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I was playing around with

apt-get install source --compile 

And I used audacity:

sudo apt-get install source --compile audacity

However, I am getting a dependency error:

dpkg-checkbuilddeps: Unmet build dependencies: autoconf automake debhelper (>= 7.0.50~) libasound2-dev libavcodec-dev (>= 4:0.6) libavformat-dev (>= 4:0.6) libavutil-dev (>= 4:0.6) libexpat1-dev libflac++-dev libgtk2.0-dev libid3tag0-dev libjack-dev libmad0-dev (>= 0.14.2b) libmp3lame-dev libogg-dev (>= 1.0.0) libportsmf-dev libsbsms-dev (>= 2.0.0) libsndfile1-dev (>= 1.0.0) libsoundtouch-dev (>= 1.3.1-2) libsoxr-dev (>= 0.0.5) libtwolame-dev (>= 0.3.9) libvorbis-dev (>= 1.0.0-3) libwxgtk2.8-dev portaudio19-dev (>= 19+svn20101113-3~) vamp-plugin-sdk (>= 2.0)    
Build command 'cd audacity-2.0.3 && dpkg-buildpackage -b -uc' failed.
E: Child process failed

Unmet build dependencies Makes me believe dpkg is the one with missing dependencies, but I'm really not sure. Installing audacity with

sudo apt-get install audacity 

Works just fine, so I don't think this is audacity's issue.

I've seen this question: How do I resolve unmet dependencies?, but I'm not sure if that applies to this or not.

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closed as too localized by Seth, fossfreedom Jun 7 '13 at 20:27


I assume that you attempted to install the packages listed under "Unmet build dependencies" (autoconf, automake, debhelper, etc), right? –  InkBlend Jun 5 '13 at 4:02
@InkBlend Yeah, I tried that and it fixed the problem. Personally I think this was a stupid question. Lets close as too localized. –  Seth Jun 7 '13 at 17:57

1 Answer 1

Build-time dependencies are separate from compile-time dependencies, so you can install them with apt-get build-dep audacity.

However as this installs otherwise unnecessary packages, it's common to set up pbuilder, e.g. as explained on http://askubuntu.com/a/39718/129

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Well installing the packages manually solved the problem. I'm not sure I quite understand your answer though. Could you elaborate some? –  Seth Jun 6 '13 at 2:42
'apt-get build-dep' automates that step of installing the packages manually, but there are other tools like pbuilder or sbuild to further automate & isolate the package building process. –  ajmitch Jun 6 '13 at 4:07
@ajmitch And what packages are expected to be installed using this command? –  Lucio Jun 7 '13 at 18:12
