Appendix 5: Building Packages Files

Files with the extension .deb contain the packages managed by dpkg. For

information on how these packages are built, the programmer.html/ and pol 

icy.html/ directories will provide much useful information. These files are

found on a Debian system in the /usr/doc/dpkg.

What you need to build a Packages file:

1. Debian GNU/Linux system with dpkg dev installed.

2. A collection of .deb package files.

3. The override file for the distribution involved.

The Debian package dpkg dev provides the script dpkg scanpackages

which is used to produce Packages files. With this tool an arbitrary collection

of Debian binary packages can be converted into a  distribution . Normally

the Debian distribution resides in the sub directories of the directory binary 

i386. Many times however, even with a  standard  archives of this distribu 

tion, the Packages file is not in sync with the archive, and a new Packages

file will be required. The proper operation of dselect depends on an accurate

and up to date Packages file.

Another reason for building a Packages file relates to the construction of a

 custom  installation. Collecting a specific subset of the Debian distribution

for installation using dselect will require a Packages file for this subset. Once

these packages are collected into a sub tree, a Packages file can be created.

dpkg scanpackages has two required parameters, and sends its output to

stdout. The first parameter is the path to the archives while the second

points to the override file for the release being used. The 1.3 release is code

named bo, while the previous release was rex and the next one was hamm

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