ │ └── md5sums
│ │ └── usr
│ │ ├── myhelloworld
│ │ └── share
│ │ └── doc
│ │ └── myhelloworld
│ │ ├── changelog.Debian.gz
│ │ ├── copyright
│ │ └── README.Debian
│ ├── myhelloworld.debhelper.log
│ ├── myhelloworld.substvars
│ ├── patches
│ │ └── series
│ ├── README.Debian
│ ├── rules
│ ├── source
│ │ ├── format
│ │ └── local-options
│ └── watch
├── LICENSE
├── Makefile
└── src
├── myhelloworld
└── myhelloworld.c
I have tried to change the default debian/rules file to override the dh_auto_install so it looks like:
%:
dh $@
override_dh_auto_install:
dh_auto_install -- prefix=/usr/local/bin
This fails too.
I did check that the binary does exist in debian/myhelloworld/usr/local/bin.
I tried to change the prefix to just /usr/bin. This makes it possible to successfully build the package, but the containing binary is now installed in /usr/bin.
From the error message it seems like debuild expects the myhelloworld to be a directory, but this is the binary.
So why is debuild failing on my /usr/local/bin as destination.
Build log:
ep@ep-xps:~/sandbox/myhelloworld-1.0$ debuild
dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc -ui
dpkg-buildpackage: info: source package myhelloworld
dpkg-buildpackage: info: source version 1.0-1
dpkg-buildpackage: info: source distribution UNRELEASED
dpkg-buildpackage: info: source changed by Erik <>
dpkg-source --before-build .
dpkg-buildpackage: info: host architecture amd64
fakeroot debian/rules clean
dh clean
dh_auto_clean
make -j12 distclean
make[1]: Entering directory '/home/ep/sandbox/myhelloworld-1.0'
rm -f src/myhelloworld
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/ep/sandbox/myhelloworld-1.0'
dh_clean
dpkg-source -b .
dpkg-source: warning: no source format specified in debian/source/format, see dpkg-source(1)
dpkg-source: info: using source format '1.0'
dpkg-source: info: building myhelloworld using existing myhelloworld_1.0.orig.tar.gz
dpkg-source: info: building myhelloworld in myhelloworld_1.0-1.diff.gz
dpkg-source: warning: newly created empty file 'LICENSE' will not be represented in diff
dpkg-source: warning: the diff modifies the following upstream files:
Makefile
src/myhelloworld.c
dpkg-source: info: use the '3.0 (quilt)' format to have separate and documented changes to upstream files, see dpkg-source(1)
dpkg-source: info: building myhelloworld in myhelloworld_1.0-1.dsc
debian/rules build
dh build
dh_update_autotools_config
dh_autoreconf
dh_auto_configure
dh_auto_build
make -j12 "INSTALL=install --strip-program=true"
make[1]: Entering directory '/home/ep/sandbox/myhelloworld-1.0'
cc -g -O2 -ffile-prefix-map=/home/ep/sandbox/myhelloworld-1.0=. -flto=auto -ffat-lto-objects -flto=auto -ffat-lto-objects -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions -flto=auto -ffat-lto-objects -flto=auto -Wl,-z,relro src/myhelloworld.c -o src/myhelloworld
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/ep/sandbox/myhelloworld-1.0'
dh_auto_test
create-stamp debian/debhelper-build-stamp
fakeroot debian/rules binary
dh binary
dh_testroot
dh_prep
debian/rules override_dh_auto_install
make[1]: Entering directory '/home/ep/sandbox/myhelloworld-1.0'
dh_auto_install -- prefix=/usr/local/bin
make -j12 install DESTDIR=/home/ep/sandbox/myhelloworld-1.0/debian/myhelloworld AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR=no "INSTALL=install --strip-program=true" prefix=/usr/local/bin
make[2]: Entering directory '/home/ep/sandbox/myhelloworld-1.0'
install -D src/myhelloworld \
/home/ep/sandbox/myhelloworld-1.0/debian/myhelloworld/usr/local/bin/myhelloworld
make[2]: Leaving directory '/home/ep/sandbox/myhelloworld-1.0'
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/ep/sandbox/myhelloworld-1.0'
dh_installdocs
dh_installchangelogs
dh_perl
dh_usrlocal
dh_usrlocal: error: debian/myhelloworld/usr/local/bin/myhelloworld is not a directory
make: *** [debian/rules:9: binary] Error 25
dpkg-buildpackage: error: fakeroot debian/rules binary subprocess returned exit status 2
debuild: fatal error at line 1182:
dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc -ui failed
