Re: binaries into deb's [newbie]
On Sun, Sep 15, 2002 at 09:08:57AM -0400, Kevin Coyner wrote:
> I recently moved from RH and SuSE over to Debian, and wished I would
> have done it sooner. The whole distro is nice, but in particular
> apt-get is great.
>
> So far I've only installed standard tools/utilities/programs readily
> available via apt-get and stable/testing. I'd like to avoid unstable if
> possible.
>
> Question: how do I maintain the robustness of apt-get yet be able to
> download binaries and patches and compile them myself?
There's a program called apt-src which I find does this nicely.
Ironically, though, it's currently only in unstable. :) Basically you do
this:
# add deb-src line for unstable to /etc/apt/sources.list
apt-src -bi install mutt
# fetches source package, unpacks, builds, and installs
You can make changes and rebuild (dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -uc -us)
as much as you want. Then a later 'apt-src -bi upgrade' will upgrade the
source package, forward-port your patches, and build and install the new
package.
If you like the idea of that, I can try to put together packages for
stable with what you need.
Note that you're likely to run into build problems from time to time.
While it'd be nice to be able to claim that everything in unstable will
build cleanly on stable, it's not the case.
> I have to believe that after compiling I can put it all into a deb
> package, but how difficult is it, and could someone please point out a
> good reference.
If you use the Debian source package, it's very easy. Sections 6.13
("How do I install a source package?") and 6.14 ("How do I build binary
packages from a source package?") of http://www.debian.org/doc/FAQ/
should get you started. If you aren't using something like apt-src, it's
a good idea to up the version number in debian/changelog first.
Also see the maint-guide package if you want to roll your own packages
beyond that.
--
Colin Watson [cjwatson@flatline.org.uk]
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