[sclug] Ubuntu packaging help

[Will Dickson]

On 26/03/15 18:13, Leon Ward (leonward) wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I?m trying to work on packaging for a couple of projects and I?ve got a bunch of questions.

Quite frankly I?m trying to work out where to start (yes I?ve read the 
Ubuntu packaging guide)
and good some practice advice.

FWIW I've managed to build a .deb for some of my own software (Java in 
my case, so perhaps somewhat atypical), and found these links helpful:

* Java / ant packaging tool (probably only useful if you're packaging a 
java application):

https://github.com/tcurdt/jdeb

* A much simpler HOWTO than anything I could find from either Debian or 
Ubuntu:

http://tldp.org/HOWTO/html_single/Debian-Binary-Package-Building-HOWTO/#AEN48

* Useful links into Debian policy manual - describes various control 
file fields which you'll need to populate:

https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-controlfields.html#s-f-Version
https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-archive.html#s-subsections


A good place to start is to know that a .deb is just an ar archive in 
disguise (ar is like tar only more limited and a different format; I'd 
never heard of it until I started digging into this lot): pick a 
plausible-looking victim from /var/cache/apt/archives, then use ar to 
unpack it and take a look inside.

HTH

Will.