Subject: How to debianize packages?

From: [email-masked] (Volker Ossenkopf)
Date: 15 Aug 1996 14:13:45 GMT

I have become more or less convinced to switch to Debian 1.1
in the next large update of my system in the next weeks.

However, until now I have not yet found an answer on how to handle
all those non-standard packages like pgplot, wip, vile and
the hundreds of other tools which are not available as debian
packages but simply as tar.gz archives. To maintain a well
organized system I would like to install them with the
Debian package installation tools and not by hand or at least
to register them when being installed as debian packages.

To focus the problem: How do I convert tar.gz archives (when 
no installation scripts are needed) into debian packages?
How do I create a debian archive from installed files ?

Any help appreciated.

Best wishes -- Volker

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  Volker Ossenkopf,              E-mail: [email-masked]

  Astrophysikalisches Institut und    \\///
   Universitaets-Sternwarte Jena     ( . . )     Tel.: 03641/630324
----------------------------------oOo--(_)--oOo---------------------

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From: Rob Browning <[email-masked]>
Date: 15 Aug 1996 12:06:54 -0500

[email-masked] (Volker Ossenkopf) writes:

> To maintain a well organized system I would like to install them
> with the Debian package installation tools and not by hand or at
> least to register them when being installed as debian packages.
>

This is really not supported well, if at all.  You should probably
just install these things in /usr/local.  For the most part Debian
doesn't touch that dir.  It's specifically for this sort of thing.

Then, if there are really great things that you'd like to see as
debian packages, you might consider packaging them yourself, and
adding them to the distribution.

--
Rob

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From: Mark Eichin <[email-masked]>
Date: 30 Aug 1996 02:41:21 -0400

While it is considered a little crude, it is possible to convert tar
files into debian packages...  You should look at the debian packaging
instructions for how to do it right (which will fill in the gaps in
this explanation) but then you'll find that if you do:
	mkdir x
	cd x
	tar xzvf .../package.tar.gz  (assuming it unpacks from /)
	mkdir DEBIAN
	cat > DEBIAN/control
	# follow the packaging guildelines, or just crib the contents
of the control file from the "hello" package
	cd ..
	dpkg-deb --build x
	dpkg-name x
and if you've set up the control file right, you'll end up with a
package-version.deb that you can then install.

It would be nice, if you have the time and decide to rebuild from
sources anyway, to put together a "proper" package; it doesn't take
much work, and the hello package is a good example... but the above
tricks might be enough to get you "hooked" -- worked for me :-)