I can copy the commands from the PKGBUILD or APKBUILD and run them on a shell to replicate the same work. I can also pick up a random PKGBUILD and modify it to

I can copy the commands from the PKGBUILD or APKBUILD and run them on a shell to replicate the same work. I can also pick up a random PKGBUILD and modify it to install some completely different package (this is how many people learn these packaging formats). Looking at those three links that you provided for a Debian package, and I don't see a single clue as to how the package is built, nor how to adapt that to build something else. I'm sure there's a manual somewhere, but that's the point: PKGBUILD and APKBUILD files are far easier to understand by just looking at them (assuming the reader knows some shell scripting). I actually just glanced through the whole documentation for the "control" file (btw: what does "control" even mean in this context?): https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-controlfields.html https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-controlfields.ht.... Still no idea on how this builds todoman. I'll also point out that I'm the maintained of todoman upstream -- so I _know_ how to build this software, but I don't see any clues as to how the debian package builds it. I hope this makes it a bit clearer why one packaging definition is considered simple and the other hard.