Creating a simple Debian .deb package

To install a .deb package with dpkg, you can use

dpkg -i debFileName

. You can obtain a list of the installed packages on a system with dpkg -l or dpkg -l [optional pattern] to filter the list of packages shown by an optional pattern.

I've never created a .deb package and was curious as to how to do so. I thought I'd start with something simple by creating a .deb package for ibmonitor, since the program is just one Perl script. To build the package, I followed the instructions in the How to Build section of Debian Packages.

The first step in the process is to create the needed directories, which are as follows:

Since I wanted to create a package for ibmonitor, I created the following directories beneath my Documents directory:

$ mkdir ibmonitor_1.4-1
$ mkdir ibmonitor_1.4-1/DEBIAN
$ mkdir -p ibmonitor_1.4-1/usr/bin

The -p option for the mkdir command will create any intermediate directories needed, so

mkdir -p ibmonitor_1.4-1/usr/bin

will create the usr and usr/bin subdirectories.

I named the top-level directory ibmonitor_1.4-1, since the standard Debian notation is to use all lowercase letters for a directory name² with the following structure used for the name:

The next step is to create the control file in the


DEBIAN

directory. The file is a text file with the following format used for the information within it:

Package: ProgramName
Version: VERSION
Architecture: all
Maintainer: YOUR NAME <EMAIL>
Depends: python2.7, etc , etc,
Installed-Size: in_kb
Homepage: http://foo.com
Description: Here you can put a one line description. This is the short Description.
 Here you put the long description, indented by 1 space.

For the ibmonitor control file, I put the following information in the text file:

Package: ibmonitor
Version: 1.4-1
Architecture: all
Maintainer: Jim Cameron <support@moonpoint.com>
Depends: Perl
Installed-Size: 31
Homepage: http://ibmonitor.sourceforge.net/
Description: Interactive bandwidth monitor
Description: Interactive bandwidth monitor
 The program ibmonitor is an interactive linux console application which 
 shows bandwidth consumed and total data transferred on all interfaces.

I used "all" for "Archtecture", since 5.6.8 Architecture of the Debian Policy Manual states all "indicates an architecture-independent package." I used "31" for the Installed-Size value, since the ibmonitor Perl script is 31,971 bytes in size and 5.6.20 Installed-Size states "The disk space is given as the integer value of the estimated installed size in bytes, divided by 1024 and rounded up." I used http://ibmonitor.sourceforge.net/ for the homepage, because that is the homepage used by the developer, Rohan Almeida and 5.6.23 Homepage states:

The URL of the web site for this package, preferably (when applicable) the site from which the original source can be obtained and any additional upstream documentation or information may be found. The content of this field is a simple URL without any surrounding characters such as <>.

I put the executable Perl script ibmonitor in the

user/bin

directory, since the instructions state:

The scripts placed at /usr/bin/ are directly called from the terminal, note that I didn't add an extension to the script. Also you can notice that the structure of the Debian package will be the structure of the program once it's installed. So if you follow this logic if your program has a single file, you can directly place it under ProgramName-Version/usr/bin/your_script, But if you have multiple files, you should place them under ProgramName-Version/usr/share/ProgramName/all your files and place only one file under /usr/bin/ that will call your scripts from /usr/share/ProgramName/

In this case, the program consists of a single file, the ibmonitor Perl script, so I placed it directly under /usr/bin.

$ sudo chown root:root -R ibmonitor_1.4-1
[sudo] password for jdoe: 
$

The ibmonitor Perl script was already executable, so I didn't need to change the Linux file permissions on it to make it executable.

$ ls -l ibmonitor_1.4-1/usr/bin
total 32
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 31971 May 14 19:23 ibmonitor
$

I then attempted to build the package with dpkg-deb --build as per the instructions at How to make a "Basic" .deb, but received an error message:

$ dpkg-deb --build ibmonitor_1.4-1
dpkg-deb: error: parsing file 'ibmonitor_1.4-1/DEBIAN/control' near line 9 package 'ibmonitor':
 field name `bandwidth' must be followed by colon

Description: Interactive bandwidth monitor
 The program ibmonitor is an interactive linux console application which shows
bandwidth consumed and total data transferred on all interfaces.

I then realized I needed a space before the second line of the longer description, so I changed the line to be the following, instead, after noting the instructions at How to make a "Basic".deb mentioned "the space before each line in the description is important":

Description: Interactive bandwidth monitor
 The program ibmonitor is an interactive linux console application which 
 shows bandwidth consumed and total data transferred on all interfaces.

I was then able to successfully create the .deb file, which can be downloaded from ibmonitor .deb.

$ dpkg-deb --build ibmonitor_1.4-1
dpkg-deb: building package `ibmonitor' in `ibmonitor_1.4-1.deb'.
$ ls -l *.deb
-rw-r--r-- 1 jdoe jdoe 7614 May 14 21:09 ibmonitor_1.4-1.deb

$ sudo dpkg -c ibmonitor_1.4-1.deb
drwxrwxr-x root/root         0 2016-05-14 18:56 ./
drwxrwxr-x root/root         0 2016-05-14 18:56 ./usr/
drwxrwxr-x root/root         0 2016-05-14 19:23 ./usr/bin/
-rwxrwxr-x root/root     31971 2016-05-14 19:23 ./usr/bin/ibmonitor
$

You can also use sudo dpkg -I packagename to get information on a package. Note: the option to obtain information uses an upper case "I" rather than a lower case, which is used to install a package.

$ sudo dpkg -I ibmonitor_1.4-1.deb
 new debian package, version 2.0.
 size 7584 bytes: control archive= 389 bytes.
     366 bytes,    11 lines      control              
 Package: ibmonitor
 Version: 1.4-1
 Architecture: all
 Maintainer: Jim Cameron <support@moonpoint.com>
 Depends: Perl
 Installed-Size: 31
 Homepage: http://ibmonitor.sourceforge.net/
 Description: Interactive bandwidth monitor
  The program ibmonitor is an interactive linux console application which
  shows bandwidth consumed and total data transferred on all interfaces.

You can install a .deb package with

sudo dpkg -i packagename.deb

, where packagename is the name of the package. I installed the software and verified it was placed in /usr/bin on the system.

$ which ibmonitor
$ sudo dpkg -i ibmonitor_1-4-1.deb
Selecting previously unselected package ibmonitor.
(Reading database ... 413086 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking ibmonitor (from ibmonitor_1.4-1.deb) ...
Setting up ibmonitor (1.4-1) ...
jim@Didymus:~/Documents/blog$ which ibmonitor
/usr/bin/ibmonitor
$

I was then able to run the program by just typing ibmonitor. I checked the package information with apt-cache show ibmonitor and saw the following:

$ apt-cache show ibmonitor
Package: ibmonitor
Status: install ok installed
Installed-Size: 31
Maintainer: Jim Cameron <support@moonpoint.com>
Architecture: all
Version: 1.4-1
Depends: perl
Description: Interactive bandwidth monitor
 The program ibmonitor is an interactive linux console application which
 shows bandwidth consumed and total data transferred on all interfaces.
Homepage: http://ibmonitor.sourceforge.net/
$

If you ever decide to remove a package after you've installed it, you can use the command sudo dpkg -r packagename where packagename is the name of the installed package. E.g.:

$ sudo dpkg -r ibmonitor
(Reading database ... 413086 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing ibmonitor ...
$