Re: .changes files without source packages
Daniel Lazzari <busytester@gmail.com> writes:
> Hello,
>
> Hopefully I have the correct list for this question. If not, I
> apologize in advance.
>
> I have a collection of SDK packages we are building using dpkg -b that
> we need to distribute to our external developers. Because some of the
> libraries come from proprietary code, and others from assets, they
> should only be binary packages, not source packages. When trying to
> build a .changes file though, dpkg-genchanges -b always complains
> about a missing Source field in my control file, even though I though
> the -b option meant only binary packages.
>
> Does anyone know how to build a .changes file without having source
> packages? I need the .changes file so I can upload the packages to
> mini-dinstall.
>
> Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.
>
> Daniel Lazzari Jr.
> busytester@gmail.com
What people normaly do in such a case (see many non-free package for
examples) is to build a source package containing the pre-built
binaries. The "build" target in debian/rules then does nothing and
install (simplest to use dh_install) just copies the file around.
The advantage of this is that you do have a source package that can be
build (and esspecially rebuild) and you can keep benefiting from build
tools like dpkg-shlibdeps that automatically find dependencies.
You can also have i386, amd64 and ppc binaries in the source package and
then copy only the right architecture into the debs you generate
depending what architecture is being build for. Without a source package
you would have to maintain 3 basically identical binary packages.
MfG
Goswin
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