Re: Desperate for deb docs
On 10/16/07, Ben Scott [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 10/16/07, Tyson Sawyer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: What if I want to rebuild a package on a different architecture ... There's an architecture that might use .deb packages but the Debian distribution *doesn't* support? Come on, Debian is the NetBSD of Linux distributions. :-) Just use apt-get(1) to install the binary package from the repository. Not quite. ...or so it seems to me. It seems that a 64bit G5 Mac needs to run a 64 bit kernel. it also seems that the mainstream distributions prefer to provide 32 bit user libraries and applications. I don't know if that's because enough libs/apps are not 64 bit clean or what, but that seems to be the case. Gentoo may be the exception, but I really wanted to use Ubuntu. I started using Linux with SLS and then Slackware. ...but I have better things to do than configure and setup linux boxes. I very much prefer to spend my time using my computer rather than build/administer it. ...so I wanted a strongly mainstream distribution that just works. The problem is that a 64 bit kernel supports 32 bit apps by having a special syscall entry that converts from 32 bit to 64 bit and then chaining the call to the 64 bit handlers. The problem is that the 32/64 bit conversion is not straight forward and in some cases may not be possible (or something like that) and so not everything is supported. Quite specifically, printing to USB printers is not supported from 32 bit apps. I should note that this limitation is not well publicized and it took quite a bit of sleuthing and a bit of browsing in the kernel sources to figure it out. I spent some time first trying to figure out why printing didn't work. Then I spent some time trying to figure out how to rebuild enough packages as 64 bit to have 64 bit print services (cups, etc). I had no trouble building a 64bit app, but there where very few 64 bit libs and so the task of getting everything that I needed in 64 bit was quite large. ...esp. since I was unable to find anything that seemed like the equivalent of srpm packages and the Maximum RPM book/docs that I once used to learn RPM. In general, I could find lots of stuff on how to install/manage packages, but little to nothing on how to create/rebuild them. I finally gave up and bought a small x86 box to be a print/file server, installed Ubuntu and was done with it. ...but I'd still like to know how to create/rebuild .deb packages. This thread has given me lots of starting points for the next time I get into this. Thanks! Ty -- Tyson D Sawyer A well-schooled electorate being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and read Books shall not be infringed. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Desperate for deb docs
I have looked. And I mean really looked. I need help. I need docs on how to build .deb files. I do not want docs on how to build .deb files for a debian distribution. I do not want docs on debian policy. I need to understand the intricasies of how to write control files (e.g., control, preinst, postinst, prerm, postrm, etc...) rpm doesn't have this kind of doc problem. It's very frustrating. :-( TIA -- Time flies like the wind. Fruit flies like a banana. Stranger things have .0. happened but none stranger than this. Does your driver's license say Organ ..0 Donor?Black holes are where God divided by zero. Listen to me! We are all- 000 individuals! What if this weren't a hypothetical question? steveo at syslang.net ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Desperate for deb docs
I need docs on how to build .deb files. I do not want docs on how to build .deb files for a debian distribution. I do not want docs on debian policy. I need to understand the intricasies of how to write control files (e.g., control, preinst, postinst, prerm, postrm, etc...) I found the IBM docs very useful at http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-debpkg.html But my packages tend to be very basic with little in the way of dependencies. You may have already exceeded what this is telling ya... HIH -- ~ * ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Desperate for deb docs
On my Debian unstable box I can say: man deb ...and it leads me on to a bunch of stuff that looks pretty useful, like: deb deb-control deb-old debtags dpkg dpkg-deb ...etc, etc. IOW, RTFM.-/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Desperate for deb docs
On 10/16/07, Steven W. Orr [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have looked. And I mean really looked. I need help. I need docs on how to build .deb files. I do not want docs on how to build .deb files for a debian distribution. I do not want docs on debian policy. I need to understand the intricasies of how to write control files (e.g., control, preinst, postinst, prerm, postrm, etc...) rpm doesn't have this kind of doc problem. It's very frustrating. :-( http://synthesize.us/HOWTO_make_a_deb_archive_without_dpkg ?? -- -- Thomas ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Desperate for deb docs
On 10/16/07, Star [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I need docs on how to build .deb files. I do not want docs on how to build .deb files for a debian distribution. I do not want docs on debian policy. I need to understand the intricasies of how to write control files (e.g., control, preinst, postinst, prerm, postrm, etc...) I found the IBM docs very useful at http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-debpkg.html But my packages tend to be very basic with little in the way of dependencies. You may have already exceeded what this is telling ya... that's a pretty nice 'simple' walkthru. It does, however, require dpkg. Which isn't a huge deal, unless you're trying to make one on a system that doesn't use debian. :-) -- -- Thomas ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Desperate for deb docs
