Re: building deb package

[Chris Gray <cgray@nowonder.com>]

>>>>> "Jesse" == Jesse Goerz <jgoerz@linuxfreemail.com> writes:

    Jesse> I downloaded the source of a program and did ./configure.
    Jesse> I am ready to do make on it but I thought I had heard you
    Jesse> can make a debian package out of it.  Is this true?  If it
    Jesse> is, how can I do it?

It is true.  Doing it is a bit easier said than done.  If there is not
already a debian/ subdirectory, then do a dh_make on the directory.
After the debian/ subdirectory looks good, then do "fakeroot
debian/rules binary".  If everything goes well, you will end up with a
deb file on the above directory.  An example will help:

~$ cd foo-1.1/
foo-1.1$ dh_make
[lots of output]
foo-1.1$ cd debian/
debian$ rm cron.d.ex emacsen* init.d.ex # maybe more
debian$ vi rules
[do some editing to make sure everything works fine]
debian$ cd ..
foo-1.1$ fakeroot debian/rules binary
[lots of output]
foo-1.1$ cd .. # if there were no errors
~$ dpkg -i foo_1.1.deb

This is an ideal session.  There's usually a lot of editing the
debian/rules file to get everything right and then recompiling.  Have
patience and everything will work out.

Cheers,
Chris