fpm doesn't deal with dependanices

I've read the docs and other tutorials to try to get fpm to handle dependencies while building debian packages, but it fails every time.

my build.sh

#!/bin/bash

# constants
ITERATION=1
CODEVER=0.006

DIRBUILD=/home/chicks/Documents/build-proxwrap
DIRGIT=/home/chicks/Documents/git/wrap_proxmox
DEPS=(
        "libio-prompt-perl (>= 0.997002-1)"
        "perl-doc (>= 5.18.2-2ubuntu1.1)"
        "liburi-escape-xs-perl (>= 0.11-1)"
        "libjson-perl (>= 2.61-1)"
        "libhttp-message-perl (>= 6.06-1)"
        "libwww-perl (>= 6.05-2)"
)

PATH="$PATH:/home/chicks/.gem/ruby/2.3.0/bin"

# clean dirs
rm -rf $DIRBUILD
mkdir -p $DIRBUILD || exit 1
mkdir -p $DIRBUILD/usr/bin || exit 1
mkdir -p $DIRBUILD/opt/lib/perl5 || exit 1

ARG_DEPS=""
for index in `seq 1 5`
do
        ARG_DEPS="$ARG_DEPS -d 'deb:${DEPS[$index]}'"
done
#echo $DIRGIT
echo $ARG_DEPS

# build directory tree
cd $DIRBUILD/usr/bin
for file in $(cd $DIRGIT/bin; ls); do
        if echo $file | grep '.sh$' > /dev/null
        then
                echo leaving $file out of package
                continue
        fi
        cat $DIRGIT/bin/$file | sed -e "s/use lib '..\/lib';/use lib '\/opt\/lib\/perl5';/" > $file
        chmod +x $file
done

cd $DIRBUILD/opt/lib/perl5
cp -pr $DIRGIT/lib/* .
pwd
ls

# build package
cd $DIRGIT
OUTDEB=tm-proxwrap_${CODEVER}-${ITERATION}_amd64.deb
rm $OUTDEB
echo about to build $OUTDEB from $DIRBUILD
echo ""
echo running fpm -s dir -t deb -n tm_proxwrap -v $CODEVER $ARG_DEPS --iteration $ITERATION -C $DIRBUILD usr opt
fpm -s dir -t deb -n tm_proxwrap -v $CODEVER $ARG_DEPS --iteration $ITERATION -C $DIRBUILD usr opt
echo ""
ls -lh $OUTDEB
dpkg -c $OUTDEB

output with error message

I installed fpm 1.6.1 via gem on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.

$ ./build.sh 
-d 'deb:perl-doc (>= 5.18.2-2ubuntu1.1)' -d 'deb:liburi-escape-xs-perl (>= 0.11-1)' -d 'deb:libjson-perl (>= 2.61-1)' -d 'deb:libhttp-message-perl (>= 6.06-1)' -d 'deb:libwww-perl (>= 6.05-2)'
leaving build.sh out of package
leaving install.sh out of package
/home/chicks/Documents/build-proxwrap/opt/lib/perl5
Net  Telmate
rm: cannot remove 'tm-proxwrap_0.006-1_amd64.deb': No such file or directory
about to build tm-proxwrap_0.006-1_amd64.deb from /home/chicks/Documents/build-proxwrap

running fpm -s dir -t deb -n tm_proxwrap -v 0.006 -d 'deb:perl-doc (>= 5.18.2-2ubuntu1.1)' -d 'deb:liburi-escape-xs-perl (>= 0.11-1)' -d 'deb:libjson-perl (>= 2.61-1)' -d 'deb:libhttp-message-perl (>= 6.06-1)' -d 'deb:libwww-perl (>= 6.05-2)' --iteration 1 -C /home/chicks/Documents/build-proxwrap usr opt
All flags should be before the first argument (stray flags found: ["-d", "-d", "-d", "-d", "--iteration", "-C"] {:level=>:warn}
Invalid package configuration: Cannot package the path './(>=', does it exist? {:level=>:error}

I've gotten similar errors when leaving off deb:. When I didn't have the version numbers included I needed the deb: but that led to errors when trying to install the package because it couldn't find the dependencies. Other than dependencies it works well.

• is there a way to get fpm to accept my dependancies?
• is there an easier system for building debian packages?