How to build the package - for CI systems, etc 1 - install all the build-dependencies as listed in the debian/control file. From the repo top-level directory: apt-get install `dpkg-checkbuilddeps |& sed "s/dpkg-checkbuilddeps: Unmet build dependencies://g"` 2 - run debuild (the flags will avoid signing the built packages): From the repo top-level directory: debuild -uc -us *************** quilt patches format Note that we use the dquilt format for patches as outlined on Debian's wiki: https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/maint-guide/modify.en.html#quiltrc Please consider using the same format to avoid excessive churn when adding or refreshing patches. Add the following to your ~/.bashrc (or equivalent): alias dquilt="quilt --quiltrc=${HOME}/.quiltrc-dpkg" complete -F _quilt_completion $_quilt_complete_opt dquilt And then create a new ~/.quiltrc-dpkg file with content: d=. ; while [ ! -d $d/debian -a `readlink -e $d` != / ]; do d=$d/..; done if [ -d $d/debian ] && [ -z $QUILT_PATCHES ]; then # if in Debian packaging tree with unset $QUILT_PATCHES QUILT_PATCHES="debian/patches" QUILT_PATCH_OPTS="--reject-format=unified" QUILT_DIFF_ARGS="-p ab --no-timestamps --no-index --color=auto" QUILT_REFRESH_ARGS="-p ab --no-timestamps --no-index" QUILT_COLORS="diff_hdr=1;32:diff_add=1;34:diff_rem=1;31:diff_hunk=1;33:diff_ctx=35:diff_cctx=33" if ! [ -d $d/debian/patches ]; then mkdir $d/debian/patches; fi fi Open a new terminal or souce ~/.bashrc, and then you will be able to use dquilt.