Debhelper 12 Released With Meson+Ninja Build System Support

Debhelper, the package offering various scripts to assist in the creation of Debian packages, has reached version 12 in time for Debian Buster.

The Debhelper 12 update brings support for the increasingly used Meson+Ninja build system, which is quite common now by GNOME components as well as some X.Org/Mesa projects and a growing number of other open-source projects. CMake paired with Ninja is also now supported too by Debhelper.

This update ahead of the first freeze for Debian 10 Buster also includes improvements around cross-compilation, improved bulk performance, a new script to manage systemd units per user rather than system, a new initramfs hook install script, and various optimizations and other changes.

Those spinning up Debian packages can learn more about the newest Debhelper via this blog post.