Debian Packages with Distutils:
1) You are on a Debian system
a) execute "dh_make --native" or see dh_make(1)
b) adjust your debian/rules file:
debian/rules:
#...
build:
#...
rm -rf debian/tmp # Distutils chokes on broken symlinks
python setup.py build
#...
clean:
#...
python setup.py clean --all
#...
install: build
#...
python setup.py install --root=`pwd`/debian/tmp
#...
2) But I am running a non-Debian system
a) Read something about the .deb format in deb(5):
The file is an ar archive with a magic number of !<arch>.
The first member is named debian-binary and contains a
series of lines, separated by newlines.
The second required member is named control.tar.gz. It is
a gzipped tar archive containing the package control
information.
The third, last required member is named data.tar.gz . It
contains the filesystem archive as a gzipped tar archive.
b) Be sure that you follow all of the Debian standards and
requirements so that the package fits smoothly in any Debian
installation.
Look at the documents in the debian-policy package.
There are scripts to do this automatically: see debhelper(1).
All this can be checked with the lintian Debian package.
Number 2) has two disadvantages:
1. All this code to produce Debian packages is existing, tested and
working code. bdist_debain would only duplicate this effort.
Espacially for 2b) there are numerous existing helper scripts in
a Debian system.
2. Okay, lets assume implementing this whole number 2) thingy
is not very hard (or you have enough spare time to do it),
but then you remember deep in your mind the Debian FAQ 6.2:
This internal format is subject to change (between major releases
of Debian GNU/Linux), therefore please always use dpkg-deb(8) for
manipulating .deb files.
So you will run into problems sooner or later and you have to
update your software as the internal format changes. You can look
at the discussions about bdist_rpm and the RPM versions, thats
pretty much the same.
Bastian Kleineidam
