Getting Started

Installation

Pip

pip install debmagic

or directly use uv

uvx debmagic

Debian / Ubuntu - Soon (tm)

apt install debmagic

Example debian/rules.py

Python debian/rules.py equivalent of Ubuntu 24.04 htop:

#!/usr/bin/env python3

from debmagic.v0 import Build, autotools, dh, package

pkg = package(
    preset=[dh],
    maint_options="hardening=+all",
)

if pkg.buildflags.DEB_HOST_ARCH_OS == "linux":
    configure_params = ["--enable-affinity", "--enable-delayacct"]
else:
    configure_params = ["--enable-hwloc"]

# hurd-i386 can open /proc (nothing there) and /proc/ which works
if pkg.buildflags.DEB_HOST_ARCH_OS == "hurd":
    configure_params += ["--with-proc=/proc/"]
else:
    configure_params += ["--enable-sensors"]


@pkg.stage
def configure(build: Build):
    autotools.configure(
        build,
        ["--enable-openvz", "--enable-vserver", "--enable-unicode", *configure_params],
    )

pkg.pack()

debhelper compatibility

Debmagic can use dh and provides dh overrides as common in debian/rules Makefiles:

from debmagic.v0 import dh

# specify dh arguments:
dhp = dh.Preset("--with=python3 --builddirectory=build")
pkg = package(preset=dhp)

# define optional overrides:
@dhp.override
def dh_auto_install(build: Build):
    print("dh override worked :)")
    build.cmd("dh_auto_install --max-parallel=1")

pkg.pack()

Custom functions

To add custom functions directly usable from CLI (like custom debian/rules targets for maintainers):

pkg = package(...)

@pkg.custom_function
def something_custom(some_param: int, another_param: str = "some default"):
    print(f"you passed {some_param=} {another_param=}")

pkg.pack()

This function can be directly called with:

./debian/rules.py something-custom --another-param=test 1337

you passed some_param=test another_param=1337

And generates automatic help for:

./debian/rules.py something-custom --help