                   Deb-o-Matic
Automatic build machine for Debian source packages



Introduction

This is Deb-o-Matic, an easy to use build machine for Debian-based source
packages based on pbuilder. It provides a simple tool to automate the build of
source packages with limited user interaction and a simple configuration.

It has some useful feature such as automatic update of pbuilder and automatic
scan and selection of source packages to build. It is meant to help developers
to build their packages without worrying too much of compilation, since it will
run in background and no user feedback is required during the whole process.


Requisites

These packages are required to build and install Deb-o-Matic on your system:

  * python-dev

These ones are required to execute Deb-o-Matic:

  * python
  * pbuilder
  * debootstrap

To enable additional features, you may want to install these packages:

  * python-pyinotify (>= 0.8.6)
  * gnupg
  * lintian

A Internet connection is also required, broadband access is recommended because
debootstrap will fetch several packages from the Internet to set up pbuilder
chroot environment.


Installation and removal

Installation process is straightforward, just execute these commands:

make
make install (with root privileges)

You will find debomatic executable into /usr/bin, modules into
/usr/lib/python*/site-packages/Debomatic (based on your Python version),
modules in /usr/share/debomatic/modules and related manpages into
/usr/share/man/ directory.

In order to uninstall Deb-o-Matic, you need to launch make uninstall
(again, with root privileges).


Configuration

In order to have Deb-o-Matic working, you have to prepare a configuration file
which will provide the options needed to run debomatic. You can look at
examples/debomatic.conf to see a working example.

The most important options are located under "default" section: here are some:

  * packagedir: base directory where debomatic will scan for packages to build
  * configdir: directory where pbuilder configuration files used to pass build
    options to pbuilder are stored
  * maxbuilds: maximum number of parallel builds allowed 

See debomatic.conf man page for a complete list of the available options.

Once main configuration file is complete, you must create the directories
referenced by packagedir and configdir, where you will put pbuilder
configuration files. Working examples are located into examples directory.
Names must match target distribution you want to build packages for (e.g. if
you want to build a package for Jaunty, pbuilder configuration filename must be
jaunty). They should be the same as the ones provided by debootstrap.

See pbuilderrc man page for a complete list of the available options.


Running Deb-o-Matic

To start Deb-o-Matic, you have to launch debomatic -c debomatic.conf command
(where debomatic.conf is your main configuration file). You need root
privileges to do so because of pbuilder infrastructure. This will start
debomatic in daemon mode, use -n switch to avoid this.

Now you can put source packages in the chosen package directory (identified by
packagedir option) and Deb-o-Matic will take care of the building phase.
Deb-o-Matic requires .changes files, be sure to generate a full Debian source
package by using a command such as dpkg-buildpackage -S -sa. You have to upload
.changes file and each file mentioned under its Files section. You may want to
use software like dput to automate the process.
A source upload is required, other type of .changes files could not be parsed
correctly leading to a ignored build.

GPG support

Deb-o-Matic support GPG-signed source packages to allow build for authorized
people only. To enable GPG support, you need to set options in "gpg" section in
main configuration file. Only packages signed with keys present in keyring
pointed by the correspondent option will be processed, unknown packages will be
deleted automatically.

Advice on how to prepare source packages

Deb-o-Matic can fetch .orig.tar.gz files automatically if already available on
main distribution archive (e.g. http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu), so you can
choose not to include .orig.tar.gz sometimes. You always need to include it in
case of new upstream version or new packages.


Modules

Deb-o-Matic provides modules support. Modules are Python scripts pluggable at
runtime which extend Deb-o-Matic features. Available modules are stored into
modules directory. An example module can be found into examples directory,
useful to write your own Deb-o-Matic module.


Bugs and feedback

If you want to report a bug or a feature, please visit Deb-o-Matic homepage at
https://launchpad.net/debomatic.
