Sub flavours are flavours that are built based on other builds. IOW, they are usually a subset of something else. Requirements: debian/sub-flavours/.list : The file list, uses glob syntax debian/sub-flavours/.vars : The make vars, similar to normal flavours debian/rules.d/.mk : Add _sub var listing the , e.g. server_sub = virtual would mean virtual is based on the server flavour. Note, the vars must include a conflicts with the flavour it was built on.