[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >I need to compile some stuff in Debian (available in Debian but three version >numbers stale). I have already successfully compiled them in Mandrake. > >The problem is that the application's various bits and pieces will be >splattered across my system. While they'll probably wind up in /usr/local, I >want a more manageable method of installing/deinstalling these files. I'm >thinking of creating a .deb to "trap" the compilation. > >Can someone give me a quick tip on how to do this, convert a tarball into a >deb in one fell swoop? I'm a bit lazy to RTFM. In Mandrake I simply type >something like rpm -bb (or is it rpm -tb?) to produce a binary from a >.src.rpm (I know, not quite a tarball). What's the quick and dirty Debian >equivalent?
The really quick and dirty way is to do 'dpkg -b directory', where directory contains a filesystem tree (so typically directory/usr/bin/foo or whatever) as well as a 'DEBIAN' directory containing certain control files. For these, I'm afraid, you do have to RTFM (specifically the Packaging Manual); for your own use you can probably get away with just a simple 'control' file stating things like package name, version, description, maintainer name, and dependencies. The not-quite-so-quick-and-dirty but often actually easier way is to install the dh-make package and use the dh_make utility to build a nearly-correct source package which you can tweak a bit. You'll probably only need to tweak the files in the 'debian' directory, and the format's not too difficult to understand. debian/rules is a Makefile which controls the whole process, and there are tools in the debhelper package which automate various things. You then use dpkg-buildpackage to compile everything and produce a .deb. -- Colin Watson [EMAIL PROTECTED]
