As a software developer, you sometimes want to release a new version of your product. For most of my programs, the steps for this process are quite identical:

1. Make a copy of the source tree, e.g. cp -pr /usr/src/prog /tmp/prog-0.1.2
2. Cleanup the copy, e.g. remove all CVS/* and/or .svn/* files if they exist
3. Make a tarball of that copy and remove the copy
4. Place the tarball in the SOURCES/ directory of your build directory
5. Edit the .spec file
6. run rpmbuild or debbuild

pkgmake was written to automate these steps. What it basically does, is:

1. It makes the copy (see the -d command line switch)
2. It cleans up that copy
3. It makes the tarball, and…
4. ...places it in the SOURCES/ directory
5. It generates the needed .spec file out of a given template (see -t switch) and the information passed on the command line (see general syntax)
6. It runs rpmbuild or debbuild, depending on your configuration

Looks like a complete automated build process? Well, almost. In most cases you will still have to fiddle around with the %files section of the .spec file, unless your source 100% reflects the final location of the files as seen from the root (/) directory - in which case the __DIR__ placeholder can be used in the .spec template file (see man pkgmake.tpl after installation.

For more details, please see the project wiki.