Plaintext
Debian Packaging Tutorial
Lucas Nussbaum
packaging-tutorial@packages.debian.org
version 0.29 – 2021-11-03
Debian Packaging Tutorial 1 / 89
About this tutorial
▶ Goal: tell you what you really need to know about Debian packaging
▶ Modify existing packages
▶ Create your own packages
▶ Interact with the Debian community
▶ Become a Debian power-user
▶ Covers the most important points, but is not complete
▶ You will need to read more documentation
▶ Most of the content also applies to Debian derivative distributions
▶ That includes Ubuntu
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Outline
1 Introduction
2 Creating source packages
3 Building and testing packages
4 Practical session 1: modifying the grep package
5 Advanced packaging topics
6 Maintaining packages in Debian
7 Conclusions
8 Additional practical sessions
9 Answers to practical sessions
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Outline
1 Introduction
2 Creating source packages
3 Building and testing packages
4 Practical session 1: modifying the grep package
5 Advanced packaging topics
6 Maintaining packages in Debian
7 Conclusions
8 Additional practical sessions
9 Answers to practical sessions
Debian Packaging Tutorial 4 / 89
Debian
▶ GNU/Linux distribution
▶ 1st major distro developed “openly in the spirit of GNU”
▶ Non-commercial, built collaboratively by over 1,000 volunteers
▶ 3 main features:
▶ Quality – culture of technical excellence
We release when it’s ready
▶ Freedom – devs and users bound by the Social Contract
Promoting the culture of Free Software since 1993
▶ Independence – no (single) company babysitting Debian
And open decision-making process (do-ocracy + democracy )
▶ Amateur in the best sense: done for the love of it
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Debian packages
▶ .deb files (binary packages)
▶ A very powerful and convenient way to distribute software to users
▶ One of the two most common package formats (with RPM)
▶ Universal:
▶ 30,000 binary packages in Debian
→ most of the available free software is packaged in Debian!
▶ For 12 ports (architectures), including 2 non-Linux (Hurd; KFreeBSD)
▶ Also used by 120 Debian derivative distributions
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The Deb package format
▶ .deb file: an ar archive
$ ar tv wget_1 .12 -2.1 _i386 . deb
rw -r - -r - - 0/0 4 Sep 5 15:43 2010 debian - binary
rw -r - -r - - 0/0 2403 Sep 5 15:43 2010 control . tar . gz
rw -r - -r - - 0/0 751613 Sep 5 15:43 2010 data . tar . gz
▶ debian-binary: version of the deb file format, "2.0\n"
▶ control.tar.gz: metadata about the package
control, md5sums, (pre|post)(rm|inst), triggers, shlibs, . . .
▶ data.tar.gz: data files of the package
▶ You could create your .deb files manually
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/html_single/Debian-Binary-Package-Building-HOWTO/
▶ But most people don’t do it that way
This tutorial: create Debian packages, the Debian way
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Tools you will need
▶ A Debian (or Ubuntu) system (with root access)
▶ Some packages:
▶ build-essential: has dependencies on the packages that will be
assumed to be available on the developer’s machine (no need to
specify them in the Build-Depends: control field of your package)
▶ includes a dependency on dpkg-dev, which contains basic
Debian-specific tools to create packages
▶ devscripts: contains many useful scripts for Debian maintainers
Many other tools will also be mentioned later, such as debhelper, cdbs, quilt,
pbuilder, sbuild, lintian, svn-buildpackage, git-buildpackage, . . .
Install them when you need them.
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General packaging workflow
Debian mirror Web upstream source
apt-get source dget dh_make
where most of the
source package
manual work is done
debuild (build and test with lintian)
or dpkg-buildpackage
one or several binary packages .deb
upload (dput) install (debi)
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Example: rebuilding dash
1 Install packages needed to build dash, and devscripts
sudo apt-get build-dep dash
(requires deb-src lines in /etc/apt/sources.list)
sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends devscripts
fakeroot
2 Create a working directory, and get in it:
mkdir /tmp/debian-tutorial ; cd /tmp/debian-tutorial
3 Grab the dash source package
apt-get source dash
(This needs you to have deb-src lines in your /etc/apt/sources.list)
4 Build the package
cd dash-*
debuild -us -uc (-us -uc disables signing the package with GPG)
5 Check that it worked
▶ There are some new .deb files in the parent directory
6 Look at the debian/ directory
▶ That’s where the packaging work is done
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Outline
1 Introduction
2 Creating source packages
3 Building and testing packages
4 Practical session 1: modifying the grep package
5 Advanced packaging topics
6 Maintaining packages in Debian
7 Conclusions
8 Additional practical sessions
9 Answers to practical sessions
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Source package
▶ One source package can generate several binary packages
e.g. the libtar source generates the libtar0 and libtar-dev binary packages
▶ Two kinds of packages: (if unsure, use non-native)
▶ Native packages: normally for Debian specific software (dpkg, apt)
▶ Non-native packages: software developed outside Debian
▶ Main file: .dsc (meta-data)
▶ Other files depending on the version of the source format
▶ 1.0 or 3.0 (native): package_version.tar.gz
▶ 1.0 (non-native):
▶ pkg_ver.orig.tar.gz: upstream source
▶ pkg_debver.diff.gz: patch to add Debian-specific changes
▶ 3.0 (quilt):
▶ pkg_ver.orig.tar.gz: upstream source
▶ pkg_debver.debian.tar.gz: tarball with the Debian changes
(See dpkg-source(1) for exact details)
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Source package example (wget_1.12-2.1.dsc)
Format : 3.0 ( quilt )
Source : wget
Binary : wget
Architecture : any
Version : 1.12 -2.1
Maintainer : Noel Kothe < noel@debian . org >
Homepage : http :// www . gnu . org / software / wget /
Standards - Version : 3.8.4
Build - Depends : debhelper ( > > 5.0.0) , gettext , texinfo ,
libssl - dev ( >= 0.9.8) , dpatch , info2man
Checksums - Sha1 :
50 d4ed2441e67 [..]1 ee0e94248 2464747 wget_1 .12. orig . tar . gz
d4c1c8bbe431d [..] dd7cef3611 48308 wget_1 .12 -2.1. debian . tar . gz
Checksums - Sha256 :
7578 ed0974e12 [..] dcba65b572 2464747 wget_1 .12. orig . tar . gz
1 e9b0c4c00eae [..]89 c402ad78 48308 wget_1 .12 -2.1. debian . tar . gz
Files :
141461 b9c04e4 [..]9 d1f2abf83 2464747 wget_1 .12. orig . tar . gz
e93123c934e3c [..]2 f380278c2 48308 wget_1 .12 -2.1. debian . tar . gz
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Retrieving an existing source package
▶ From the Debian archive:
▶ apt-get source package
▶ apt-get source package=version
▶ apt-get source package/release
(You need deb-src lines in sources.list)
▶ From the Internet:
▶ dget url-to.dsc
▶ dget http://snapshot.debian.org/archive/debian-archive/
20090802T004153Z/debian/dists/bo/main/source/web/
wget_1.4.4-6.dsc
(snapshot.d.o provides all packages from Debian since 2005)
▶ From the (declared) version control system:
▶ debcheckout package
▶ Once downloaded, extract with dpkg-source -x file.dsc
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Creating a basic source package
▶ Download the upstream source
(upstream source = the one from the software’s original developers)
▶ Rename to <source_package >_<upstream_version >.orig.tar.gz
(example: simgrid_3.6.orig.tar.gz)
▶ Untar it
▶ Rename the directory to <source_package >-<upstream_version >
(example: simgrid-3.6)
▶ cd <source_package >-<upstream_version > && dh_make
(from the dh-make package)
▶ There are some alternatives to dh_make for specific sets of packages:
dh-make-perl, dh-make-php, . . .
