The Debian packaging system is one of the most elegant methods of installing, upgrading, and removing software available. Learn the basics of creating Debian packages for distributing programs and source code. This article shows all the necessary components of a package and how to put them together to end up with a final product.
Create Debian Linux Packages
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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I’ve seen a few debian packages that appeared to use Makefiles to construct them. Good article, but it didn’t go into that.
That’s because this article is targetted at third party packagers, those who are *not* Debian developers.
In the official Debian distribution, the maintainer does not upload the final deb, but rather the source package from which the architecture-specific build daemons automatically build the final deb package. Said source packages contain the unmodified source together with the Debian changes as a diff. This makes it easy for anyone to see at a glance exactly what changes the maintainer has applied to the upstream code, as well as giving everyone convenient access to the source should they wish to compile it themselves for any reason.
Third parties, however, will usually only want to distribute the pre-compiled binary debs, and just supply the source alongside in a tarball. Presumably, therefore, the article doesn’t go into this simply because the author doesn’t want to inundate his target audience with un-necessary detail.
here’s maybe something worth looking into as well if trying to build debs. http://www.linuks.mine.nu/irc/debian-packaging/
Just by way of cross-reference, this link was also posted on Slashdot on Friday under the heading “Binary Package Formats Compared.” See http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/07/11/1735240&mode….
The actual comparison of package formats can be found at http://www.kitenet.net/~joey/pkg-comp/. Check it out, it’s well worth reading. Though a Debian developer himself, I think the author presents an informative and objective analysis. And, should you disagree, he states that he welcomes comments and corrections. 🙂 Spoiler: the .deb format emerges the victor.