very simple way to create a working debian package

Makefile

PACKAGE_NAME=git-repo
PACKAGE_VERSION=0.1+git-$(shell git describe --always HEAD)
PREFIX=/usr/local/bin

include Makefile.package

work/data: work work/data/$(PREFIX)
work/data/$(PREFIX):
	mkdir -p "$@"
	cp git-repo "$@"

package.makefile

PACKAGE_DESCRIPTION ?= "Quick packaging for $(PACKAGE_NAME)"
PACKAGE_MAINTAINER ?= "$(shell echo $USER)@$(shell hostname)"
OUT_DEB=$(PACKAGE_NAME)-$(PACKAGE_VERSION).deb

all: $(OUT_DEB)
clean:
	rm -rvf target work $(OUT_DEB)
target:
	mkdir $@
target/debian-binary: | target
	echo 2.0 > $@
target/control.tar.gz: work/control/control
	tar cvzf $@ -C work/control .
target/data.tar.gz: work/data
	tar cvzf $@ -C work/data .
work:
	mkdir $@
work/control: work
	mkdir $@
work/data: work
	mkdir -p $@
work/control/control: work/control
	echo "Package: $(PACKAGE_NAME)" >$@
	echo "Version: $(PACKAGE_VERSION)" >>$@
	echo "Architecture: amd64" >>$@
	echo "Maintainer: $(PACKAGE_MAINTAINER)" >>$@
	echo "Description: $(PACKAGE_DESCRIPTION)" >>$@
$(OUT_DEB): target/debian-binary target/control.tar.gz target/data.tar.gz
	ar q $@ $^