Debby

Create .deb files easily using python package metadata

Installation

You can install this package with pip.

$ pip install debby

Links

Usage

This tool creates the directory structure (including the control file) to then create a .deb package with dpkg-deb.

You may provide a template for the control file (see Control File Template) or provide the metadata directly via the command line or environment variables.

You may also provide files to include in the package with -f/--file option, which may be passed multiple times.

You may also provide a source for the metadata (see Metadata Sources). You can also specify specific metadata values via the command line. If no metadata source is provided, and all the required metadata is not provided via the command line, an error will be raised.

OUT_DIR=$(debby -f path/to/binary /usr/bin/binary -f path/to/config /etc/config --pyproject pyproject.toml)
dpkg-deb --build $OUT_DIR

Scripts

You may provide installation scripts with --preinst, --postinst, --prerm, and --postrm. These scripts will be included in the package and run before and after installation and removal of the package.

Using a script flag without a path is equivalent to providing a path to a script in the current directory with the same name as the flag. For example, --preinst is equivalent to --preinst ./preinst.

Alternatively, you may directly provide commands to run at the appropriate stage with --preinst-cmd, --postinst-cmd, --prerm-cmd, and --postrm-cmd. An appropriate script will be generated and included in the package. For example, --preinst-cmd 'echo hello' --preinst-cmd 'echo world' will generate a script that runs echo hello and echo world in sequence as the pre-installation script.

Metadata Sources

Currently, the following metadata sources are supported:

• --pyproject: Reads the metadata from the given pyproject.toml file, according to the PEP 621 specification.
• --poetry: Reads the metadata from the given pyproject.toml file, according to Poetry's specification.

Control File Template

It is possible to provide a template for the control file with -t/--template path/to/control.template. If provided, this template will be used to generate the control file instead of creating one from scratch. The template should be a text file with the following allowed placeholders.