▶ debian/ directory created, with a lot of files in it
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Files in debian/
All the packaging work should be made by modifying files in debian/
▶ Main files:
▶ control – meta-data about the package (dependencies, etc.)
▶ rules – specifies how to build the package
▶ copyright – copyright information for the package
▶ changelog – history of the Debian package
▶ Other files:
▶ compat
▶ watch
▶ dh_install* targets
*.dirs, *.docs, *.manpages, . . .
▶ maintainer scripts
*.postinst, *.prerm, . . .
▶ source/format
▶ patches/ – if you need to modify the upstream sources
▶ Several files use a format based on RFC 822 (mail headers)
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debian/changelog
▶ Lists the Debian packaging changes
▶ Gives the current version of the package
1.2.1.1-5
Upstream Debian
version revision
▶ Edited manually or with dch
▶ Create a changelog entry for a new release: dch -i
▶ Special format to automatically close Debian or Ubuntu bugs
Debian: Closes: #595268; Ubuntu: LP: #616929
▶ Installed as /usr/share/doc/package /changelog.Debian.gz
mpich2 (1.2.1.1 -5) unstable ; urgency = low
* Use / usr / bin / python instead of / usr / bin / python2 .5. Allow
to drop dependency on python2 .5. Closes : #595268
* Make / usr / bin / mpdroot setuid . This is the default after
the installation of mpich2 from source , too . LP : #616929
+ Add corresponding lintian override .
-- Lucas Nussbaum < lucas@debian . org > Wed , 15 Sep 2010 18:13:44 +0200
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debian/control
▶ Package metadata
▶ For the source package itself
▶ For each binary package built from this source
▶ Package name, section, priority, maintainer, uploaders,
build-dependencies, dependencies, description, homepage, . . .
▶ Documentation: Debian Policy chapter 5
https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-controlfields
Source : wget
Section : web
Priority : important
Maintainer : Noel Kothe < noel@debian . org >
Build - Depends : debhelper ( > > 5.0.0) , gettext , texinfo ,
libssl - dev ( >= 0.9.8) , dpatch , info2man
Standards - Version : 3.8.4
Homepage : http :// www . gnu . org / software / wget /
Package : wget
Architecture : any
Depends : $ { shlibs : Depends } , $ { misc : Depends }
Description : retrieves files from the web
Wget is a network utility to retrieve files from the Web
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Architecture: all or any
Two kinds of binary packages:
▶ Packages with different contents on each Debian architecture
▶ Example: C program
▶ Architecture: any in debian/control
▶ Or, if it only works on a subset of architectures:
Architecture: amd64 i386 ia64 hurd-i386
▶ buildd.debian.org: builds all the other architectures for you on upload
▶ Named package _version _architecture.deb
▶ Packages with the same content on all architectures
▶ Example: Perl library
▶ Architecture: all in debian/control
▶ Named package _version _all.deb
A source package can generate a mix of Architecture: any and
Architecture: all binary packages
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debian/rules
▶ Makefile
▶ Interface used to build Debian packages
▶ Documented in Debian Policy, chapter 4.8
https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-source#s-debianrules
▶ Required targets:
▶ build, build-arch, build-indep: should perform all the
configuration and compilation
▶ binary, binary-arch, binary-indep: build the binary packages
▶ dpkg-buildpackage will call binary to build all the packages, or
binary-arch to build only the Architecture: any packages
▶ clean: clean up the source directory
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Packaging helpers – debhelper
▶ You could write shell code in debian/rules directly
▶ Better practice (used by most packages): use a Packaging helper
▶ Most popular one: debhelper (used by 98% of packages)
▶ Goals:
▶ Factor the common tasks in standard tools used by all packages
▶ Fix some packaging bugs once for all packages
dh_installdirs, dh_installchangelogs, dh_installdocs, dh_install, dh_installdebconf,
dh_installinit, dh_link, dh_strip, dh_compress, dh_fixperms, dh_perl, dh_makeshlibs,
dh_installdeb, dh_shlibdeps, dh_gencontrol, dh_md5sums, dh_builddeb, . . .
▶ Called from debian/rules
▶ Configurable using command parameters or files in debian/
package.docs, package.examples, package.install, package.manpages, ...
▶ Third-party helpers for sets of packages: python-support, dh_ocaml, . . .