OK, that was helpful. But there is still a big picture thing that I don't understand: How does one re-build a .deb package? Where is the equivalent of srpm packages? What if I want to rebuild a package on a different architecture or with some minor change? Thanks! Ty On 10/16/07, Star [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I need docs on how to build .deb files. I do not want docs on how to build .deb files for a debian distribution. I do not want docs on debian policy. I need to understand the intricasies of how to write control files (e.g., control, preinst, postinst, prerm, postrm, etc...) I found the IBM docs very useful at http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-debpkg.html But my packages tend to be very basic with little in the way of dependencies. You may have already exceeded what this is telling ya... HIH -- ~ * ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ -- Tyson D Sawyer A well-schooled electorate being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and read Books shall not be infringed. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Desperate for deb docs
As I recall (it's been a bit) if you're on a deb-like system it's $ apt-get source foo-package Then you can alter, rebuild, and make a deb from that. It will be deployed in the current directory as ./foo-package-version/ That also assumes that your /etc/apt/sources.list file contain the correct deb-src entries and that they're available. On 10/16/07, Tyson Sawyer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: OK, that was helpful. But there is still a big picture thing that I don't understand: How does one re-build a .deb package? Where is the equivalent of srpm packages? What if I want to rebuild a package on a different architecture or with some minor change? Thanks! Ty On 10/16/07, Star [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I need docs on how to build .deb files. I do not want docs on how to build .deb files for a debian distribution. I do not want docs on debian policy. I need to understand the intricasies of how to write control files (e.g., control, preinst, postinst, prerm, postrm, etc...) I found the IBM docs very useful at http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-debpkg.html But my packages tend to be very basic with little in the way of dependencies. You may have already exceeded what this is telling ya... HIH -- ~ * ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ -- Tyson D Sawyer A well-schooled electorate being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and read Books shall not be infringed. -- ~ * ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Desperate for deb docs
On Tuesday, Oct 16th 2007 at 15:58 -, quoth Steven W. Orr: =I have looked. And I mean really looked. I need help. = =I need docs on how to build .deb files. I do not want docs on how to build =.deb files for a debian distribution. I do not want docs on debian policy. =I need to understand the intricasies of how to write control files (e.g., =control, preinst, postinst, prerm, postrm, etc...) = =rpm doesn't have this kind of doc problem. It's very frustrating. :-( = =TIA Thanks guys. The pointers you supplied got me to other pointers which eventually got me to http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-maintainerscripts.html I am now gleefully ecstatic. -- Time flies like the wind. Fruit flies like a banana. Stranger things have .0. happened but none stranger than this. Does your driver's license say Organ ..0 Donor?Black holes are where God divided by zero. Listen to me! We are all- 000 individuals! What if this weren't a hypothetical question? steveo at syslang.net ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Desperate for deb docs
On 10/16/07, Tyson Sawyer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Where is the equivalent of srpm packages? Last I looked: There isn't anything properly like an SRPM. Debian source packages consist of the original, unmodified, upstream.tar.gz source kit package, along with a single giant patch (diff) file. The single giant patch file, applied against the corresponding source tree, would yield a modified source tree, which included a new(er) debian subdirectory. That subdirectory contained control files and scripts to build and install the .deb binary package. Last I looked was several years ago, but this is Debian, after all... ;-) I suppose Debian-originated packages might lack the diff and just include the debian subdirectory in the original source tarball. Dunno. How does one re-build a .deb package? You grab the source package, untar it. You grab the patch file and apply it. You run the build tools. I seem to recall there being an over-abundance of build tools (i.e., there was no one true way, unlike rpmbuild(8) for RPM). On the other hand, I imagine this did yield more flexibility in the build process -- with a distribution as large as Debian's, that's probably needed. The state of Debian's package building tools always struck me as somewhat privative/confused compared to RPM. Conversely, Debian had better distro building tools. Makes sense: Red Hat's stuff was generally Internal Use Only (in nature, if not in fact). Contrast this with Debian, which applies Free to their whole effort, not just the end product. I expect, with the success of Fedora, RPM-land is improving in the distro tools area. And I would expect even dpkg-land has made some progress by now, too. ;-) What if I want to rebuild a package on a different architecture ... There's an architecture that might use .deb packages but the Debian distribution *doesn't* support? Come on, Debian is the NetBSD of Linux distributions. :-) Just use apt-get(1) to install the binary package from the repository. ... or with some minor change? I assume you modify the modified source tree in place (optionally modifying the version ID to reflect your local change) and run the build front-end of your choice. If you want a source package (i.e., the single giant patch file), you run diff -u against the original Debian-modified tree and the locally-modified Debian-modified tree. (I've never actually done this, so I could be way off.) -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Desperate for deb docs
Ben Scott [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: How does one re-build a .deb package? You grab the source package, untar it. You grab the patch file and apply it. You run the build tools. Err, how about: $ apt-get source foo $ dpkg-buildpackage -r fakeroot other misc. options/flags I expect, with the success of Fedora, RPM-land is improving in the distro tools area. And I would expect even dpkg-land has made some progress by now, too. ;-) Oh definitely! The number of tools available to deal with packages has increased by several orders of magnitude in the last several years :) Oh, wait, you meant improved not increased ;) -- Seeya, Paul ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
