How to Create .deb Packages for Debian, Ubuntu and Linux Mint

[@eznix]

Once I learned how to build a .deb package, I then started unpacking .deb packages and looking inside to see how they operate and see what pre and post scripts do my system. If you want to play with installing software that your package manager does not want to install, you can unpack the deb package, modify the control file and tweak the dependencies so the package will install. It can be a fun waste of time. :-)

[@Milosz_Ostrow]

If something can be learned by doing that, I would never consider it a "waste of time". You never know when the knowledge might be crucial.

[@Kamel419]

i can see your point in calling it a waste of time lol. there are far worse ways to waste time though for sure

[@ed4157]

Great tip, I did that with the google-chrome and I could create my .deb file easily since like google-chrome my app also create a symbolic link to the bin

[@fredmckinney8933]

After trying to wrap my head around several other .deb packaging tutorials, I found yours to give the best explanation as to how it's done, and it's really surprisingly easy to do, no less. Thanx! :-)

[@1kit]

Love your voice and clear English speech. I enjoy it.

[@2000MohammedSuper]

Man, thank you so much for this amazingly instructive video! From now on, before installing any .deb file, I will check the inner things just to see how the whole package works. I now understand why you say to be "very, very carefull" about where we get Debian packages from on the Internet. It's look so easy to put some maliscious code in one of them.

[@ktinosGR]

I think this is the first video i ever see in youtube for creating packages in Linux systems

[@edhousemanjr5474]

Thanks. Clear and easy. Everywhere I looked, they made it complicated.

[@Jaycsee66]

Another excellent video Joe. Congratulations on 75K subscribers. When I first subscribed i think you were only about 30K (Only 30K! That it self is a great effort). All the hard work and effort you put into your videos is appreciated. Thanks Joe.

[@linuxrant]

Wonderfully and patiently explained. It is obviously simple now. Subscribed for more. You could ease out on the font size just a little bit. It's nice that it's big, but the prompt takes whole screen estate instead of the command... but I don't want to complain, the tutorial is awesome. BTW, quite nice voice impression you made 14:23 :)

[@toshn4151]

Thank you, this is very useful. I don't know why all the other tutorials online are so complicated... are they using an older method or something?

[@strayferal]

07:50 not quite - /usr/local/bin according to few things I read is for the locally compiled from source software, so we should not put anything there manually. This is what I read on like 2 different places.

[@solarsiztem]

that was really simple. thank you. everyone make this so complicated but you are really the best. keep working

[@SanpuiRonak]

You can apt purge to remove configs from home

[@MohamedIbrahim-cb8rl]

Thank you for the informative and enjoyable tutorial. Explaining the project directory may have been more clear using the 'tree' command. Thanks again and wishing you the best in your career.

[@mihajlopetkovic2003]

How would I create internal structure of the package if some files need to be copied to /home/USER/.config? What do I type instead of USER because I don't know how user folder is called on every system?

[@textoffice]

use the $LOGNAME environnement variable in command in the postinst script

[@jdsgotninelives]

Congrats on your growing KZbin base. You make great content on :-)

[@juanc.casanova2572]

Mr Collins Thank You for Imparting KNOWLEDGE I really REALLY APPRECIATE YOU

[@BrucesWorldofStuff]

Great as always! Congrats on the over 75K!!! USER @ 16:48.... HaHaHa, yep I call it User everytime I type USR still.... It's the way I remember it... Thanks for the videos as I reference them a lot.. I know I can write stuff down but I lose it, so I save notes in a reference file and use it to go back to videos to see how it is done! Thank you so so so much!

[@ajinkyarathod5180]

How can I make my debian app also run from command line (if made in python)

[@knerduno5942]

So many ways to generate deb packages. Some say pbuilder is the way to make those .deb packages. Also, looking at the Debian source files from "apt source " I am seeing not only a different file structure, but also naming is a bit different. For example, instead of "DEBIAN" like you are showing, I am seeing "debian."

