Packaging tutorial

From MEPIS Documentation Wiki

This is a short tutorial for creating .deb packages "Debian style." For detailed information please refer to: http://women.debian.org/wiki/English/PackagingTutorial and http://women.debian.org/wiki/English/BuildingWithoutHelper tutorials. For a GUI packaging helper you can download this program: Debian Package Tools FE

Preconfiguration

Run this command in konsole (as root) to install the required packages:

apt-get install build-essential devscripts dh-make fakeroot autotools-dev

You can also install some usually needed dev packages:

apt-get install xorg-dev libqt3-mt-dev kdelibs4-dev

Add in ~/.bashrc these environment variables:

export DEBEMAIL=your@email.address  
export DEBFULLNAME="Your name" 

These variables will be used by dh_make. Then run in terminal:

source ~/.bashrc

Prepare the package

1. Untar the package you want to compile, open konsole in the folder created (press F4 in the file manager)

2. Run:

dh_make -s -n 

( -s option is for creating a single binary .deb package, -n for native Debian package)

3. Change directory to debian

cd debian

4. If you don't need any special configuration you can delete all *.ex (example) files. You can also edit the copyright and control files to add info about the license, authors, and a short package description.

Compile

Run this command to create the binary package:

debuild -us -uc -b

If the compilation is successful you will find the .deb package in the parent folder.