Описание тега debhelper
Suite of programs intended to simplify and improve the process of creating .deb packages
Debian "rules" files control how a.deb package is built and arranged, including how maintainer scripts like the postinst and prerm are created and installed.
At the lowest level, rules files are just Makefiles. With the number of tasks that need to be accomplished to make, build, and maintain a safe, clean, policy-abiding package, bare Makefile rules files can become very large and cumbersome. The debhelper suite of tools makes these tasks remarkably simpler and less error-prone.
Over 95% of the over-17000 packages in the Debian archive use Debhelper in some form.