brain-dump/sysadmin/make-a-deb-installer

Making a Deb Installer

There are many different ways to make .deb packages, most of which are time consuming and prone to error (in my experience).

My preferred method is to use a more manual approach, with a 'skeleton' setup. This method is not perfect and is only really useful if you want to do quick packages for yourself or to share with others; not for submitting to Debian's apt repository.

If you don't package applications all the time, it's easy to forget:

• What files need to be in a .deb?
• All of my folders are correct, why is debhelper throwing these errors?

Skeleton Package

In this repo I left skeleton-package-1.0 - this is setup so all one needs to do is simply fill in appropriate package info and plop the source components where they need to go.

Requirements

Debian packages used by the .deb builder:

sudo apt install build-essential devscripts debhelper

• Go into skeleton-package-1.0 and make it about your script (also rename the parent directory from skeleton-package-1.0 to something that matches your application and version.)

Manpages

To ensure your formatting isn't jagged up before you generate the deb, while inside the debian/ directory of the package folder, run:

man ./skeleton-package.8

What do the numbers mean in the manpage filename?

skeleton-package.8 - manpages have their own manpage that list the indicators:

man man

Build the Package

Go into the skeleton-package-1.0 directory (as a normal, non-sudo/root user) and build:

debuild -b -uc -us

That's it. If all went well, you'll see skeleton-package_1.0_all.deb outside of the skeleton-package-1.0 directory.

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Testing the Package

Install it:

sudo apt install ./skeleton-package_1.0_all.deb

Note: read the installer progress, you'll see:

Post-install script has ran.

And now run the executable (non-sudo/root users can run, also; as it being housed in /usr/bin grants access):

skeleton-package

You have installed Skeleton Package successfully!

Test the manpage:

man skeleton-package

Uninstall it:

sudo apt remove --purge skeleton-package

Watch, again:

Post-remove script has ran.