▶ debian/compat: Debhelper compatibility version
▶ Defines precise behaviour of dh_*
▶ New syntax: Build-Depends: debhelper-compat (= 13)
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debian/rules using debhelper (1/2)
#!/ usr / bin / make -f
# Uncomment this to turn on verbose mode .
# export DH_VERBOSE =1
build :
$ ( MAKE )
# docbook - to - man debian / packagename . sgml > packagename .1
clean :
dh_testdir
dh_testroot
rm -f build - stamp configure - stamp
$ ( MAKE ) clean
dh_clean
install : build
dh_testdir
dh_testroot
dh_clean -k
dh_installdirs
# Add here commands to install the package into debian / package
$ ( MAKE ) DESTDIR = $ ( CURDIR )/ debian / packagename install
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debian/rules using debhelper (2/2)
# Build architecture - independent files here .
binary - indep : build install
# Build architecture - dependent files here .
binary - arch : build install
dh_testdir
dh_testroot
dh_installchangelogs
dh_installdocs
dh_installexamples
dh_install
dh_installman
dh_link
dh_strip
dh_compress
dh_fixperms
dh_installdeb
dh_shlibdeps
dh_gencontrol
dh_md5sums
dh_builddeb
binary : binary - indep binary - arch
. PHONY : build clean binary - indep binary - arch binary install configure
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CDBS
▶ With debhelper, still a lot of redundancy between packages
▶ Second-level helpers that factor common functionality
▶ E.g. building with ./configure && make && make install or
CMake
▶ CDBS:
▶ Introduced in 2005, based on advanced GNU make magic
▶ Documentation: /usr/share/doc/cdbs/
▶ Support for Perl, Python, Ruby, GNOME, KDE, Java, Haskell, . . .
▶ But some people hate it:
▶ Sometimes difficult to customize package builds:
"twisty maze of makefiles and environment variables"
▶ Slower than plain debhelper (many useless calls to dh_*)
#!/ usr / bin / make -f
include / usr / share / cdbs /1/ rules / debhelper . mk
include / usr / share / cdbs /1/ class / autotools . mk
# add an action after the build
build / mypackage ::
/ bin / bash debian / scripts / foo . sh
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Dh (aka Debhelper 7, or dh7)
▶ Introduced in 2008 as a CDBS killer
▶ dh command that calls dh_*
▶ Simple debian/rules, listing only overrides
▶ Easier to customize than CDBS
▶ Doc: manpages (debhelper(7), dh(1)) + slides from DebConf9 talk
http://kitenet.net/~joey/talks/debhelper/debhelper-slides.pdf
#!/ usr / bin / make -f
%:
dh $@
override_dh_auto_configure :
d h _ a u t o _ c o n f i g u r e -- -- with - kitchen - sink
override_dh_auto_build :
make world
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Classic debhelper vs CDBS vs dh
▶ Mind shares:
Classic debhelper: 15% CDBS: 15% dh: 68%
▶ Which one should I learn?
▶ Probably a bit of all of them
▶ You need to know debhelper to use dh and CDBS
▶ You might have to modify CDBS packages
▶ Which one should I use for a new package?
▶ dh (only solution with an increasing mind share)
▶ See https://trends.debian.net/#build-systems
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Outline
1 Introduction
2 Creating source packages
3 Building and testing packages
4 Practical session 1: modifying the grep package
5 Advanced packaging topics
6 Maintaining packages in Debian
7 Conclusions
8 Additional practical sessions
9 Answers to practical sessions
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Building packages
▶ apt-get build-dep mypackage
Installs the build-dependencies (for a package already in Debian)
Or mk-build-deps -ir (for a package not uploaded yet)
▶ debuild: build, test with lintian, sign with GPG
▶ Also possible to call dpkg-buildpackage directly
▶ Usually with dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc
▶ It is better to build packages in a clean & minimal environment
▶ pbuilder – helper to build packages in a chroot
Good documentation: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PbuilderHowto
(optimization: cowbuilder ccache distcc)
▶ schroot and sbuild: used on the Debian build daemons
(not as simple as pbuilder, but allows LVM snapshots
see: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SbuildLVMHowto )
▶ Generates .deb files and a .changes file
▶ .changes: describes what was built; used to upload the package
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Installing and testing packages
▶ Install the package locally: debi (will use .changes to know what to install)
▶ List the content of the package: debc ../mypackage<TAB>.changes
▶ Compare the package with a previous version:
debdiff ../mypackage_1_*.changes ../mypackage_2_*.changes
or to compare the sources:
debdiff ../mypackage_1_*.dsc ../mypackage_2_*.dsc
▶ Check the package with lintian (static analyzer):
lintian ../mypackage<TAB>.changes
lintian -i: gives more information about the errors
lintian -EviIL +pedantic: shows more problems
▶ Upload the package to Debian (dput) (needs configuration)
▶ Manage a private Debian archive with reprepro or aptly
Documentation:
https://wiki.debian.org/HowToSetupADebianRepository
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Outline
1 Introduction
2 Creating source packages
3 Building and testing packages
4 Practical session 1: modifying the grep package
5 Advanced packaging topics
6 Maintaining packages in Debian
7 Conclusions
8 Additional practical sessions
9 Answers to practical sessions
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Practical session 1: modifying the grep package
1 Go to http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/g/grep/ and
download version 2.12-2 of the package
▶ If the source package is not unpacked automatically, unpack it with
dpkg-source -x grep_*.dsc
2 Look at the files in debian/.
▶ How many binary packages are generated by this source package?
▶ Which packaging helper does this package use?
3 Build the package
4 We are now going to modify the package. Add a changelog entry and
increase the version number.
5 Now disable perl-regexp support (it is a ./configure option)
6 Rebuild the package
7 Compare the original and the new package with debdiff
8 Install the newly built package
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Outline
1 Introduction
2 Creating source packages
3 Building and testing packages
4 Practical session 1: modifying the grep package
5 Advanced packaging topics
6 Maintaining packages in Debian
7 Conclusions
8 Additional practical sessions
9 Answers to practical sessions
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debian/copyright
▶ Copyright and license information for the source and the packaging
▶ Traditionally written as a text file
▶ New machine-readable format:
https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/
Format : https :// www . debian . org / doc / packaging - manuals / copyright - format /1.0/
Upstream - Name : X Solitaire
Source : ftp :// ftp . example . com / pub / games
Files : *
Copyright : Copyright 1998 John Doe < jdoe@example . com >
License : GPL -2+
This program is free software ; you can redistribute it
[...]
