Debian Packaging

(June 2018)

Three concepts:

1. Upstream tarball: the upstream developer packages their software as an archive for distribution.
2. Source package: the first step in creating a Debian package, made from the upstream tarball.
3. Binary package: the final installable package, built from the source package.

In a simple example, the source package includes:

• the upstream tarball, renamed to follow Debian conventions (e.g., foo_1.0.orig.tar.gz)
• a debian directory containing any changes made to upstream source, along with all files created for the Debian package
• a description file (e.g., foo.dsc), listing the two previous files

Minimally, the debian directory needs the following files*:

• control
• copyright
• changelog
• rules

References

• https://wiki.debian.org/HowToPackageForDebian
• https://wiki.debian.org/Packaging/
• https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/maint-guide/index.en.html
• https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/packaging-tutorial/packaging-tutorial.en.pdf