Building package from source:Cannot open POTFILES.in.temp for writing

I recently ran to an error when building a .deb package from source (on Ubuntu). I found a few people asking for help with the error message over the year, but I didn't find anyone offering an answer.

~/src/collectd-5.12.0$ debuild -us -uc -i -I
dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc -ui -i -I
dpkg-buildpackage: info: source package collectd
dpkg-buildpackage: info: source version 5.12.0-6
dpkg-buildpackage: info: source distribution unstable
dpkg-buildpackage: info: source changed by Bernd Zeimetz bzed@debian.org
dpkg-source -i -I --before-build .
dpkg-buildpackage: info: host architecture amd64
fakeroot debian/rules clean
dh_testdir
dh_testroot
rm -f build-stamp
[ ! -f Makefile ] || /usr/bin/make distclean
rm -f debian/README.Debian.plugins
rm -f src/.1 src/.5
rm -rf debian/pkgconfig
dh_autoreconf_clean
dh_clean
debconf-updatepo
print() on closed filehandle OUT at /usr/share/intltool-debian/intltool-extract line 942.
print() on closed filehandle OUT at /usr/share/intltool-debian/intltool-extract line 942.
print() on closed filehandle OUT at /usr/share/intltool-debian/intltool-extract line 942.
print() on closed filehandle OUT at /usr/share/intltool-debian/intltool-extract line 942.
print() on closed filehandle OUT at /usr/share/intltool-debian/intltool-extract line 942.
print() on closed filehandle OUT at /usr/share/intltool-debian/intltool-extract line 942.
print() on closed filehandle OUT at /usr/share/intltool-debian/intltool-extract line 942.
print() on closed filehandle OUT at /usr/share/intltool-debian/intltool-extract line 942.
print() on closed filehandle OUT at /usr/share/intltool-debian/intltool-extract line 942.
print() on closed filehandle OUT at /usr/share/intltool-debian/intltool-extract line 942.
print() on closed filehandle OUT at /usr/share/intltool-debian/intltool-extract line 942.
print() on closed filehandle OUT at /usr/share/intltool-debian/intltool-extract line 942.
print() on closed filehandle OUT at /usr/share/intltool-debian/intltool-extract line 942.
print() on closed filehandle OUT at /usr/share/intltool-debian/intltool-extract line 942.
print() on closed filehandle OUT at /usr/share/intltool-debian/intltool-extract line 942.
print() on closed filehandle OUT at /usr/share/intltool-debian/intltool-extract line 942.
print() on closed filehandle OUT at /usr/share/intltool-debian/intltool-extract line 942.
print() on closed filehandle OUT at /usr/share/intltool-debian/intltool-extract line 942.
print() on closed filehandle OUT at /usr/share/intltool-debian/intltool-extract line 942.
Cannot open POTFILES.in.temp for writing at /usr/share/intltool-debian/intltool-update line 615.
make: *** [debian/rules:271: clean] Error 1
dpkg-buildpackage: error: fakeroot debian/rules clean subprocess returned exit status 2
debuild: fatal error at line 1182:
dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc -ui -i -I failed

In my case, the error occurred because I had downloaded the source package as root, so this caused permissions issues while building the package as a user.

$ sudo apt source collectd

If your source is owned by root as mine was, the solution is to change the ownership of the files to your user.

$ sudo chown <YOUR USERNAME>.<YOUR USERNAME> -R ~/src/collectd-5.12.0