Automatic src.tgz -> deb tool?

Hi, is there a tool to automatically convert a standard
libtool based
source tarball into a deb file?

Much of the information needed to generate a deb file could
be
generated from configure and "make install". E.g.
we could run "make
install" under Plash or systrace and capture all the
files it tries to
install.

Now I know this can't produce a perfect deb, however it
could save
time (time that could be used to polish the deb) and also I
imagine
that debs generated by humans with access to the rigid logic
of a
automated translator as well as their own wisdom would be
better than
debs generated solely by human wisdom alone.

  "The human should always win and here is why.

   First the human writes the whole thing in a high level
language.
   Second he profiles it to find the hot spots where it
spends its time.
   Third he has the compiler produce assembly for those
small sections of code.
   Fourth he hand tunes them looking for tiny improvements
over the
machine generated code.

   The human wins because he can use the machine" --
Charles Fiterman

-- 
John C. McCabe-Dansted
PhD Student
University of Western Australia

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On 2/2/07, John McCabe-Dansted <gmathtgmail.com> wrote:
> Hi, is there a tool to automatically convert a standard
libtool based
> source tarball into a deb file?

Hi John,

checkinstall could be (at least part of) what you're looking
for:

    CheckInstall keeps track of all the files created or
    modified by your installation script ("make
install"
    "make install_modules", "setup",
etc), builds a
    standard binary package and installs it in your
    system giving you the ability to uninstall it with your
    distribution's standard package management utilities.

Cheers, Dave.
-- 
David Symons
Canberra, Australia
http://www.liberate
dcomputing.net

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On 2/1/07, David Symons <ubuntuliberatedcomputing.net>
wrote:
> On 2/2/07, John McCabe-Dansted <gmathtgmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi, is there a tool to automatically convert a
standard libtool based
> > source tarball into a deb file?
>
> checkinstall could be (at least part of) what you're
looking for:
>
>     CheckInstall keeps track of all the files created
or
>     modified by your installation script ("make
install"
>     "make install_modules",
"setup", etc), builds a
>     standard binary package and installs it in your
>     system giving you the ability to uninstall it with
your
>     distribution's standard package management
utilities.

Based on my (limited) understanding, the reason checkinstall
isn't a
"complete" solution is because "good"
deb packages are "smarter" than
that -- they also include information about dependencies,
for example.
So if something in your deb is incompatible with something
else that
might be installed OR if its installation required you to
install
another package, both of those should be noted in the deb so
it can
make the right things happen when someone installs it.

There are other characteristics of a good package, such as
having the
man pages and/or help (as applicable). I'm sure there's a
web page
(Debian or Ubuntu) that spells this out but I can't recall
right now.

A lot of this could be automated in a packaging tool as a
checklist...

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On Sat, 3 Feb 2007 11:16:55 -0600
"Tommy Trussell" <tommy.trussellgmail.com> wrote:

> There are other characteristics of a good package, such
as having the
> man pages and/or help (as applicable). I'm sure there's
a web page
> (Debian or Ubuntu) that spells this out but I can't
recall right now.

There is a package:

 $ apt-cache search maintainers guide
maint-guide - Debian New Maintainers' Guide

There is also information in the apt howto about building
debs from source
packages:

http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto
/ch-sourcehandling.en.html

You can also install the apt-howto package.

Checkinstall is not optimal, but it works quite well for
just keeping
self-compiled packages in order locally and making them
known to the
packaging system. The debs it makes should not be
distributed though,
since as you point out they are not "real"
packages. The versioning
numbers are quirky and probably potentially confuse apt and
friends,
although I haven't had problems with that here. If the files
land
in /usr/local , which is the usual default for compiled
packages, they are
more or less out of the way, but I think I remember reading
that this can
cause issues for example if /usr/local is mounted using
NFS.

Peter


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<quote who="John McCabe-Dansted"
date="Fri, Feb 02, 2007 at 01:54:54PM +0900">
> Hi, is there a tool to automatically convert a standard
libtool based
> source tarball into a deb file?

You'll find that a standard piece of software is hard to
find. Doing
it automatically is difficult -- there is some information
that just
sometimes can't be inferred.

The package dh-make is perhaps the cloest thing. It does
many of the
things that you are suggesting.

I hope that helps.

Regards,
Mako


-- 
Benjamin Mako Hill
makoubuntu.com
http://mako.cc

Creativity can be a social contribution, but only in so
far as society is free to use the results. --RMS

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