16

I'm getting started preparing an installation script for a software package onto an Ubuntu server. I would like to write a script as a .deb package that is aware of dependencies that must be installed beforehand (a database, web server, etc.).

Can you recommend any tutorials/resources to help a newbie developer get started writing deb packages?

Update: Canonical has a thorough Packaging Guide which explains the process very well.

Peter Bratton
  • 6,302
  • 6
  • 39
  • 61

3 Answers3

8

If you are entirely new to building Debian packages, I suggest that you look at the Debian New Maintainers' Guide and use the Debian Developer's Reference as reference. As a starting point, dh_make (from the dh-make package) should give you a good template to work with.

hillu
  • 9,423
  • 4
  • 26
  • 30
4

Earlier question at stackoverflow:
How to build a Debian/Ubuntu package from source?

Community
  • 1
  • 1
nik
  • 13,254
  • 3
  • 41
  • 57
2

If you plan to install some software with their dependencies, you don't really need to make a .deb package. A Shell script should work, calling the package manager to resolve dependencies, etc.

The default Shell on Ubuntu is Bash. If you don't know how to do it, here is a basic tutorial and an advanced guide.

Hope it helps.

Timothée Martin
  • 775
  • 4
  • 13
  • The reason I want to do a deb is that we will be creating many of these servers over time, and I'd like to distribute updates via this mechanism. I imagine I'll be using bash scripts within the installer to carry out steps of the installation. Thanks for the help! – Peter Bratton Jul 22 '09 at 15:11
  • Thanks for the advanced guide link. – Liran Orevi Jul 23 '09 at 21:49