.
On Debian systems , the full text of the GNU General Public
License version 2 can be found in the file
‘/ usr / share / common - licenses / GPL -2 ’.
Files : debian /*
Copyright : Copyright 1998 Jane Smith < jsmith@example . net >
License :
[ LICENSE TEXT ]
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Modifying the upstream source
Often needed:
▶ Fix bugs or add customizations that are specific to Debian
▶ Backport fixes from a newer upstream release
Several methods to do it:
▶ Modifying the files directly
▶ Simple
▶ But no way to track and document the changes
▶ Using patch systems
▶ Eases contributing your changes to upstream
▶ Helps sharing the fixes with derivatives
▶ Gives more exposure to the changes
http://patch-tracker.debian.org/ (down currently)
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Patch systems
▶ Principle: changes are stored as patches in debian/patches/
▶ Applied and unapplied during build
▶ Past: several implementations – simple-patchsys (cdbs), dpatch, quilt
▶ Each supports two debian/rules targets:
▶ debian/rules patch: apply all patches
▶ debian/rules unpatch: de-apply all patches
▶ More documentation: https://wiki.debian.org/debian/patches
▶ New source package format with built-in patch system: 3.0 (quilt)
▶ Recommended solution
▶ You need to learn quilt
https://perl-team.pages.debian.net/howto/quilt.html
▶ Patch-system-agnostic tool in devscripts: edit-patch
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Documentation of patches
▶ Standard headers at the beginning of the patch
▶ Documented in DEP-3 - Patch Tagging Guidelines
http://dep.debian.net/deps/dep3/
Description : Fix widget frobnication speeds
Frobnicating widgets too quickly tended to cause explosions .
Forwarded : http :// lists . example . com /2010/03/1234. html
Author : John Doe < johndoe - guest@users . alioth . debian . org >
Applied - Upstream : 1.2 , http :// bzr . foo . com / frobnicator / revision /123
Last - Update : 2010 -03 -29
--- a / src / widgets . c
+++ b / src / widgets . c
@@ -101 ,9 +101 ,6 @@ struct {
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Doing things during installation and removal
▶ Decompressing the package is sometimes not enough
▶ Create/remove system users, start/stop services, manage alternatives
▶ Done in maintainer scripts
preinst, postinst, prerm, postrm
▶ Snippets for common actions can be generated by debhelper
▶ Documentation:
▶ Debian Policy Manual, chapter 6
https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-maintainerscripts
▶ Debian Developer’s Reference, chapter 6.4
https://www.debian.org/doc/developers-reference/best-pkging-practices.html
▶ https://people.debian.org/~srivasta/MaintainerScripts.html
▶ Prompting the user
▶ Must be done with debconf
▶ Documentation: debconf-devel(7) (debconf-doc package)
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Monitoring upstream versions
▶ Specify where to look in debian/watch (see uscan(1))
version =3
http :// tmrc . mit . edu / mirror / twisted / Twisted /(\ d \.\ d )/ \
Twisted -([\ d \.]*)\. tar \. bz2
▶ There are automated trackers of new upstream versions, that notify the
maintainer on various dashboards including
https://tracker.debian.org/ and https://udd.debian.org/dmd/
▶ uscan: run a manual check
▶ uupdate: try to update your package to the latest upstream version
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Packaging with a Version Control System
▶ Several tools to help manage branches and tags for your packaging work:
svn-buildpackage, git-buildpackage
▶ Example: git-buildpackage
▶ upstream branch to track upstream with upstream/version tags
▶ master branch tracks the Debian package
▶ debian/version tags for each upload
▶ pristine-tar branch to be able to rebuild the upstream tarball
Doc: http://honk.sigxcpu.org/projects/git-buildpackage/
manual-html/gbp.html
▶ Vcs-* fields in debian/control to locate the repository
▶ https://wiki.debian.org/Salsa
Vcs - Browser : https :// salsa . debian . org / debian / devscripts
Vcs - Git : https :// salsa . debian . org / debian / devscripts . git
Vcs - Browser : https :// salsa . debian . org / perl - team / modules / packages / libwww - perl
Vcs - Git : https :// salsa . debian . org / perl - team / modules / packages / libwww - perl . git
▶ VCS-agnostic interface: debcheckout, debcommit, debrelease
▶ debcheckout grep → checks out the source package from Git
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Backporting packages
▶ Goal: use a newer version of a package on an older system
e.g. use mutt from Debian unstable on Debian stable
▶ General idea:
▶ Take the source package from Debian unstable
▶ Modify it so that it builds and works fine on Debian stable
▶ Sometimes trivial (no changes needed)
▶ Sometimes difficult
▶ Sometimes impossible (many unavailable dependencies)
▶ Some backports are provided and supported by the Debian project
http://backports.debian.org/
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Outline
1 Introduction
2 Creating source packages
3 Building and testing packages
4 Practical session 1: modifying the grep package
5 Advanced packaging topics
6 Maintaining packages in Debian
7 Conclusions
8 Additional practical sessions
9 Answers to practical sessions
Debian Packaging Tutorial 41 / 89
Debian archive and suites
security team developer
experimental
unstable
testing-proposed-updates
stable-proposed-updates
testing preparation of
stable next release
release stable-new
stable
management stable release
point
release
security stable-updates stable backports
package uploads oldstable
package migrations between suites
archive.d.o
development test internal production
Based on graph by Antoine Beaupré. https://salsa.debian.org/debian/package- cycle
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Suites for development
▶ New versions of packages are uploaded to unstable (sid)
▶ Packages migrate from unstable to testing based on several criterias
(e.g. has been in unstable for 10 days, and no regressions)
▶ New packages can also be uploaded to:
▶ experimental (for more experimental packages, such as when the
new version is not ready to replace the one currently in unstable)
▶ testing-proposed-updates, to update the version in testing without
going through unstable (this is rarely used)
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Freezing and releasing
▶ At some point during the release cycle, the release team decides to freeze
testing: automatic migrations from unstable to testing are stopped, and
replaced by manual review
▶ When the release team considers testing to be ready for release:
▶ The testing suite becomes the new stable suite
▶ Similarly, the old stable becomes oldstable
▶ Unsupported releases are moved to archive.debian.org
▶ See https://release.debian.org/
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Stable release suites and management
▶ Several suites are used to provide stable release packages:
▶ stable: the main suite
▶ security updates suite provided on security.debian.org, used by
the security team. Updates are announced on the
debian-security-announce mailing list
▶ stable-updates: updates that are not security related, but that should
urgently be installed (without waiting for the next point release):
antivirus databases, timezone-related packages, etc. Announced on
the debian-stable-announce mailing list
▶ backports: new upstream versions, based on the version in testing
▶ The stable suite is updated every few months by stable point releases
(that include only bug fixes)
▶ Packages targetting the next stable point release are uploaded to
stable-proposed-updates and reviewed by the release team
▶ The oldstable release has the same set of suites
Debian Packaging Tutorial 45 / 89
Several ways to contribute to Debian
▶ Worst way to contribute:
1 Package your own application
2 Get it into Debian
3 Disappear
▶ Better ways to contribute:
▶ Get involved in packaging teams
▶ Many teams that focus on set of packages, and need help
▶ List available at https://wiki.debian.org/Teams
▶ An excellent way to learn from more experienced contributors
▶ Adopt existing unmaintained packages (orphaned packages)
▶ Bring new software to Debian
▶ Only if it’s interesting/useful enough, please
▶ Are there alternatives already packaged in Debian?
