Re: Modifying existing packages
On Mon, Jun 16, 2008 at 11:20:40PM -0400, Jerry Stuckle wrote:
> I'm new to this end - and don't know if what I want is possible or not.
> But here goes.
What you want is quite possible, and something a lot of people do a lot.
> I need to modify some of the stock Debian packages for different
> options. For instance, I need to modify
> Exim to include MySQL support. I have several other packages with
> similar needs.
>
> What I need is a pointer to instructions on how I can get the the
> information for how these packages
> were built so I can modify them to meet my needs. I'd like to change
> them as little as necessary to
> maintain compatibility with other packages.
>
> I've looked through a lot of documentation and haven't figured out how
> to get the original build
> information. But with all the available info out there, I probably
> missed it, also. So if someone can
> at least provide a pointer to doc on where I should start, I'd
> appreciate it.
I'm not aware of any canonical documentation that specifically addresses
your needs, since it's been so long since I learnt this stuff. In general,
what you want is the source package that corresponds to the binary package
you want to build, and that can usually be obtained by running 'apt-get
source <package>'. From there, you patch the package to suit your needs and
then rebuild/compile the binary package (for which there are any number of
methods, and documentation available).
A quick Google search has found a couple of things that might be of use to
you:
http://www.murrayc.com/blog/permalink/2006/04/21/building-modified-debian-packages/
http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/20
- Matt
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