Re: Advice about first package building (from sources)
Laurent,
On Thu, Sep 18, 2008 at 3:54 AM, David Paleino <d.paleino@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 18 Sep 2008 10:41:17 +0000 (GMT), Laurent Guignard wrote:
>
>> > On Wed, 17 Sep 2008 21:01:06 +0200, Laurent Guignard wrote:
>> >
>> But i would like to learn about how Debian packaging tools are working.
>
> Well, this is great, but why would you need to build a package on your own, if
> that's available via apt-get? :)
>
>> It is only curiosity to improve my technical skills and observing the
>> procedure to submit a package for sponsoring help to understand what files to
>> provide, where to upload them, and anything interesting for newbies... It is
>> the fearlessness of the youth ! ;)
I started putting together my first Debian package just a few months
ago so I'm very new at packaging too, but thought I'd mention some
things that helped me after reading the required Debian documentation.
My sponsor (Anthony Fok) provided invaluable help and insight borne
of experience. Before I started working with him though, I did a lot
of reading and a fair amount of trial-and-error. If I were starting
over again, I would do two things that I didn't do immediately: study
how everything in debian/rules works very, very carefully and get
Martin Krafft's book.
If you want to package using debhelper scripts (which will make your
life easier), you could first create a skeleton single binary package
with dh_make. After it creates a skeleton, study the debian/rules
file that it creates. Then read the man pages for the various
debhelper (dh*) commands that it invokes. If you want more detail,
read the sources for those debhelper scripts. Finished packages will
probably have some of those scripts removed from debian/rules (if a
particular package doesn't need to use them), but in the skeleton file
you'll see them arranged in their logical order.
I also bought a copy of The Debian System, by Martin F. Krafft, ISBN
1-59327-069-0. It goes into very low-level details of building
packages, down to using basic Unix utilities such as "ar". It sounds
like you want such low-level details. But don't put together a
package that way for uploading -- get used to the Debian tools. The
book is also dated (it has a DVD of sarge 3.1r0a in the back and now
we're approaching a lenny release three years later). Most debhelper
scripts are given brief mention. I have not seen another book, web
page, etc. go into such low-level detail on Debian packaging.
I just checked amazon.fr; you can get the book new from someone other
than Amazon there, or order from amazon.fr and get it in 2-4 weeks.
You could probably also order from amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com,
powells.com, or some other US bookstore/website and have it sent from
the US (I don't know how VAT would get handled in that case). I've
ordered French books from amazon.fr that weren't listed on amazon.com,
and they shipped them to me in the US with no problems.
Good luck, and have fun!
Paul Hardy
GPG Key ID: E6E6E390
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