[@voiceoftreason1760]

is there any logic to version numbering schemes? I see all sorts of combinations of numbers with : . - + characters in between

[@tanja84dk1]

I have a small question even that I know its a older video. I tried to add the dependencies line to make sure the packages are installed and saw they were separated by ; in the description. But I unfortunally got this error 'Depends' field, invalid package name 'iptables;grep;coreutils;gawk': character ';' not allowed (only letters, digits and characters '-+._') And when I looked back at your video they were actually , separated so I think that is a error in the description

[@tanja84dk1]

@Axel Steiner Thank you for reminding me why to NEVER comment on youtube anymore

[@noferblatz]

Many thanks for this video. I've read through this process before, but, like you, I had a hard time with it. Your video made it clear. I'll take notes on it, and add it to my "Tips And Tricks" internal website. (I don't know why other explanations of this process are hard to understand.)

[@NotMarkKnopfler]

This is absolute treasure. Thank you so much, Joe. Really appreciate this. Greetings from Scotland.

[@ArjunDandagi]

@Joe Collins , Thanks for the awesome video on walking us through how to create a .deb package , i have learnt how to build one and how to install in my system . however i would like to make it available to all using my own ppa , i did create my own account in launchpad . but the documentation about uploading the packaging is so cluttered or i simply not interested to the hard path to upload. can you walk us through the uploading procedure please. TIA

[@EzeeLinux]

No.. I use Git. It's way simpler. Go learn Git if you want to share. :)

[@davonuk1]

So you can use one of these deb packages to put files anywhere on your system. If these files happen to overwrite key components of your OS, or even the kernel ... ? Definitely handle with care!

[@EzeeLinux]

Yep, you got it. :)

[@givenfool6169]

Dangerous Freedom for sure

[@ADV-IT]

Thank you!

[@ayoubelmhamdi7920]

why you are using unconformable bash prompt

[@ayoubelmhamdi7920]

@@coreyhollaway7368 you can change the prompe in bach by change PS1 like export PS1="> "

[@tpasi2020UG]

We subscribe to quality and this channel is quality.

[@aaronrennyvargheseOriginal]

Amazing video! You just gained a new sub!

[@hamzaodt3515]

guys i have a problem when i try to dpkg-deb --build ... i get error "control directory has bad permission 700 (must be>=0755 and

[@EzeeLinux]

Make sure all the directories in you build directory are set for 755. Use 'chmod 755 directory-name' to do that. :)

[@hamzaodt3515]

@@EzeeLinux yes it worked thanks

[@abdelrhmanhamdy2370]

Thanks for clear explanation

[@fvillarrealg]

Thank you for sharing the this video, it guided me to understand the process.

[@vanpeters9751]

I run linspire 8.0 CE 2019 it is hybrid Linux primary Ubuntu but has rpm and other types of packages

[@caseywinters3021]

I made an ezeelinux profile today. Looks like a good community. I’m not surprised though.

[@douggale5962]

Have you seen how windows MSI install files are built? A nightmare of complexity. It is beautiful how simply deb packages are created.

[@MrHatoi]

Pro tip: "apt purge" instead of "remove" will eliminate all configuration files as well. It's a good idea to use this to automatically get rid of leftover files if you don't have any intention of reinstalling the program or ever using it again.

[@ajinkyarathod5180]

Really thank you for this. Is there any documentation about this I can read?

[@MrHatoi]

@@ajinkyarathod5180 You can look at "man apt", under the "install, remove, purge" section: "Removing a package removes all packaged data, but leaves usually small (modified) user configuration files behind, in case the remove was an accident. Just issuing an installation request for the accidentally removed package will restore its function as before in that case. On the other hand you can get rid of these leftovers by calling purge even on already removed packages. Note that this does not affect any data or configuration stored in your home directory."

[@ajinkyarathod5180]

@@MrHatoi Thankies

[@textoffice]

thanks for this job ! it works well.

[@Esque123]

Great video, really easy to follow.

[@Pan_Samochodzik]

Would be great if you did video for ftp server that works and setting permissions so logged in user can create files etc... also sharing directory and connecting from one linux machine to another.

[@stephenjames5745]

Tom H why not just use sftp through ssh?

