re: packaging perl programs
> I want to pack a simple perl script (http://proxytunnel.sourceforge.net/
> files/pixelserv.pl.txt) as a package, but need your help.
You should have a close read of the Debian Policy Manual:
http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/
...specifically: Section 10.7 "Configuration Files" which suggest /etc/...
For getting started building packages, you should start with the "New Maintainers Guide":
http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/maint-guide/
For the short term, you can mess around with it as if it were a "debian native package" (in that there is no difference between "upstream" and the debian package). Since it's is a single perl file, it will be easy to update anyway since you don't have any compilation issues, cross-platform issues, or managing multiple patches issues, which is "easier" to handle with an "upstream" package, but a much more complicated packaging strategy.
Follow Section 2.9 with "dh_make", make a Makefile (possibly with only an "install" target), and use dpkg-buildpackage to have it make a package. You'll need to update a lot of stuff in the "debian/*" folder, anything with *.ex is an example, you can probably delete many of those. The most important one is the "control" file and that's pretty much it.
Use apt-get source <pkgname> to find a similar package you can use as a model (I used the program "abcde" when building mine b/c I knew it was a simple shell script). Recognize the difference between the *build* dependencies and the *install/run* dependencies, they can be wildly different (ie: gcc can be a build dependecy, but is very rarely a *runtime* dependency).
Then you'll use: lintian ../*.deb and it will complain about stuff you've messed up or forgotten to fix.
I'm pretty experienced with packaging software and it took me a bit less than a day of trial and error and getting experience with it. Second packages should go much quicker.
Good luck!
--Robert
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