deb dpkg-genbuildinfo in dpkg-buildpackage stage is very slow due to /usr/local/{include,lib} #13150
Description
Description
While building .deb package with dpkg-buildpackage, dpkg-genbuildinfo stage takes from 5 to 20 minutes to complete.
This is because it tries to check whether the build is tainted by checking all the libraries and headers in /usr/local/{include,lib}, which takes ages to due to the amount of files (especially Android SDKs) in these directories.
Usually it takes a second. In Actions Runner, it takes up to 20 minutes.
I'm not sure if this is something worth fixing in Actions. I'm creating this issue for visibility, to make it searchable.
The workaround is to prevent dpkg-genbuildinfo from accessing /usr/local, for example, by renaming it.
Platforms affected
- Azure DevOps
- GitHub Actions - Standard Runners
- GitHub Actions - Larger Runners
Runner images affected
- Ubuntu 22.04
- Ubuntu 24.04
- macOS 13
- macOS 13 Arm64
- macOS 14
- macOS 14 Arm64
- macOS 15
- macOS 15 Arm64
- macOS 26 Arm64
- Windows Server 2019
- Windows Server 2022
- Windows Server 2025
Image version and build link
Image: ubuntu-24.04
Version: 20250929.60.1
Included Software: https://github.com/actions/runner-images/blob/ubuntu24/20250929.60/images/ubuntu/Ubuntu2404-Readme.md
Image Release: https://github.com/actions/runner-images/releases/tag/ubuntu24%2F20250929.60
https://github.com/ValdikSS/actions-dpkg-tainted-slow
Is it regression?
No
Expected behavior
dpkg-genbuildinfo is fast
Actual behavior
dpkg-genbuildinfo is slow
Repro steps
jobs:
build:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Create deb package
run: |
sudo rm -f /var/lib/man-db/auto-update
echo -e "Types: deb-src\nURIs: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/\nSuites: noble noble-updates noble-backports\nComponents: main universe restricted multiverse\nSigned-By: /usr/share/keyrings/ubuntu-archive-keyring.gpg" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ubuntu.sources
sudo apt update
apt source hello
cd hello-*
sudo apt build-dep .
dpkg-buildpackage -nc