Building Debian Packages

[Dun'kalis]

Whenever I find a nifty program, chances are that if its still beta, it won't be in Debian testing. I want to make some Debian packages for some of these programs, but the Package Maintainer's Manual is outdated (it refers to dh_make, which I don't have, and I do have debhelper installed). I'm all confused. The Debian Policy Manual is badly organized, too...

How do I make a Debian package?

[rustskull]

http://lists.debian.org/debian-mentors/

search the archives, or just send a quick note to the list and make sure that you tell them to cc: you if you're not subscribed.

debian-mentors@lists.debian.org

and I tried aptitude tonight and hated it.
>:- (

bummer, I was excited about that and looking forward to it.

maybe someday someone will tell me the cool thing about it, but it sure doesn't follow a logical flow like dselect. IMO dselect is much simpler. The only keys I need to know are

arrow keys get me around
help=space bar
enter=do it/okay
O, o=change the package list sort method
+ = install it
- = remove it (but leaves conf files and such)
= = leave it alone/as it was (useful for if you +/-/_ a packages you didn't mean to)
_= purge it (remove conffile and as much of the traces as you can)

that's it. None of this meta key f10 control crap key combination drop down menu junk. and the white on blue color sceme bugs my eyes. I like the white letters on black terminal look of dselect.

But that's the great thing about linux. I can use whatever makes me comfortable, even if everyone else thinks it sucks and I'm crazy.

-rust