how to create a Release file

[Tomas Davidek <davidek@ipnp.troja.mff.cuni.cz>]

Hello,
  I am having troubles when creating the Release file for my "private" 
repository. According to
http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/securing-debian-howto/ch7.en.html#s-deb-pack-sign
I create the file via

    $ rm -f dists/testing/Release
    $ apt-ftparchive release dists/testing > dists/testing/Release
    $ gpg --sign -ba -o dists/testing/Release.gpg dists/testing/Release

Then, when trying apt-get update, I get the following error message:
------------
Failed to fetch http://www-ucjf.troja.mff.cuni.cz/~davidek/debian/dists/testing/Release  Unable to find expected entry  main/binary-i386/Packages in Meta-index file (malformed Release file?)
Reading package lists... Done
W: Conflicting distribution: http://www-ucjf.troja.mff.cuni.cz testing Release (expected testing but got )
------------
Well, I don't understand it - the file main/binary-i386/Packages does not exits, there is only main/binary-i386/Packages.gz. Is that ok ?

I rather suspect that there is something wrong with the Release file itself, it seems some header is missing. My Release looks like:
----------
Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2006 13:45:27 UTC
MD5Sum:
d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e                0 Release
488884a11d9ba1cc5fe28646ca9b9e3c             1269 main/binary-amd64/Packages.gz
ab29d796accdd96e9f700399d1f70ef9              925 main/binary-amd64/Sources.gz
a7a653a9884509b6f6612cab71047ab9             1269 main/binary-i386/Packages.gz
----------
while the Debian ones have a header in the beginning:
---------------
Origin: Debian
Label: Debian-Security
Suite: testing
Codename: etch
Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2006 08:35:59 UTC
Architectures: amd64 alpha arm hppa i386 ia64 m68k mips mipsel powerpc s390 sparc
Components: updates/main updates/contrib updates/non-free
Description: Debian testing Security Updates
MD5Sum:
5c8b4d953e776a92ca7d6da9edcb7196             7914 main/binary-alpha/Packages
927ab0a52245a0be815c50f5fdb58ca5             1867 main/binary-alpha/Packages.gz
----------------
Is that important ? If so, is there any script to generate the header or do I have to do it myself ? 

Maybe the problem could be that I am running sarge on the system where I  generate the packages and all the files for repository ? (i.e. older version of apt-utils ?)

Thanks a lot for any hint,

best regards
                  Tomas Davidek

E-mail : davidek@ipnp.troja.mff.cuni.cz,
	  Tomas.Davidek@cern.ch