Resources on writing a Debian/Ubuntu deb package? [closed]

Question

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.

Boylan

Answer 1

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.

Ninanincompoop

Answer 2

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

• The HOWTO,
• another article.
• Creating packages for personal use (not for repositories)
• UbuntuForum discussion on creating static packages

Hsu

Answer 3

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.

Fenestrated

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! – Boylan