Re: Debian etch - Rebuilding a package from source.
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
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