How to build a simple Debian package (*.Deb)
Channel: sonodrome
Date: 2011-02-16

Take a look at how to build a Debian package from a simple program or script, Debian packages (*.Deb) are easy to share, install and uninstall, they can also automatically add your programs to Ubuntu's GNOME menu. 

You'll probably need to install these:

To install dh-make
sudo apt-get install dh-make

To install dpkg
sudo apt-get install dpkg

To install lintian
sudo apt-get install lintian

And here's some extra info that I found helpful:

Wiki info on chmod:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chmod

Debian policy:
http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/

Here's links to all the materials and code used in this tutorial-

Debian package:
http://sonodrome.co.uk/stuff/gtk-link-lizard_1.5-1_i386.deb

Icon:
http://sonodrome.co.uk/stuff/link-lizard-icon.png

Python script:
http://sonodrome.co.uk/stuff/gtk-link-lizard.py

Links text file:
http://sonodrome.co.uk/stuff/links.txt

Desktop launcher:
http://sonodrome.co.uk/stuff/gtk-link-lizard.desktop

Debian control file:
http://sonodrome.co.uk/stuff/control

Debian rules file:
http://sonodrome.co.uk/stuff/rules

Original process notes: 
http://sonodrome.co.uk/stuff/py-to-deb-package.txt