Automated package build-and-test tools for Debian package maintainers (was: pbuilder: The following packages have unmet dependencies)

[Ben Finney <ben+debian@benfinney.id.au>]

Charles Plessy <plessy@debian.org> writes:

> this breakage [of pbuilder] gave me a good opportunity to realise that
> sbuild has become almost as easy to use as cowbuilder.

What are the relative merits of the various automated package testing
tools, from the perspective of someone maintaining packages for Debian
using their own system resources?

That is, if I'm maintaining packages for Debian and want to build and
test them in an easy and automated manner, what tools are available
(‘pbuilder’, ‘sbuild’, ‘cowbuilder’, …) and for each of them why would I
choose that one?

-- 
 \      “If you wish to strive for peace of soul, then believe; if you |
  `\          wish to be a devotee of truth, then inquire.” —Friedrich |
_o__)                                                        Nietzsche |
Ben Finney