Packaging binaries as .deb

To package binaries produced by source code as a .deb file, the build system must be adapted to generate a .deb instead of raw binaries. This is achieved by using a Debian build tool, such as dpkg-buildpackage, to build the source code instead of the original build system.

The dpkg-buildpackage tool acts as a wrapper around the original build system and relies on a debian/ folder in the root directory of the source code. This folder contains metadata and configuration files required to produce .deb files. These tools utilize this information to organize the binaries generated by the original build system into one or more .deb files in a standardized format.

Steps to package binaries as .deb

  1. Download the upstream source as a tarball:

    wget http://www.example.org/download/debhello-0.0.tar.gz

  2. Rename the tarball to <source_package>_<upstream_version>.orig.tar.gz (e.g., debhello_0.0.orig.tar.gz).

  3. Untar the tarball:

    tar -xzmf debhello_0.0.orig.tar.gz

  4. Rename the untarred directory to <source_package>-<upstream_version> (e.g., debhello-0.0).

  5. Install the debmake tool:

    sudo apt install debmake

  6. Generate the debian/ folder.

    Switch to the directory (e.g., debhello-0.0) and run debmake, this creates the debian/ folder:

    cd debhello-0.0
debmake

  7. Customize the debian/ folder.

    The debian/ directory must now include templates for essential files. Among those are:

    • debian/control: Metadata about the package, such as its name, section, description, dependencies, and maintainer. See the Debian Policy Manual: Control Files for detailed information.

    • debian/copyright: Copyright details of the package. By default, debmake creates it in the DEP-5 format.

    • debian/rules: A Makefile-style script specifying how to build the package. For more details, see Customizing debian/rules.

    • debian/changelog: History of changes to the package. This can be edited manually or with the dch tool. After installation, it is stored at /usr/share/doc/<package>/changelog.Debian.gz.

    Customize the above files and remove unused ones to match your package requirements. A minimal debian/ could look like:

    debian/
├── changelog
├── control
├── copyright
├── gbp.conf
├── rules*
├── source/
│   └── format
├── tests/
│   └── control
└── watch

  8. Build the package.

    Run the following commands to build the package locally:

    dpkg-buildpackage

    To skip signing the package, use:

    dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc

    For instructions on building for a PPA, see Upload to a PPA instead.

Customizing debian/rules

The dpkg-buildpackage command uses the debian/rules file to build .deb packages. This file can be as simple as:

#!/usr/bin/make -f
#export DH_VERBOSE = 1

%:
    dh $@

The dh commands belong to the debhelper suite, which automates common packaging tasks. For more information, see the debhelper manual. Debhelper attempts to detect the build system (e.g., Autotools, CMake, Python setup.py, etc.) based on source files and configures the build steps accordingly.

If autodetection fails, specific steps can be overridden in debian/rules, e.g.:

override_dh_auto_configure:
    ./configure --prefix=/usr --enable-feature

override_dh_auto_build:
    make -j4