Debian Packaging Tutorial 46 / 89
Adopting orphaned packages
▶ Many unmaintained packages in Debian
▶ Full list + process: https://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/
▶ Installed on your machine: wnpp-alert
Or better: how-can-i-help
▶ Different states:
▶ Orphaned: the package is unmaintained
Feel free to adopt it
▶ RFA: Request For Adopter
Maintainer looking for adopter, but continues work in the meantime
Feel free to adopt it. A mail to the current maintainer is polite
▶ ITA: Intent To Adopt
Someone intends to adopt the package
You could propose your help!
▶ RFH: Request For Help
The maintainer is looking for help
▶ Some unmaintained packages not detected → not orphaned yet
▶ When in doubt, ask debian-qa@lists.debian.org
or #debian-qa on irc.debian.org Debian Packaging Tutorial 47 / 89
Adopting a package: example
From : You < you@yourdomain >
To : 640454 @bugs . debian . org , control@bugs . debian . org
Cc : Francois Marier < fran coi s@de bian . org >
Subject : ITA : verbiste -- French conjugator
retitle 640454 ITA : verbiste -- French conjugator
owner 640454 !
thanks
Hi ,
I am using verbiste and I am willing to take care of the package .
Cheers ,
You
▶ Polite to contact the previous maintainer (especially if the package was
RFAed, not orphaned)
▶ Very good idea to contact the upstream project
Debian Packaging Tutorial 48 / 89
Getting your package in Debian
▶ You do not need any official status to get your package into Debian
1 Submit an ITP bug (Intent To Package) using reportbug wnpp
2 Prepare a source package
3 Find a Debian Developer that will sponsor your package
▶ Official status (when you are an experienced package maintainer):
▶ Debian Maintainer (DM):
Permission to upload your own packages
See https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMaintainer
▶ Debian Developer (DD):
Debian project member; can vote and upload any package
Debian Packaging Tutorial 49 / 89
Things to check before asking for sponsorship
▶ Debian puts a lot of focus on quality
▶ Generally, sponsors are hard to find and busy
▶ Make sure your package is ready before asking for sponsorship
▶ Things to check:
▶ Avoid missing build-dependencies: make sure that your package
build fine in a clean sid chroot
▶ Using pbuilder is recommended
▶ Run lintian -EviIL +pedantic on your package
▶ Errors must be fixed, all other problems should be fixed
▶ Do extensive testing of your package, of course
▶ In doubt, ask for help
Debian Packaging Tutorial 50 / 89
Where to find help?
Help you will need:
▶ Advice and answers to your questions, code reviews
▶ Sponsorship for your uploads, once your package is ready
You can get help from:
▶ Other members of a packaging team
▶ List of teams: https://wiki.debian.org/Teams
▶ The Debian Mentors group (if your package does not fit in a team)
▶ https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMentorsFaq
▶ Mailing list: debian-mentors@lists.debian.org
(also a good way to learn by accident)
▶ IRC: #debian-mentors on irc.debian.org
▶ http://mentors.debian.net/
▶ Documentation: http://mentors.debian.net/intro-maintainers
▶ Localized mailing lists (get help in your language)
▶ debian-devel-{french,italian,portuguese,spanish}@lists.d.o
▶ Full list: https://lists.debian.org/devel.html
▶ Or users lists: https://lists.debian.org/users.html
Debian Packaging Tutorial 51 / 89
More documentation
▶ Debian Developers’ Corner
https://www.debian.org/devel/
Links to many resources about Debian development
▶ Guide for Debian Maintainers
https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debmake-doc/
▶ Debian Developer’s Reference
https://www.debian.org/doc/developers-reference/
Mostly about Debian procedures, but also some best packaging practices (part 6)
▶ Debian Policy
https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/
▶ All the requirements that every package must satisfy
▶ Specific policies for Perl, Java, Python, . . .
