How to manage multiple package dependencies with checkinstall?

Question

I have a package that I've been building using checkinstall for a while now, and I wanted to automate it (pass the values in via command line instead of typing the selection, pasting the value in, etc...)

I am not sure if this is a checkinstall bug, or not, but how can I include multiple packages via the command line --requires option. It seems to barf if I include the minimum version of a package (for exmple --requires="libvte9 (>= 0.28.2)"), or multiple packages at once (for example --requires "libvte9, libc6")

Has anyone had better success with the command line arguments for multiple packages? Am I doing something wrong, or is this a bug.

Note: If I run the script, and choose the requires option (10), and paste my entire line with multiple packages and minimum versions (such as libvte9 (>= 0.28.2), libc6 (>= 2.13), it works fine, it just seems to be on the command line that it's having issues. Also this is with building a debian package, using the -D option.

Answer 1

After reading Aleks-Daniel Jakimenko-A.'s answer, Reallumpi's one and doing some tests on a real life case, here is what you should do:

1. use , (comma) without spaces to separate required packages ;
2. escape ( and ) parenthesis when specifying package's version ;
3. escape > (greater sign) when specifying package's version ;

Example

make && sudo -k checkinstall \
    --pkgsource="https://github.com/raboof/nethogs/" \
    --pkglicense="GPL2" \
    --deldesc=no \
    --nodoc \
    --maintainer="$USER\\<$USER@$HOSTNAME\\>" \
    --pkgarch=$(dpkg \
    --print-architecture) \
    --pkgversion="0.8.1" \
    --pkgrelease="SNAPSHOT" \
    --pkgname=nethogs \
    --requires="libc6 \(\>= 2.4\),libgcc1 \(\>= 1:4.1.1\),libncurses5 \(\>= 5.5-5~\),libpcap0.8 \(\>= 0.9.8\),libstdc++6 \(\>= 4.1.1\),libtinfo5" \
    make install

Output

*****************************************
**** Debian package creation selected ***
*****************************************

This package will be built according to these values:

0 -  Maintainer: [ elopez<elopez@> ]
1 -  Summary: [ Net top tool grouping bandwidth per process ]
2 -  Name:    [ nethogs ]
3 -  Version: [ 0.8.1 ]
4 -  Release: [ SNAPSHOT ]
5 -  License: [ GPL2 ]
6 -  Group:   [ checkinstall ]
7 -  Architecture: [ amd64 ]
8 -  Source location: [ https://github.com/raboof/nethogs/ ]
9 -  Alternate source location: [  ]
10 - Requires: [ libc6 (>= 2.4),libgcc1 (>= 1:4.1.1),libncurses5 (>= 5.5-5~),libpcap0.8 (>= 0.9.8),libstdc++6 (>= 4.1.1),libtinfo5 ]
11 - Provides: [ nethogs ]
12 - Conflicts: [  ]
13 - Replaces: [  ]