Debian Directory

Mysterious.

Chapter 5: https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/maint-guide/dother.en.html

Chapter 6: https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/maint-guide/build.en.html

Here's what you do:

Start by installing debhelper:

apt-get install debhelper dh-make

Now go to the directory level where the debian/ directory is located. ls debian should show you the contents of the debian directory (source, rules, etc.).

Now run the command to build the debian package (.deb file):

dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc

Dunno... not working...

$ dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc
dpkg-buildpackage: info: source package recon-ng
dpkg-buildpackage: info: source version 1.41-1kali1
dpkg-buildpackage: info: source distribution kali
dpkg-buildpackage: info: source changed by Mati Aharoni <muts@kali.org>
dpkg-buildpackage: info: host architecture amd64
 dpkg-source --before-build recon-ng
 fakeroot debian/rules clean
dh clean 
dh: Compatibility levels before 9 are deprecated (level 8 in use)
   dh_testdir
   dh_auto_clean
dh_auto_clean: Compatibility levels before 9 are deprecated (level 8 in use)
   dh_clean
dh_clean: Compatibility levels before 9 are deprecated (level 8 in use)
 dpkg-source -b recon-ng
dpkg-source: error: can't build with source format '3.0 (quilt)': no upstream tarball found at ../recon-ng_1.41.orig.tar.{bz2,gz,lzma,xz}
dpkg-buildpackage: error: dpkg-source -b recon-ng gave error exit status 255

can't figure this out...

sudo apt-get install git-buildpackage

Ooooookay, solution is:

dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc -b

via man page, the -b with an empty string will build a Debian package. That means, it DOES NOT need a tar gz file.

Build options (with -b):

If a second non-option argument is supplied it should be the name of the original source directory or tarfile or the empty string if the package is a Debian-specific one and so has no Debianisation diffs. If no second argument is supplied then dpkg-source will look for the original source tarfile package_upstream-version.orig.tar.gz or the original source directory directory.orig depending on the -sX arguments. 
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