Andrew Flegg has written a utility called Mud-Builder to help automate debian package building in Maemo. After spending a few minutes looking at it, i wrote:

... to which Andrew responded:

Today I'd like to protocol an attempt to use mud-builder to build a package of a simple SDL app called scavenger, using the mud-builder documentation as a resource. I hope it will serve to help others learn how to use mud-builder, as well as provide constructive feedback for documentation improvements.

Commands will be in normal text, mud-builder doc instructions will be in bold and my comments in italics.

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-- Loged-in to scratchbox armel target, svn is installed within the target

From the workflow:
User downloads/installs mud to his scratchbox and adds the necessary configuration to build nmap. Ideally, this would take no more than a single file containing a single line, but obviously more options are available.

Check out mud-builder/trunk from Subversion into a directory under your Scratchbox home:
[sbox-SB_Arm2: ~/Mudbuilder] > svn co https://garage.maemo.org/svn/mud-builder/trunk mud-builder
[sbox-SB_Arm2: ~/Mudbuilder] > cd mud-builder && ls
ARTISTIC AUTHORS INSTALL README TODO config.example lib mud packages upload

# Switch to your SDK_ARMEL target:
sbox-config -st SDK_ARMEL
-- but I'm already IN my armel target!

# Build the existing netcat package:
mud build netcat
-- What? There is no existing package! I just have the source tarball. You did write that it was for building from non-debian sources.

[sbox-SB_Arm2: ~/Mudbuilder] > wget http://www.xdr.com/dash/sdlscav-144.tgz
[sbox-SB_Arm2: ~/Mudbuilder/mud-builder] > tar xzvf sdlscav-144.tgz
[sbox-SB_Arm2: ~/Mudbuilder/mud-builder] > cd sdlscav-144/src/
[sbox-SB_Arm2: ~/Mudbuilder/mud-builder/sdlscav-144/src] > make && strip sdlscav
...
[sbox-SB_Arm2: ~/Mudbuilder/mud-builder/sdlscav-144/src] > ls -l sdlscav
-rwxrwxr-x 1 arnims arnims 58676 Oct 6 14:48 sdlscav

-- ok sdlscav builds fine... now what does mud-builder need to know to build it? Oh.. theres another page of docs, creating a new package. The fact that one must prepare the package wasn't mentioned in the workflow and the getting started docs. Lets do that then...

Switch to the SDK_PC target.
-- For crying out loud, WHY? I've got 12 open windows in the armel target with info and work in-progress, and i'm not bloody-well not losing all that state information just to do this next step.

# Create a file, packages/mycal.xml:

<package>
<fetch type="debian">
<name>cal</name>
</fetch>
</package>

-- Ok, created a sdlscavenger.xml with <name>sdlscavenger</name>

Extract the source to build/mycal/.build:
-- There is no build subdirectory of mud-builder. I guess I have to create one.

[sbox-SB_Arm2: ~/Mudbuilder/mud-builder] > mkdir build
[sbox-SB_Arm2: ~/Mudbuilder/mud-builder] > mkdir build/sdlscavenger
[sbox-SB_Arm2: ~/Mudbuilder/mud-builder] > mkdir build/sdlscavenger/.build
[sbox-SB_Arm2: ~/Mudbuilder/mud-builder/build/sdlscavenger/.build] > cd build/sdlscavenger/.build/
[sbox-SB_Arm2: ~/Mudbuilder/mud-builder/build/sdlscavenger/.build] > tar xzvf ../../../sdlscav-144.tgz
[sbox-SB_Arm2: ~/Mudbuilder/mud-builder/build/sdlscavenger/.build] > cd ../../..
[sbox-SB_Arm2: ~/Mudbuilder/mud-builder] >

mud get mycal
[sbox-SB_Arm2: ~/Mudbuilder/mud-builder] > mud get sdlscavenger
bash: /home/arnims/Mudbuilder/mud: No such file or directory
-- thought this might be a problem

[sbox-SB_Arm2: ~/Mudbuilder/mud-builder] > echo $PWD
/home/minra/Mudbuilder/mud-builder
[sbox-SB_Arm2: ~/Mudbuilder/mud-builder] > alias |grep mud
alias mud='/home/arnims/Mudbuilder/mud'
-- well lets reset that then

[sbox-SB_Arm2: ~/Mudbuilder/mud-builder] > alias mud=$PWD/mud
[sbox-SB_Arm2: ~/Mudbuilder/mud-builder] > alias |grep mud
alias mud='/home/minra/Mudbuilder/mud-builder/mud'

-- rerunning the command
[sbox-SB_Arm2: ~/Mudbuilder/mud-builder] > mud get sdlscavenger
Failed to run get on sdlscavenger: XMLin() requires either XML::SAX or XML::Parser at /home/minra/Mudbuilder/mud-builder/lib/MUD/Package.pm line 40
-- well i've got perl installed in the armel target - i'll just grab a perl module

[sbox-SB_Arm2: ~/Mudbuilder/mud-builder] > cpan -i XML::Parser
(answer "no" to manual configuration)

[sbox-SB_Arm2: ~/Mudbuilder/mud-builder] > mud get sdlscave
Failed to run get on sdlscavenger: XMLin() requires either XML::SAX or XML::Parser at /home/minra/Mudbuilder/mud-builder/lib/MUD/Package.pm line 40
-- Huh? Ok i'll try XML::SAX

[sbox-SB_Arm2: ~/Mudbuilder/mud-builder] > cpan -i XML::SAX
-- answer "yes" to prepend dependencies

[sbox-SB_Arm2: ~/Mudbuilder/mud-builder] > mud get sdlscavenger
.....
Reading Package Lists...
fakeroot apt-get -y -o Dir::Etc::SourceList=/home/minra/Mudbuilder/mud-builder/build/sources.list source sdlscavenger
Reading Package Lists...
Building Dependency Tree...
W: Couldn't stat source package list http://ftp.debian.org etch/main Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/ftp.debian.org_dists_etch_main_binary-armel_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory)
W: You may want to run apt-get update to correct these problems
E: Unable to find a source package for sdlscavenger
Failed to run get on sdlscavenger: Couldn't find extract directory!
at /home/minra/Mudbuilder/mud-builder/lib/MUD/Build.pm line 84

--WHAT? it's trying to get a source package for sdlscavenger? That's it for now. I'm going out for beer.
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Was this statement correct after all?
... to be continued