Rebuilding Debian packages using apt

This backend is incomplete and has assumptions about the implementation - specifically, it disables Secure Apt when installing dependencies, this makes this backend only suitable for local, internal, build systems where the resulting packages are not uploaded to a public repository.

Automatic rebuilds of packages in Debian

Debian posts all package changes to the debian-devel-changes mailing list: https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-changes/

A particular email address can then be subscribed to this list and forward the emails (which all contain a .changes file for the package concerned) to the changes-debian hook. This will send a message to the controller at the specified location with enough information to rebuild the specified package in the relevant suite and upload it.

For example, this can be used to automatically rebuild Debian packages as soon as the package arrives in the archive. Note that there will be a delay before the package itself becomes available on your current mirror, so your list of "waiting" packages will get quite long.

The changes-debian hook operates via STDIN. The expected interface is that procmail forwards each email to the hook. The hook is written in perl and can be extended to not send a curl message for particular suites, package names or other filters.

local rebuilds

An alternative use of the same support is to pass a .changes file at the changes-debian hook whenever a local package is built - this allows PyBit to build the package ahead of the commit.

The changes-debian hook also allows for rebuilds of packages not currently in a VCS configured to use PyBit upon commit.

Note: this could allow developers to put packages into repositories before the package is ready, so it is as well to be aware of this and decide whether the changes hook will be available.

If local changes have a different suite to production builds, this could itself be useful - it depends how PyBit is setup / used.