If you find a new autogenerated patch file such as debian-changes-* in the debian/patches directory after building your non-native Debian package in 3.0 (quilt) format, chances are you changed some files by accident or the build script modified the upstream source. If it is your mistake, fix it. If it is caused by the build script, fix the root cause with dh-autoreconf as in 節 4.4.3, “定製 rules 檔案” or work around it with source/options as in 節 5.25, “source/options”.

You must test your package for whether it installs without problem. The debi(1) command helps you to test installing all the generated binary packages.

$ sudo debi gentoo_0.9.12-1_i386.changes

To prevent installation problem on different systems, you must make sure that there are no filenames conflicting with other existing packages, using the Contents-i386 file downloaded from the Debian archive. The apt-file command may be handy for this task. If there are collisions, please take action to avoid this real problem, whether by renaming the file, moving a common file to a separate package that multiple packages can depend on, using the alternatives mechanism (see update-alternatives(1)) in coordination with the maintainers of other affected packages, or declaring a Conflicts relationship in the debian/control file.

All maintainer scripts (that is, preinst, prerm, postinst, and postrm files) are hard to write correctly unless they are auto-generated by the debhelper programs. So do not use them if you are a novice maintainer (see 節 5.19, “{pre,post}{inst,rm}”).

If the package makes use of these non-trivial maintainer scripts, be sure to test not only for install but also for remove, purge, and upgrade processes. Many maintainer script bugs show up when packages are removed or purged. Use the dpkg command as follows to test them.

$ sudo dpkg -r gentoo
$ sudo dpkg -P gentoo
$ sudo dpkg -i gentoo_version-revision_i386.deb

整個測試過程應按照以下序列操作：

如果這是你的第一個套件，你應該使用其他版本號創建一個測試用的套件來完成升級測試，這樣可以避免將來的問題。

請牢記如果你的套件已經在以往版本的 Debian 中發佈，人們通常會從最近發佈的 Debian 發佈裏的版本升級，所以也要測試從那個版本升級到當前的版本。

Although downgrading is not officially supported, supporting it is a friendly gesture.

使用 lintian(1) 檢査你的 .changes 檔案。lintian 命令會運行很多測試腳本來檢査常見的打包錯誤。^[77]

$ lintian -i -I --show-overrides gentoo_0.9.12-1_i386.changes

Of course, replace the filename with the name of the .changes file generated for your package. The output of the lintian command uses the following flags.

When you see warnings, tune the package to avoid them or verify that the warnings are spurious. If spurious, set up lintian-overrides files as described in 節 5.14, “{package.,source/}lintian-overrides”.

Note that you can build the package with dpkg-buildpackage and run lintian on it in one command, if you use debuild(1) or pdebuild(1).

You can list files in the binary Debian package with the debc(1) command.

$ debc package.changes

你可以使用 debdiff(1) 命令比較兩個 Debian 原始碼套件的內容。

$ debdiff old-package.dsc new-package.dsc

你還可以使用 debdiff(1) 命令比較兩個 Debian 二進位套件的檔案列表。

$ debdiff old-package.changes new-package.changes

These are useful to identify what has been changed in the source packages and to check for inadvertent changes made when updating binary packages, such as unintentionally misplacing or removing files.

你可以使用 interdiff(1) 命令比較兩個 diff.gz 檔案。這對於更新使用舊的 1.0 原始碼格式的套件時，檢査是否有意外的變更非常有用。

$ interdiff -z old-package.diff.gz new-package.diff.gz

The new 3.0 source format stores changes in multiple patch files as described in 節 5.26, “patches/*”. You can trace changes of each debian/patches/* file using interdiff, too.

很多檔案檢査操作可以通過使用類似 mc(1) 的檔案管理器來完成，它可以幫助你直接査看 *.deb 檔案的內容，除此之外還可以用於 *.udeb、*.debian.tar.gz、*.diff.gz 和 *.orig.tar.gz 檔案。

Be on the lookout for extra unneeded files or zero length files, both in the binary and source package. Often cruft doesn't get cleaned up properly; adjust your rules file to compensate for this.