Re: Building a build environment

[Andreas Schildbach <andreas@schildbach.de>]

Hi Richard,

> I am just getting started in Debian package building and I need to  
> know if this idea is valid or if there is a better way.  It's my  
> understanding that building Debian packages is best done in a Sid  
> environment.  Since I'm not running Sid on any of my machines, I had  
> the though of using VirtualBox on my Ubuntu machine to create a clean  
> Sid build environment.  Does this make sense?

I was in the same situation as you just some days ago (see messages
around 2008-07-22). I was recommended using a chroot for development.
Ubuntu and Debian are close enough for it to work nearly painlessly.

A good tool to initialize the chroot is "debootstrap". And to actually
use the chroot, "schroot" is useful.

This is not to say that your VirtualBox idea is not a good one. Maybe
"User-Mode Linux" would be even more appropriate. However, let us know
how it works out if you try.

Best regards,

Andreas