Debuild in its most basic form prepares the package by running dpkg-buildpackage, and then runs lintian on the package as well.
Put this in ~/.profile
(replace with your own values of course):
<snip> export DEBEMAIL=apprentice@mycompany.com export DEBFULLNAME="My Name"
Source the profile:
apprentice@host:~/packaging$ . ~/.profile
apprentice@host:~/packaging$ apt-get source tar
apprentice@host:~/packaging$ cd tar-1.27.1
apprentice@host:~/packaging/tar-1.27.1$ debuild
apprentice@host:~/packaging/tar-1.27.1$ sudo apt-get install libacl1-dev libattr1-dev libselinux1-dev
apprentice@host:~/packaging/tar-1.27.1$ debuild -us -uc --lintian-opts -i
(That tells debuild not sign the package, and to have lintian explain its complaints.)
(Also removing those of building bash):
apprentice@host:~/packaging/tar-1.27.1$ apt-get purge libacl1-dev libattr1-dev libselinux1-dev bison texi2html gettext sharutils
apprentice@host:~/packaging/tar-1.27.1$ apt-get autoremove