I'm testing a new locale-all package for my system, which comes with the drawback that the source is the gigantic glibc package. I'm estimating at least 1 hour for it to build, when the package I need is not even architecture dependent. Is there a way to build only that package or at very least only the arch-indep packages?
How to build a specific package from a Debian source package?
debian;packaging
Use dpkg-buildpackage -A (thanks, @WouterVerhelst)-A     Specifies a binary-only build, limited to architecture independent packages. Passed to dpkg-genchanges.Also try dpkg-buildpackage -T binary-indep-T target - Calls debian/rules target after having setup the build  environment and  stops the package build process here.Debian Policy Manual says:binary (required), binary-arch (required), binary-indep (required) The binary target must be all that is necessary for the user to build the binary package(s) produced from this source package. It is split into two parts: binary-arch builds the binary packages which are specific to a particular architecture, and binary-indep builds those which are not. Some source packages (for example apt) have rules for building a specific package. So, you can run dpkg-buildpackage -T apt-doc --as-root to build only apt-doc package.