diff -r 996a562b6c9f -r 143c8e4dc22d Makefile
--- a/Makefile	Thu Feb 23 15:19:31 2017 +0100
+++ b/Makefile	Thu Mar 02 18:07:46 2017 +0100
@@ -1,3 +1,23 @@
+VERSION=$(shell python setup.py --version)
+
+
+help:
+	@echo 'Commonly used make targets:'
+	@echo '  deb-prepare - prepare the build of a debian package'
+
+all: help
+
+deb-prepare:
+	python setup.py sdist --dist-dir ..
+	mv -f ../hg-evolve-$(VERSION).tar.gz ../mercurial-evolve_$(VERSION).orig.tar.gz
+	tar xf ../mercurial-evolve_$(VERSION).orig.tar.gz
+	rm -rf ../mercurial-evolve_$(VERSION).orig
+	mv hg-evolve-$(VERSION) ../mercurial-evolve_$(VERSION).orig
+	cp -r debian/ ../mercurial-evolve_$(VERSION).orig/
+	@cd ../mercurial-evolve_$(VERSION).orig && echo 'debian build directory ready at' `pwd`
+
+# test targets
+
 PYTHON=python
 ifeq ($(HGROOT),)
   $(error HGROOT is not set to the root of the hg source tree)
@@ -17,6 +37,8 @@
 tests:
 	cd tests && $(PYTHON) $(HGTESTS)/run-tests.py $(TESTFLAGS)
 
+# /!\ run outside of the compatibility branch output test will likely fails
+
 test-%:
 	cd tests && $(PYTHON) $(HGTESTS)/run-tests.py $(TESTFLAGS) $@
 
@@ -25,6 +47,7 @@
 	(cd $(HGROOT) ; $(MAKE) clean ) && \
 	cd tests && $(PYTHON) $(HGTESTS)/run-tests.py $(TESTFLAGS)
 
-all-version-tests: tests-3.7 tests-@
+# build a script to extract declared version
+all-version-tests: tests-@
 
 .PHONY: tests all-version-tests