How to Include a Directory in The Package Debuild

how to include a directory in the package debuild

A Q/D example utilizing dh* and dpkg-buildpackage:

1) Pepare working directory and test file (we are going to package "foo" script which should be installed to "/any/dir") :

mkdir test-0.0.1
cd test-0.0.1
echo -e "#\!/bin/sh\necho \"hi, i'm foo\"" > foo
chmod +x foo

2) Create simple Makefile which will handle installation:

binary:
    # we are not going to build anything

install:
    mkdir -p $(DESTDIR)/any/dir
    cp foo $(DESTDIR)/any/dir

3) Generate package skeleton:

dh_make -i --createorig

3a) Optionally adjust debian control file

4) Build the package:

dpkg-buildpackage -A -uc

5) Test generated package contents:

dpkg-deb -c ../test_0.0.1-1_all.deb | grep any

drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2012-06-12 20:54 ./any/
drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2012-06-12 20:54 ./any/dir/
-rwxr-xr-x root/root        30 2012-06-12 20:54 ./any/dir/foo

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Edit: Example without using Makefile (if you are not going to build anything):

1) Create test data:

mkdir test-0.0.1
cd test-0.0.1
mkdir contents
touch contents/a
touch contents/b

2) Create package skeleton:

dh_make -i --createorig

3) Create debian/test.install file with following contents:

contents/   /usr/share/mycontents

4) Build package:

dpkg-buildpackage -A -uc

5) Examine built package:

dpkg-deb -c ../test_0.0.1-1_all.deb | grep contents

drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2012-06-13 11:44 ./usr/share/mycontents/
drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2012-06-13 11:38 ./usr/share/mycontents/contents/
-rw-r--r-- root/root         0 2012-06-13 11:37 ./usr/share/mycontents/contents/a
-rw-r--r-- root/root         0 2012-06-13 11:38 ./usr/share/mycontents/contents/b

Conf files and static files in a deb package

As viraptor said you can put an install command for each file into your debian/rules to install the files into the debian/pkgname directory.

Or you can use a debian/install file to simply list all the files (or just directories) and have a dh_install command in your debian/rules to do it for you.

It seems you are a little confused about how packages are built and which files are included. This is extremely generalized, but when the debian/rules script compiles a program using standard ./configure && make && make install method, it instructs the make install to install the files to debian/pkgname instead of /. Then it knows that everything under debian/pkgname is what should be in the final .deb. If the make install step doesn't put everything in the correct location, then the debian/rules script needs to do that. Previously it seems calling install ... from debian/rules to copy the files to the debian/pkgname directory was common but now using a debian/install file seems to be the preferred method.

I need my Debian rules file to simply copy files to it's target

Although you've already got your own answer, I'll point out a couple of things.

You seem to be doing this in a very complicated manner. If you simply need to copy files into certain directories, write a debian/mypackagename.install with the following format:

path/to/file/relative/to/source/root path/to/install/relative/to/system/root

(do not prepend / before /usr, or /opt, or whatever your target directory is. Read man dh_install for more information)

Then your debian/rules can be:

#!/usr/bin/make -f

%:
    dh $@

If you have some sort of makefile, etc in your source root, then append this to the above rules file:

override_dh_auto_build:

override_dh_auto_install:

Don't forget put 7 in debian/compat.

Also, you shouldn't install files into /opt/ or /usr/local/, etc. Those are meant for files not installed by Debian packages. Debian recommends installing in /usr/share/yourcompany/. As juzzlin points out below, the Ubuntu Software Center may have different requirements.

More specifically, your mypackage.install file should look like this:

src/bin/* usr/bin
src/etc/* etc/

Build debian package without .orig file

If you want to create a Debian directory directly in the source package (ie you're packaging your own work, rather than from an upstream release) you could use the --native option to dh_make

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