Creating a Debian package

When creating a Debian package, the first step is to put all the files (the source code, and the png and other graphics, desktop and service files) in an empty directory called my-application-1.0.0. The directory name should follow the <package-name>-<app-version> convention. This means that the package that you are creating for your application is called my-application.

Go to the source directory:

cd my-application-1.0.0

Set full name environment variable:

export DEBFULLNAME="Your Name"

Make initial debianization:

dh_make -e your.name@example.org

Next dh_make will ask a question and print a summary of the package:

Type of package: single binary, multiple binary, library, kernel module or cdbs?
 [s/m/l/k/b] s

Maintainer name : Your Name
Email-Address   : your.name@example.org
Date            : Fri, 30 Nov 2007 13:20:48 +0200
Package Name    : my-application
Version         : 1.0.0
License         : blank
Type of Package : Single
Hit  to confirm:

The dh_make command creates a debian subdirectory containing multiple configuration text files, most of which are templates that can be removed, since the application does not use them. The table below lists the needed files (others can be removed):

File in ./debian	Description
changelog	Application's change log
compat	Debian helper compatibily version. Leave it as it is.
control	Describes the packages to be made. For more information, see the paragraphs below the table.
copyright	Copyright text. Fill in the blanks.
rules	A makefile containing the rules to build all kinds of packages (such as source and binary)

The key files in ./debian are control and rules. They contain a generic template showing what they must look like. In control, you must simply fill in the blanks and, in rules, you essentially need to remove unwanted and unnecessary code.

The following example illustrates what the control file for the example application must contain:

Source: my-application
Section: user/other 
Priority: optional 
Maintainer: Your Name <your.name@example.org>
Build-Depends: debhelper (>= 4.0.0) 
Standards-Version: 3.6.0

Package: my-application 
Architecture: any
Depends: libhildon1
Description: A simple test application
 A very simple application with a short description.
 Which spans multiple lines actually. 
XB-Maemo-Icon-26:
 iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABoAAAAaCAYAAACpSkzOAAAABmJLR0QA/wD/AP+g
 vaeTAAAACXBIWXMAAAsTAAALEwEAmpwYAAAAB3RJTUUH1gURDQoYya0JlwAAAU9J 
 REFUSMftlL1KA0EUhb/NZl/ggnHQxsJUxt5CUucVJCCkDfgyKdIGG5/A0s5HEBtJ
 EdDAQGBgmw0YJmMzgXXYza5CtNkDW9zZw5z7c+ZCgwb/Ai3i9sVl/Bq8RIs4LRK1 
 gJDsKvJyNXmJMuYTsMoY1zpgozaABdYArQNPZQ1kfyGU7SpqVwxzAMwABWhgpIwp
 4vWBB+AUWAI3ypjnfEXtPU4bLKx9vErTeCeiRSYF+fTn1j5dp2myE9EiU+DSi3wX 
 ymeqRQAmZ3EcA5E/fgO6BULT8zhOcrwXoJdrXRa2Lgps2y2odAUcBUIXQdz78YyC
 SldAp8b7+bXrIv91qjZBietqCc2DjbAt4b2WxJkyZljVujlwp0U0cPxuLcAIuC+4 
 dKxFlsDJarvdAGP/b6hFnDImYs+uG3hbO2AB3Jbsur63tQM+fFx3bzZocEB8AdV2
 gJBZgKTwAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC 

The XB-Maemo-Icon-26 field contains the application icon file (in this case, hello_icon_26x26.png) encoded in base64. This is the icon that is shown in the Application Manager, next to the package name. To do this encoding in Linux, you can use either uuencode or openssl (there can be more suitable applications). Scratchbox rootstraps for maemo have been encoded with uuencode. Do not forget to put a white space at the beginning of each line containing the icon-encoded text. The white space serves as indentation. The same rule stands for the long package description ( A very simple application[...]).

The Application Manager only shows packages in the user section. Thus, your Section: field in the control file must has the Section: user/<SUBSECTION> syntax, where <SUBSECTION> is arbitrary. See Making Application Packages "Sections" chapter about the suggested values

The rules file is usually does not need to be changed. However if the created .deb package is empty then check the "install:" section and make sure that the DESTDIR environment variable is pointing to the right place, that is, where the rest of the packaging scripts are looking for the application to be packaged.

Once the application is properly 'Debianized', building the application is done easily with the command:

[sbox-CHINOOK_X86: ~/my-application-1.0.0] > dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot

The system displays some output, including a couple of warnings near the end of it (about XB-Maemo-Icon-26) but that is normal. The parent directory now has a my-application_1.0.0-0_i386.deb file - your Debian package. This is the file that is distributed to maemo devices and installed using the Application Manager.

You can test you package in the SDK by typing:

[sbox-CHINOOK_X86: ~/my-application-1.0.0] > cd ..
[sbox-CHINOOK_X86: ~] > fakeroot dpkg -i my-application_1.0.0-0_i386.deb

Replace 'my-application...' with the actual name of the package. Packages can be installed in both X86 and ARMEL targets. The package architecture must match the Scratchbox target.

For more information about making Debian packages, see Debian New Maintainers' Guide. For further information about creating application packages for maemo, see Making Application Packages.