¬ just serendipity 🍀 (not just serendipity)

These are notes from a few weeks ago when I created a sample package for Ubuntu. This article is written both as a guide and a timeline. There is no explicit tutorial here, so get your feet wet by yourself, and make sure to follow the references. Edit: enumeration became a mess here. Sorry for that.

Initial setup #

1. Introduction; Packaging new software for Ubuntu; Debian Packaging Tutorial
2. Get a couple of packages for packaging (duh):

sudo aptitude install gnupg pbuilder ubuntu-dev-tools bzr-builddeb apt-file packaging-dev

3. Make sure you have a PGP key.
4. Send your PGP key to Ubuntu servers.

gpg --send-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com <KEY ID>

5. Make sure you have a SSH key.

Building environment #

6. Create a clean build environment:

pbuilder-dist <release> create

At the time of this post, I used ’trusty’ as the release name.

7. Make sure you have a Launchpad account.
8. Update your Launchpad information and upload both your SSH and your GPG key into there.
9. Identify yourself with bzr.

bzr whoami "Bob Dobbs [subgenius@example.com](mailto:subgenius%40example.com)"
bzr launchpad-login subgenius

Creating the package #

10. Start a new package, and choose its type to create a new template.

bzr dh-make hello 2.7 hello-2.7.tar.gz

11. Explore and edit the files of your new template. In particular, see the debian directory.
12. bzr add and commit your changes. This is a DVCS such as git, so this should feel familiar.

Building and testing #

13. Building the package:

bzr builddeb -- -us -uc

The previous flags tell the system not to use GPG. -nc might also be useful: it tells the system not to start from scratch.

14. To view the contents of a package:

lesspipe *.deb

15. To install / remove your new built package:

sudo dpkg -i *.deb # attention to the architecture of your package!
sudo dpkg -r <name-of-your-package>

An alternative is to invoke sudo debi.

16. Check for errors.

lintian *.dsc *.deb

Optional testing with chroot #

17. Next (optional; just to test the package in the chroot you have set up before, with pbuilder)

bzr builddeb -S
cd ../build-area
pbuilder-dist trusty build *ubuntu*.dsc

Upload #

18. Upload your package to Launchpad:

dput ppa:<your-launchpad-username>/<your-ppa-name> *.changes

If you wanted to create a pull request instead:

bzr push lp:~<launchpad-username>/+junk/hello-package

And that’s it! Then just share your PPA with your friends and clients. I hope this guide could serve to you as a quick reference of creating a new Ubuntu (or even Debian) package.