DOKK / manpages / debian 10 / ubuntu-dev-tools / pbuilder-dist.1.en
PBUILDER-DIST(1) General Commands Manual PBUILDER-DIST(1)

pbuilder-dist, cowbuilder-dist - multi-distribution pbuilder/cowbuilder wrapper

pbuilder-dist distribution [architecture] operation [options] [...]

cowbuilder-dist distribution [architecture] operation [options] [...]

pbuilder-dist is a wrapper that makes it easy to use pbuilder with many different versions of Ubuntu and/or Debian.

It is common to symlink this script in order to give it many names in the form of pbuilder-distribution or pbuilder-distribution-architecture, like for example pbuilder-feisty, pbuilder-sid, pbuilder-gutsy-i386, etc.

The same applies to cowbuilder-dist, which uses cowbuilder. The main difference between both is that pbuilder compresses the created chroot as a a tarball, thus using less disc space but needing to uncompress (and possibly compress) its contents again on each run, and cowbuilder doesn't do this.

There are many arguments listed on the synopsis; each of them, if used, has to be used exactly in the same order as it appears there. In case you renamed the script to pbuilder-distribution, do not use the distribution parameter; same with i386 / amd64 if the name also contains -architecture.

Replace this with the codename of the version of Ubuntu or Debian you want to use.
This optional parameter will attempt to construct a chroot in a foreign architecture. For some architecture pairs (e.g. i386 on an amd64 install), the chroot will be created natively. For others (e.g. armel on an i386 install), qemu-user-static will be used. Note that some combinations (e.g. amd64 on an i386 install) require special separate kernel handling, and may break in unexpected ways.
Replace this with the action you want pbuilder to do (create, update, build, clean, login or execute). If you don't specify any action, but the next argument is a .dsc file, it will assume that it should build. Check its manpage for more details.
[...]

Replace this with other parameters, if needed. For example, if build is the option, you will need to also specify a .dsc file. As a special feature, if you specify a .dsc file you can skip the build option and this script will automatically assume that building is the action you want to do.

If you specify this option, only packages from the main (in Debian) or main and restricted (in Ubuntu) components will be used. By default, all official components are enabled. This only has effect when creating a new environment.
The generated pbuilder/cowbuilder command will be printed to the standard output instead of being executed. This is useful for debugging.
If this option is specified, the resultant files of the pbuilder build are placed in DIRECTORY.
Only use the release pocket. Default for development releases.
Only use the release and security pockets. Suitable environment for preparing security updates.
Only use the release, security, and updates pocket. Not the proposed-updates pocket.
Also use the backports archive..

Creates a pbuilder environment for Ubuntu Gutsy, with all components enabled.
Creates a pbuilder environment for Debian Sid, with only the main component.
Builds the specified package on an already existing Ubuntu Feisty environment.
Same as above, but stores pbuilder's output on a file.
Updates an existing i386-architecture Debian Etch environment on an amd64 system.
Creates a cowbuilder environment for Debian Experimental.

By default, pbuilder-dist will store all the files it generates in ~/pbuilder/. This can be changed by setting the PBUILDFOLDER environment variable. If the directory doesn't exist, it will be created on the run.

A file with the log of the last operation, called last_operation.log, will be saved in the results subdirectory of each build environment.

The default authentication method is sudo. You can change this by setting the PBUILDAUTH variable.

By default, pbuilder-dist use the master Debian and Ubuntu mirrors. The pbuilder MIRRORSITE and OTHERMIRROR variables are supported, as are the standard ubuntu-dev-tools variables: UBUNTUTOOLS_DEBIAN_MIRROR, PBUILDER_DIST_DEBIAN_MIRROR, UBUNTUTOOLS_DEBSEC_MIRROR, PBUILDER_DIST_DEBSEC_MIRROR, UBUNTUTOOLS_UBUNTU_MIRROR, PBUILDER_DIST_UBUNTU, UBUNTUTOOLS_UBUNTU_PORTS_MIRROR, and PBUILDER_DIST_UBUNTU_PORTS_MIRROR. See ubuntu-dev-tools (5) for details.

You may also want to know that pbuilder-dist exports DIST and ARCH environment variables to the invoked process, containing the name of the distribution and the architecture targeted by the current build. You can make use of them, for example, in pbuilderrc.

If you experience any problem with this script contact me on rainct@ubuntu.com or file a bug at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-dev-tools.

Please ensure first that the problem is really this script and not an issue with pbuilder or cowbuilder themselves.

pbuilder(1), pbuilderrc(5), cowbuilder(1), ubuntu-dev-tools(5).

pbuilder-dist and this manual page were written by Siegfried-A. Gevatter <rainct@ubuntu.com>, with contributions from Iain Lane <iain@orangesquash.org.uk>, Emmet Hikory <persia@ubuntu.com> and others.

pbuilder-dist is released under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or later.

January 10, 2008 ubuntu-dev-tools