Create or Update a Debian package

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Revision as of 21:34, 8 July 2008 by Nad (talk | contribs) (→‎Adding to a package repository: paths must be wrt packages dir)
Procedure.svg Create or Update a Debian package
Organic Design procedure

General procedure

Working directory structure

Here's an example directory structure for a package which replaces the apache default config file and sets up default php and html files in /var/www.

The control file in the DEBIAN sub-directory is the all the main configuration is done. The other three files in that sub-directory are scripts which execute on installation and removal of the package.

The rest of the directory structure outside the DEBIAN sub-directory define the directory structure which will be merged with the root of the filesystem when the package is installed.

Our packages at Organic Design are in /var/www/domains/packages and the source directory structures for them are in the sources subdirectory.

Building into a package

To turn the directory structure into a proper .deb package file, use: 

dpkg -b /var/www/domains/packages/source/<package-name>

The package will be created with the same name but with the .deb extension in the same directory as the package directory. It should be moved into the correct subdirectory of such as /var/www/domains/packages/main.

Adding to a package repository

All the .deb package files must be added to the main repository on the server which is in /var/www/packages/main. Ensure that this repository is included in your /etc/apt/sources.list: 

deb http://packages.organicdesign.co.nz main/

Whenever any of the packages in the repository change, the Packages.gz index file must be updated which can be done as follows. 

cd /var/www/domains/packages
dpkg-scanpackages main /dev/null | gzip > main/Packages.gz

See also

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