▶ Ubuntu Packaging Guide
http://developer.ubuntu.com/resources/tools/packaging/
Debian Packaging Tutorial 52 / 89
Debian dashboards for maintainers
▶ Source package centric:
https://tracker.debian.org/dpkg
▶ Maintainer/team centric: Developer’s Packages Overview (DDPO)
https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=
pkg-ruby-extras-maintainers@lists.alioth.debian.org
▶ TODO-list oriented: Debian Maintainer Dashboard (DMD)
https://udd.debian.org/dmd/
Debian Packaging Tutorial 53 / 89
Using the Debian Bug Tracking System (BTS)
▶ A quite unique way to manage bugs
▶ Web interface to view bugs
▶ Email interface to make changes to bugs
▶ Adding information to bugs:
▶ Write to 123456@bugs.debian.org (does not include the submitter,
you need to add 123456-submitter@bugs.debian.org)
▶ Changing bug status:
▶ Send commands to control@bugs.debian.org
▶ Command-line interface: bts command in devscripts
▶ Documentation: https://www.debian.org/Bugs/server-control
▶ Reporting bugs: use reportbug
▶ Normally used with a local mail server: install ssmtp or nullmailer
▶ Or use reportbug --template, then send (manually) to
submit@bugs.debian.org
Debian Packaging Tutorial 54 / 89
Using the BTS: examples
▶ Sending an email to the bug and the submitter:
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=680822#10
▶ Tagging and changing the severity:
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=680227#10
▶ Reassigning, changing the severity, retitling . . . :
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=680822#93
▶ notfound, found, notfixed, fixed are for version-tracking
See https://wiki.debian.org/HowtoUseBTS#Version_tracking
▶ Using usertags: https:
//bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?msg=42;bug=642267
See https://wiki.debian.org/bugs.debian.org/usertags
▶ BTS Documentation:
▶ https://www.debian.org/Bugs/
▶ https://wiki.debian.org/HowtoUseBTS
Debian Packaging Tutorial 55 / 89
More interested in Ubuntu?
▶ Ubuntu mainly manages the divergence with Debian
▶ No real focus on specific packages
Instead, collaboration with Debian teams
▶ Usually recommend uploading new packages to Debian first
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDevelopment/NewPackages
▶ Possibly a better plan:
▶ Get involved in a Debian team and act as a bridge with Ubuntu
▶ Help reduce divergence, triage bugs in Launchpad
▶ Many Debian tools can help:
▶ Ubuntu column on the Developer’s packages overview
▶ Ubuntu box on the Package Tracking System
▶ Receive launchpad bugmail via the PTS
Debian Packaging Tutorial 56 / 89
Outline
1 Introduction
2 Creating source packages
3 Building and testing packages
4 Practical session 1: modifying the grep package
5 Advanced packaging topics
6 Maintaining packages in Debian
7 Conclusions
8 Additional practical sessions
9 Answers to practical sessions
Debian Packaging Tutorial 57 / 89
Conclusions
▶ You now have a full overview of Debian packaging
▶ But you will need to read more documentation
▶ Best practices have evolved over the years
▶ If not sure, use the dh packaging helper, and the 3.0 (quilt) format
Feedback: packaging-tutorial@packages.debian.org
Debian Packaging Tutorial 58 / 89
Legal stuff
Copyright ©2011–2019 Lucas Nussbaum – lucas@debian.org
This document is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under either
(at your option):
▶ The terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
▶ The terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Debian Packaging Tutorial 59 / 89
Contribute to this tutorial
▶ Contribute:
▶ apt-get source packaging-tutorial
▶ debcheckout packaging-tutorial
▶ git clone
https://salsa.debian.org/debian/packaging-tutorial.git
▶ https://salsa.debian.org/debian/packaging-tutorial
▶ Open bugs: bugs.debian.org/src:packaging-tutorial
▶ Provide feedback:
▶ mailto:packaging-tutorial@packages.debian.org
▶ What should be added to this tutorial?
▶ What should be improved?
▶ reportbug packaging-tutorial
Debian Packaging Tutorial 60 / 89
Outline
1 Introduction
2 Creating source packages
3 Building and testing packages
4 Practical session 1: modifying the grep package
5 Advanced packaging topics
6 Maintaining packages in Debian
7 Conclusions
8 Additional practical sessions
9 Answers to practical sessions
Debian Packaging Tutorial 61 / 89
Practical session 2: packaging GNUjump
1 Download GNUjump 1.0.8 from
http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gnujump/gnujump-1.0.8.tar.gz
2 Create a Debian package for it
▶ Install build-dependencies so that you can build the package
▶ Fix bugs
▶ Get a basic working package
▶ Finish filling debian/control and other files
3 Enjoy
Debian Packaging Tutorial 62 / 89
Practical session 2: packaging GNUjump (tips)
▶ To get a basic working package, use dh_make
▶ To start with, creating a 1.0 source package is easier than 3.0 (quilt)
(change that in debian/source/format)
▶ To search for missing build-dependencies, find a missing file, and use
apt-file to find the missing package
▶ If you encounter that error:
/ usr / bin / ld : SDL_rotozoom . o : undefined reference to symbol ’ ceil@@GLIBC_2 .2.5 ’
// lib / x86_64 - linux - gnu / libm . so .6: error adding symbols : DSO missing from command line
collect2 : error : ld returned 1 exit status
Makefile :376: recipe for target ’ gnujump ’ failed
You need to add -lm to the linker command line:
Edit src/Makefile.am and replace
gn ujum p_LD FLAG S = $ ( all_libraries )
by
gn ujum p_LD FLAG S = -Wl , - - as - needed
gnujump_LDADD = $ ( all_libraries ) - lm
Then run autoreconf -i
Debian Packaging Tutorial 63 / 89
Practical session 3: packaging a Java library
1 Take a quick look at some documentation about Java packaging:
▶ https://wiki.debian.org/Java
▶ https://wiki.debian.org/Java/Packaging
▶ https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/java-policy/
▶ /usr/share/doc/javahelper/tutorial.txt.gz
2 Download IRClib from http://moepii.sourceforge.net/
3 Package it
Debian Packaging Tutorial 64 / 89
Practical session 4: packaging a Ruby gem
1 Take a quick look at some documentation about Ruby packaging:
▶ https://wiki.debian.org/Ruby
▶ https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Ruby
▶ https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Ruby/Packaging
▶ gem2deb(1), dh_ruby(1) (in the gem2deb package)
2 Create a basic Debian source package from the peach gem:
gem2deb peach
3 Improve it so that it becomes a proper Debian package
Debian Packaging Tutorial 65 / 89
Practical session 5: packaging a Perl module
1 Take a quick look at some documentation about Perl packaging:
▶ https://perl-team.pages.debian.net
▶ https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/DebianPerlGroup
▶ dh-make-perl(1), dpt(1) (in the pkg-perl-tools package)
2 Create a basic Debian source package from the Acme CPAN distribution:
dh-make-perl --cpan Acme
3 Improve it so that it becomes a proper Debian package
Debian Packaging Tutorial 66 / 89
Outline
1 Introduction
2 Creating source packages
3 Building and testing packages
4 Practical session 1: modifying the grep package
5 Advanced packaging topics
6 Maintaining packages in Debian
7 Conclusions
8 Additional practical sessions
9 Answers to practical sessions
Debian Packaging Tutorial 67 / 89
Answers to
practical sessions
Debian Packaging Tutorial 68 / 89
Practical session 1: modifying the grep package
1 Go to http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/g/grep/ and
download version 2.12-2 of the package
2 Look at the files in debian/.
▶ How many binary packages are generated by this source package?