[@Pan_Samochodzik]

@@stephenjames5745 It was easier to use usb drive. I'm learning basic bash and linux under the hood is like going to dark forest at night while blindfolded with hands tied and looking for instruction manual that is encrypted form of most obscure lost language. Lol, geez I'm funny.

[@ed4157]

Thank you very much, I can't believe it is this easy

[@philippecardin1109]

I will keep your video in my references for sure, thanks! Next, how to create or modify an AUR package for Arch systems!

[@EzeeLinux]

I don't do anything Arch related. Not really into packaging anyway, as I said at the beginning of the video. :)

[@philippecardin1109]

@RDE Lutherie Thanks i'l keep that in mind!

[@lechsiz1642]

that warning is what I needed. too many installs or other issues can break linux. but i needed more visuals. had to quit this video after 8 minutes

[@dersammler9254]

Great, exactly what I was looking for! Many thanks & BR

[@_antoniocouto]

A new Debian version is going to be release with /usr merge. What’s your take on this?

[@EzeeLinux]

That's just pluming. I don't have strong option on it either way... :)

[@_antoniocouto]

Learn Linux They are moving everything from /bin, /sbin, /lib and /lib64 to /usr. What is all about: www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/TheCaseForTheUsrMerge/ Debian 10: www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Debian-Go-Ahead-Merged-Usr

[@aequanimus63247]

Thanks for the help. Fyi, you might benefit from installing tree.

[@andreim.1763]

It was of great help. thank you !

[@deckluck372]

Congratulations on the 75K achievement. You know 100K will be around the corner very soon!

[@stephenjames5745]

Terrific video! Thank you

[@JoshuaPeisach]

Thanks a lot, -From The Ubuntu Cinnamon Team

[@trido3815]

Clear explanations. Straight to the point. Thanks.

[@terranrepublican5522]

Why don't you just use Open Build System from OpenSUSE? You can easily package software for all formats.

[@EzeeLinux]

That doesn't teach you how .deb packages work, though. That's the point of this video.

[@earnestredwood4694]

You are the man Joe...

[@junicast_tech]

Thank you for the nice video. It could be a bit shorter instead of explaining every detail about what directories are for what but in the end it helped a a significant deal.

[@kbaafi]

I did not consider subscribing....I just subscribed

[@Greatfulone]

Thank you.

[@conandiaz6999]

Nice tutorial.

[@commonsense5797]

Two words: you rock! Wait, that's four words, eight words. Oh Crap, counting in binary again.!?!

[@ohiovr]

Green belt achieved

[@Pdj_n]

Nice one

[@celestialbeing4767]

You have great content, not surprised why your getting subscribers. I just wanna be a good Stewart of what I already have and created. Making the experience a good one and passing it other acquiring minds. " Lean on Me" song by Bill Withers.

[@hamzaarain4238]

thanks to guide me

[@PizzaLovingNerd]

Thanks.

[@toosafelol]

Thank you for the video, i've been looking for this. Thank: command not found edit: no sarcasm btw, very usefull

[@declanmoran1894]

👍👍👍👍

[@مجهولمجهول-ص5ه8ش]

for java ?

[@JoshuaKisb]

seems like this should be automated

[@greob]

Probably not a great idea to arbitrarily remove files from the user's file system without at least prompting for confirmation. What if I have my own program called xbt in my $HOME/bin/xbt for example? -> dangerous data loss!

[@EzeeLinux]

The chances that a user would have their own program called xbt in the ~/bin directory and get mad 'cause the installer for a new program called xbt removed it are just about zero. Better to test for and then remove an old version than to have a user contact you and tell you that the update didn't work.

[@OpenGL4ever]

@@EzeeLinux You're wrong. You can't assume that it's unlikely that someone is using the name xbt for his or another program. Because the name consists of only three characters, the chances that this name is used already is thus even very high. To do it the correct way you should use some sort of checksums like sha256sum, and compare it to your known old xbt binaries. That way you can exclude, that you will accidentally delete someones other file. The only disadvantage of that way is, that you will have to keep a history of all possible checksums and it will stop to work if someone is creating his own binaries from source. In the latter case you should ask the user if he wants to have that file be deleted. And one more thing, all in all this should even be not necessary when the file is installed via a package manager.