There have been a number of threads lately about where to find info about how to create a .deb package from source. What I'd like to hear from people who do this regularly is how complex and involved this is.
Now obviously the estimate will depend on one's skills, so please no flames. But here is what I think is a reasonable scale: compiling a new kernel is a routine skill that any Debian user should have (particularly with how easy the kernel-package and related tools make the process), whereas reading through the kernel's C source to figure out the answer to some configuration question is *not*. Here's an example why this is important, IMHO. I'm using PostgreSQL, installed from the .deb at debian.org. I want to recompile it to configure the memory block size, plus use the latest version. The .deb maintainer will eventually do the latter task (and my hat is off to all the dedicated folks out there doing this!). But they won't necessarily configure things the way I need. A similar example: pppoe. The .deb version is 1.0-1, but Roaring Penguin has a tarball of version 2.3. I'd like to upgrade. In both cases, it makes most sense to maintain a system the Debian way, not partly by hand. I want dselect to remain happy whenever it touches my system! So rather than just compile and install the tarballs, I'd like to debianize them first. Since this seems to be a widespread situation, I want to figure out how to do this process. I'd be happy to write up a mini-HOWTO. But before I start, I'd like to know what I'm running into. TIA for any opinions on this! Stan
