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Creating
.deb-Packages With Checkinstall
Version 1.0
Author: Falko Timme <ft [at] falkotimme [dot] com>
Last edited 02/04/2005
Checkinstall is
a nice tool to create simple .deb-packages that you can use in your local network
(e.g. if you have to install the same piece of software on multiple computers
running Debian). It lets you compile and install software from the sources like
before, but with the difference that you end up with a simple Debian package
which also means that you can easily uninstall the software you just compiled
by running dpkg -r!
I will demonstrate
the use of checkinstall
by compiling and installing the anti-virus software ClamAV
on a Debian system.
This howto is meant
as a practical guide; it does not cover the theoretical backgrounds. They are
treated in a lot of other documents in the web.
This document comes
without warranty of any kind!
1 Install Checkinstall
It is as easy as
1-2-3:
apt-get install checkinstall
If your system
tells you that it does not know a package called checkinstall
then add the following line to /etc/apt/sources.list:
deb
http://www.backports.org/debian/ woody checkinstall
and run
apt-get
update
Then try again
to install checkinstall.
2 Install ClamAV
We need the ClamAV
sources . We will install the software from the /tmp
directory.
cd /tmp
wget http://mesh.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/clamav/clamav-0.81.tar.gz
apt-get install libgmp3 libgmp3-dev
groupadd clamav
useradd -g clamav -s /bin/false -c "Clam AntiVirus" clamav
tar xvfz clamav-0.81.tar.gz
cd clamav-0.81/
./configure --sysconfdir=/etc
(Please note: ./configure
--help gives a list of all configuration options available.)
make
Now comes the main
difference: instead of make install
we run
checkinstall -D make
install
Answer the question
"The package documentation
directory ./doc-pak does not exist.
Should I create a default set of package docs? [y]:" with y.
Then enter a description
for your package (e.g. ClamAV 0.81).
A summary of the configuration options for your .deb-package will come up:

You can change
them here or just hit enter to continue. Now ClamAV
will be installed plus a Debian package will be created which you can
find in the installation directory /tmp/clamav-0.81
as the final checkinstall
summary states:

Now you can copy
clamav-0.81_0.81-1_i386.deb
to other Debian computers and run
dpkg
-i /path/to/clamav-0.81_0.81-1_i386.deb
to install it.
If you want to remove it, just run
dpkg
-r clamav-0.81
This even works
on the computer you compiled ClamAV on! This is a nice way to install software
from the sources and remove it if you are unsatisfied with the result.
Links
Checkinstall: http://asic-linux.com.mx/~izto/checkinstall/
ClamAV: http://www.clamav.net/
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