▶ Which packaging helper does this package use?
3 Build the package
4 We are now going to modify the package. Add a changelog entry and
increase the version number.
5 Now disable perl-regexp support (it is a ./configure option)
6 Rebuild the package
7 Compare the original and the new package with debdiff
8 Install the newly built package
Debian Packaging Tutorial 69 / 89
Fetching the source
1 Go to http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/g/grep/ and
download version 2.12-2 of the package
▶ Use dget to download the .dsc file:
dget http://cdn.debian.net/debian/pool/main/g/grep/grep_2.12-2.dsc
▶ If you have deb-src for a Debian release that has grep version 2.12-2
(find out on https://tracker.debian.org/grep), you can use: apt-get
source grep=2.12-2
or apt-get source grep/release (e.g. grep/stable)
or, if you feel lucky: apt-get source grep
▶ The grep source package is composed of three files:
▶ grep_2.12-2.dsc
▶ grep_2.12-2.debian.tar.bz2
▶ grep_2.12.orig.tar.bz2
This is typical of the "3.0 (quilt)" format.
▶ If needed, uncompress the source with
dpkg-source -x grep_2.12-2.dsc
Debian Packaging Tutorial 70 / 89
Looking around and building the package
2 Look at the files in debian/
▶ How many binary packages are generated by this source package?
▶ Which packaging helper does this package use?
▶ According to debian/control, this package only generates one binary
package, named grep.
▶ According to debian/rules, this package is typical of classic debhelper
packaging, without using CDBS or dh. One can see the various calls to
dh_* commands in debian/rules.
3 Build the package
▶ Use apt-get build-dep grep to fetch the build-dependencies
▶ Then debuild or dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc (Takes about 1 min)
Debian Packaging Tutorial 71 / 89
Editing the changelog
4 We are now going to modify the package. Add a changelog entry and
increase the version number.
▶ debian/changelog is a text file. You could edit it and add a new entry
manually.
▶ Or you can use dch -i, which will add an entry and open the editor
▶ The name and email can be defined using the DEBFULLNAME and DEBEMAIL
environment variables
▶ After that, rebuild the package: a new version of the package is built
▶ Package versioning is detailed in section 5.6.12 of the Debian policy
https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-controlfields
Debian Packaging Tutorial 72 / 89
Disabling Perl regexp support and rebuilding
5 Now disable perl-regexp support (it is a ./configure option)
6 Rebuild the package
▶ Check with ./configure --help: the option to disable Perl regexp is
--disable-perl-regexp
▶ Edit debian/rules and find the ./configure line
▶ Add --disable-perl-regexp
▶ Rebuild with debuild or dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc
Debian Packaging Tutorial 73 / 89
Comparing and testing the packages
7 Compare the original and the new package with debdiff
8 Install the newly built package
▶ Compare the binary packages: debdiff ../*changes
▶ Compare the source packages: debdiff ../*dsc
▶ Install the newly built package: debi
Or dpkg -i ../grep_<TAB>
▶ grep -P foo no longer works!
Reinstall the previous version of the package:
▶ apt-get install --reinstall grep=2.6.3-3 (= previous version)
Debian Packaging Tutorial 74 / 89
Practical session 2: packaging GNUjump
1 Download GNUjump 1.0.8 from
http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gnujump/gnujump-1.0.8.tar.gz
2 Create a Debian package for it
▶ Install build-dependencies so that you can build the package
▶ Get a basic working package
▶ Finish filling debian/control and other files
3 Enjoy
Debian Packaging Tutorial 75 / 89
Step by step. . .
▶ wget http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gnujump/gnujump-1.0.8.tar.gz
▶ mv gnujump-1.0.8.tar.gz gnujump_1.0.8.orig.tar.gz
▶ tar xf gnujump_1.0.8.orig.tar.gz
▶ cd gnujump-1.0.8/
▶ dh_make -f ../gnujump-1.0.8.tar.gz
▶ Type of package: single binary (for now)
gnujump -1.0.8 $ ls debian /
changelog gnujump . default . ex preinst . ex
compat gnujump . doc - base . EX prerm . ex
control init . d . ex README . Debian
copyright manpage .1. ex README . source
docs manpage . sgml . ex rules
emacsen - install . ex manpage . xml . ex source
emacsen - remove . ex menu . ex watch . ex
emacsen - startup . ex postinst . ex
gnujump . cron . d . ex postrm . ex
Debian Packaging Tutorial 76 / 89
Step by step. . . (2)
▶ Look at debian/changelog, debian/rules, debian/control
(auto-filled by dh_make)
▶ In debian/control:
Build-Depends: debhelper (>= 7.0.50 ), autotools-dev
Lists the build-dependencies = packages needed to build the package
▶ Try to build the package as-is with debuild (thanks to dh magic)
▶ And add build-dependencies, until it builds
▶ Hint: use apt-cache search and apt-file to find the packages
▶ Example:
checking for sdl - config ... no
checking for SDL - version >= 1.2.0... no
[...]
configure : error : *** SDL version 1.2.0 not found !
→ Add libsdl1.2-dev to Build-Depends and install it.
