On Wed, Dec 31, 2008 at 09:05:08PM EST, Sam Morris wrote: > On Wed, 31 Dec 2008 19:45:26 -0500, Chris Jones wrote: > > > > What I have done so far is pretty much what is described in the above: > > > > . apt-get source .. > > . build-dep .. > > . debuild .. > > . dpkg -i .. > > That's just how to do it, yes. :)
Thanks! One thing I can't afford to do is explore a blind alley for the next couple of years and find out by accident that I was wasting my time. > > The process appears to work - as tested on gnu/screen - when I'm just > > recreating the same deb that I would install via apt-get. > > > > One problem, though, is that since the build is pretty much automated, > > I'm not sure how I could add --xxx configure options that override the > > defaults. In particular after reading the man page I wasn't able to find > > an option that would let me achieve this. > > > > Hopefully, I don't have to go edit the configure.in file? > > Check out the debian/rules file. That is the file that controls the build > process. Thanks for the lead .. does look like there's no getting away from learning the Maintainers Guide after all.. :-) But since some of my customization is in the way of scripts .. I realize it's not just a matter of rebuilding .. I will have to create new packages anyway .. and thus I will have to learn at least the basics of debian packaging. > > Another concern is what kind of naming standard I should/could adopt for > > my custom .debs so that they integrate smoothly with the apt packaging > > system. In other words.. in a way that will be easy to manage over time > > and not interfere with possible future apt-get actions, such as upgrades > > to a new release etc > > I wouldn't try to rename the packages, but instead give them custom > version numbers. Yes .. that 's exactly what I had in mind. > The version number can be changed by editng debian/ changelog; there > is a very convenient tool called 'debchange' in the 'devscripts' > package that will allow you to do things like: > > $ debchange --local blah > > Which will automatically add a new entry to the changelog, and invoke > your $EDITOR on it so that you can describe your changes in detail. > The -- local option tells debchange to make this kind of change: > > 1.2-3 -> 1.2.3blah1 Great! Will look into that when the party is over .. when I'm sober again.. :-) > This version number will be greater than the version in Debian (so > that apt won't automatically replace your custom package with the > official one next time you perform an upgrade), but less than what the > next version in Debian _will_ be (so that apt will upgrade the package > once a newer version is available in Debian). If you also put the > packages 'on hold' then you can see that it's time to update your > custom package by seeing the 'packages held back' during an upgrade. Yes. That's what I dimly was thinking about .. Happy New Year .. and thanks much for prompt reply. CJ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-mentors-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
