mk-build-deps: create a dummy package depending on a package's build-deps

When I work on a package, I often find that I want to have build-deps installed in a way that I remember why I did install them in the first place. apt-get build-dep is not a proper solution for me for two reasons:

  • It marks the packages as automatically installed (at least, last time I checked, it did), which does not play nice with aptitude, who wants to remove them immediately. Marking them manually installed would not be a solution either (since I would not remember why I did install them).
  • It does not work for package whose build-deps changed since the last upload (or that were never uploaded).

As I'm starting to work on vegastrike, who's in great need of tender care, I though time had to find a more decent solution. The answer is mk-build-deps, a small Perl script that takes a control file or a package name and uses equivs to create a dummy package depending on its build-deps. Pretty useful (for me at least). Maybe it would be worth including in the devscipts package ?

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