▶ Better: use pbuilder to build in a clean environment
Debian Packaging Tutorial 77 / 89
Step by step. . . (3)
▶ Required build-dependencies are libsdl1.2-dev,
libsdl-image1.2-dev, libsdl-mixer1.2-dev
▶ Then, you will probably run into another error:
/ usr / bin / ld : SDL_rotozoom . o : undefined reference to symbol ’ ceil@@GLIBC_2 .2.5 ’
// lib / x86_64 - linux - gnu / libm . so .6: error adding symbols : DSO missing from command line
collect2 : error : ld returned 1 exit status
Makefile :376: recipe for target ’ gnujump ’ failed
▶ This problem is caused by bitrot: gnujump has not been adjusted following
linker changes.
▶ If you are using source format version 1.0, you can directly change
upstream sources.
▶ Edit src/Makefile.am and replace
gn ujum p_LD FLAG S = $ ( all_libraries )
by
gn ujum p_LD FLAG S = -Wl , - - as - needed
gnujump_LDADD = $ ( all_libraries ) - lm
▶ Then run autoreconf -i
Debian Packaging Tutorial 78 / 89
Step by step. . . (4)
▶ If you are using source format version 3.0 (quilt), use quilt to prepare a
patch. (see https://wiki.debian.org/UsingQuilt)
▶ export QUILT_PATCHES=debian/patches
▶ mkdir debian/patches
quilt new linker-fixes.patch
quilt add src/Makefile.am
▶ Edit src/Makefile.am and replace
gn ujum p_LD FLAG S = $ ( all_libraries )
by
gn ujum p_LD FLAG S = -Wl , - - as - needed
gnujump_LDADD = $ ( all_libraries ) - lm
▶ quilt refresh
▶ Since src/Makefile.am was changed, autoreconf must be called
during the build. To do that automatically with dh, change the dh call
in debian/rules from: dh $ --with autotools-dev
to: dh $ --with autotools-dev --with autoreconf
Debian Packaging Tutorial 79 / 89
Step by step. . . (5)
▶ The package should now build fine.
▶ Use debc to list the content of the generated package, and debi to install
it and test it.
▶ Test the package with lintian
▶ While not a strict requirement, it is recommended that packages
uploaded to Debian are lintian-clean
▶ More problems can be listed using lintian -EviIL +pedantic
▶ Some hints:
▶ Remove the files that you don’t need in debian/
▶ Fill in debian/control
▶ Install the executable to /usr/games by overriding
dh_auto_configure
▶ Use hardening compiler flags to increase security.
See https://wiki.debian.org/Hardening
Debian Packaging Tutorial 80 / 89
Step by step. . . (6)
▶ Compare your package with the one already packaged in Debian:
▶ It splits the data files to a second package, that is the same across all
architectures (→ saves space in the Debian archive)
▶ It installs a .desktop file (for the GNOME/KDE menus) and also
integrates into the Debian menu
▶ It fixes a few minor problems using patches
Debian Packaging Tutorial 81 / 89
Practical session 3: packaging a Java library
1 Take a quick look at some documentation about Java packaging:
▶ https://wiki.debian.org/Java
▶ https://wiki.debian.org/Java/Packaging
▶ https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/java-policy/
▶ /usr/share/doc/javahelper/tutorial.txt.gz
2 Download IRClib from http://moepii.sourceforge.net/
3 Package it
Debian Packaging Tutorial 82 / 89
Step by step. . .
▶ apt-get install javahelper
▶ Create a basic source package: jh_makepkg
▶ Library
▶ None
▶ Default Free compiler/runtime
▶ Look at and fix debian/*
▶ dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc or debuild
▶ lintian, debc, etc.
▶ Compare your result with the libirclib-java source package
Debian Packaging Tutorial 83 / 89
Practical session 4: packaging a Ruby gem
1 Take a quick look at some documentation about Ruby packaging:
▶ https://wiki.debian.org/Ruby
▶ https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Ruby
▶ https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Ruby/Packaging
▶ gem2deb(1), dh_ruby(1) (in the gem2deb package)
2 Create a basic Debian source package from the peach gem:
gem2deb peach
3 Improve it so that it becomes a proper Debian package
Debian Packaging Tutorial 84 / 89
Step by step. . .
gem2deb peach:
▶ Downloads the gem from rubygems.org
▶ Creates a suitable .orig.tar.gz archive, and untar it
▶ Initializes a Debian source package based on the gem’s metadata
▶ Named ruby-gemname
▶ Tries to build the Debian binary package (this might fail)
dh_ruby (included in gem2deb) does the Ruby-specific tasks:
▶ Build C extensions for each Ruby version
▶ Copy files to their destination directory
▶ Update shebangs in executable scripts
▶ Run tests defined in debian/ruby-tests.rb, debian/ruby-tests.rake,
or debian/ruby-test-files.yaml, as well as various other checks
Debian Packaging Tutorial 85 / 89
Step by step. . . (2)
Improve the generated package:
▶ Run debclean to clean the source tree. Look at debian/.
▶ changelog and compat should be correct
▶ Edit debian/control: improve Description
▶ Write a proper copyright file based on the upstream files
▶ Build the package
▶ Compare your package with the ruby-peach package in the Debian
archive
Debian Packaging Tutorial 86 / 89
Practical session 5: packaging a Perl module
1 Take a quick look at some documentation about Perl packaging:
▶ https://perl-team.pages.debian.net
▶ https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/DebianPerlGroup
▶ dh-make-perl(1), dpt(1) (in the pkg-perl-tools package)
2 Create a basic Debian source package from the Acme CPAN distribution:
dh-make-perl --cpan Acme
3 Improve it so that it becomes a proper Debian package
Debian Packaging Tutorial 87 / 89
Step by step. . .
dh-make-perl --cpan Acme:
▶ Downloads the tarball from the CPAN
▶ Creates a suitable .orig.tar.gz archive, and untars it
▶ Initializes a Debian source package based on the distribution’s metadata
▶ Named libdistname -perl
Debian Packaging Tutorial 88 / 89
Step by step. . . (2)
Improve the generated package:
▶ debian/changelog, debian/compat, debian/libacme-perl.docs, and
debian/watch should be correct
▶ Edit debian/control: improve Description, and remove boilerplate at
the bottom
▶ Edit debian/copyright: remove boilerplate paragraph at the top, add
years of copyright to the Files: * stanza
Debian Packaging Tutorial 89 / 89