Given a debian source package - How do I install the build-deps?

Solution 1:

Use mk-build-deps which is part of devscripts.

Solution 2:

Here is an example workflow using ptman's suggestion.

Assuming you have downloaded the .dsc file, the .orig.*z file, and maybe also a .debian.*z file, then unpack the source package with:

dpkg-source -x [package_name]_[package_version].dsc

Move into the extracted source folder and run:

sudo mk-build-deps -i

This will create the file [package_name]-build-deps_[version].deb and install it, and also install all the dependencies it suggests.

Now you should be able to build your package from source:

debuild

When you are finished, you can easily remove the dependencies that were pulled in, by removing the build-deps package which you generated:

sudo apt-get purge --auto-remove [package_name]-build-deps

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Solution 3:

Actually I can use dpkg-checkbuilddeps which shows the build dependencies. That gets me 99% of what I need

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Solution 4:

I usually use debuild from devscripts to build packages, and if relevent it prints a line of the missing build-deps.

The "proper" way is to use pbuilder or similar which will build the package in a minimal chroot, and just install any additional build-deps as specified by the package, this also removes a bunch of other potential issues (local installations of non-packaged libraries for example).