1
How to build the Debian wx packages
2
===================================
4
This file is currently just a brain dump of my experiences with
5
building the Debian wx packages, based on various experimentations,
6
and Googling around. Please don't take anything said here as
7
authoritative or written in stone. Although I've been able to get
8
things to work fairly reliably, I still feel pretty clueless about
15
Contrary to how RPM and other packaging systems work, building Debian
16
packages is done with an expanded source tree instead of using a
17
tarball. Inside the toplevel of the source tree you'll find a subdir
18
named debian, and within this dir are various files used by the build.
19
The most important of these are the control file and the rules file.
20
The control file specifies the metadata about each package, such as
21
name, description, dependencies, etc. Interestingly, the version
22
number of the current build is not in the control file as might be
23
expected, but is instead taken from the changelog file. I guess this
24
is a way for debian to make sure that there is always an updated
25
changelog for every release, but it is very non-intuitive to say the
26
least. The rules file is a Makefile, and is executable with a #! that
27
runs make on itself. This lets you execute commands from the toplevel
32
While theoretically you could build the wx packages directly from your
33
CVS workspace this won't work (currently) for a couple reasons.
34
First, the debian/rules file is currently looking at the name of the
35
toplevel source dir and extracting from it the flavour name (if
36
present) for use in passing to --with-flavor configure flag. (I'm
37
considering changing how it finds this value for 2.7 so, for example,
38
the debian packages could also be built from the wxPython source
39
tarball...) Second, since the build tools use the current source dir
40
for creating the source package, you'll probably want to start with a
41
clean source tree that has had unnecessary things removed from it.
42
There is a Makefile target that will create a minimized and clean
43
source tree for you, and will name it as debian/rules expects. To use
44
it go to a build dir where you've already run configure, and then run:
48
This will result in a new source tree with a name like
49
wxwidgets2.7-2.7.0.0 that is located as a sibling to the toplevel of
50
the current source tree.
56
The various dpkg helper tools will use some environment settings to
57
provide default values. I have these set:
59
DEBFULLNAME='Robin Dunn'
60
DEBEMAIL=robin@alldunn.com
61
DEBSIGN_KEYID='Robin Dunn <robin@alldunn.com>'
62
DEBUILD_DPKG_BUILDPACKAGE_OPTS='-i -ICVS -I.svn'
64
Notice the DEBSIGN_KEYID value. If this is set (and you have a
65
matching gnupg key) then the packages will be digitally signed when
68
If you are building packages that you intend to be installable on
69
machines other than your own, then I recommend that you either have a
70
separate machine with a minimal OS install, or set up a chroot
71
environment and do the builds there. The reason for this is to
72
minimize unexpected extra dependencies that the built packages will
73
have because of extra things you have installed on your desktop
74
system, for example OpenGL libs installed by your video card drivers.
75
Using a chroot will also allow you to build packages for different
76
versions of Debian (or Ubuntu) if desired. There is a good
77
description of setting up a chroot environment here:
79
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebootstrapChroot
81
In addition to the base system packages, you'll need to install in
82
the chroot environment any packages needed for building wxWidgets
83
(compilers, make, autoconf, gtk and image libs, lib-dev's, python,
84
python-dev, etc.) as well as the packages listed in the next section.
90
There are a number of helper packages that are used when building
91
debian packages. Here are some that I have in my chroot, there may be
92
some others that I am not seeing at the moment:
107
Ok, if you are not totally confused by this point you should have a
108
minimal source tree produced by "make debian-dist" that is accessible
109
by your chroot or other minimal install system. (Unless you are only
110
making packages for yourself, then doing the build on in your main
111
desktop environment would be okay.) The first step is to chdir to
112
the top level of this source tree.
114
If you haven't already you'll want to edit debian/changelog to make an
115
entry for the current build. If the version number is changing since
116
the last build then you'll need a whole new section. If you are just
117
updating something in the same version then you can just get by with
118
editing the current changelog entry. The 'dch' tool can be used to
119
open the file in an editor with the cursor positioned for you. If you
120
use 'dch -i' then it will create a new changelog entry for you with
121
the proper syntax. Don't forget to copy this file back to your CVS
122
workspace if appropriate.
124
Our debian/control file is generated from debian/control.in, so you
125
can force it to be created now by running the following. You may want
126
to do this to verify its contents before proceeding with the build.
128
./debian/rules debian/control
130
To run just the compile/link/etc. portions of the build you can do
135
To also make a set of test binaries you can do this:
137
fakeroot ./debian/rules binary
139
To clean up from prior builds you can do this:
141
fakeroot ./debian/rules clean
143
And to automate the entire process (build, binaries, source packages,
144
digital signing, etc.) you can do this:
146
dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot
148
When finished the binary and source packages will be left in the
149
parent dir of the source tree.
152
Automating the process
153
----------------------
155
The script debian/build_all automates the above stepds and builds both
156
wxWidgets and wxPython packages in both ANSI and Unicode modes. You should do
157
the build manually at least the first time however to make sure you have all
158
the prerequisites and the build doesn't fail.
161
Other Sources of Information
162
----------------------------
164
http://liw.iki.fi/liw/talks/debian-packaging-tutorial.pdf
165
http://women.alioth.debian.org/wiki/index.php/English/BuildingTutorial
166
http://women.alioth.debian.org/wiki/index.php/English/AdvancedBuildingTips
167
http://www.wiggy.net/presentations/2001/DebianWalkThrough/handouts/handouts.html
168
http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/maint-guide/index.en.html
169
http://www.isotton.com/debian/docs/repository-howto/repository-howto.html
added
removed
debian-upstream/README.HowToBuild.txt
