/home/nand

Yay, I finally did it! The ike package (a VPN client) is up on the Ubuntu hardy Universe repository! Making a debian package for Ubuntu is not as easy as one may think…

I will now explain the process to create one.

• First find something to package Easy task, just pick one on this list at Launchpad. But as it is stated on the wiki page, don’t forget you will then become the maintainer of the package, meaning you’ll have to act as an intermediate between Ubuntu and upstream (it’s how the developers of the software are generically called) for the bugs, security updates,…
• Read some doc. Not the fun part, but you will have to. You can start by this Ubuntu wiki page. You will notice there are differents tools for packaging. I personally used debhelper.
• Then start packaging! An invaluable place to learn and ask question is #ubuntu-motu in irc.freenode.net. Lots of MOTUs ready to help there. (especially the one nicknamed “persia”, who helped me and others a lot!)
• Once you have your first rough package, you will use a nice review tool called REVU (MOTUs lacks originality ) There, you will upload your packages, and once a week, on “REVU day”, you shall ask for a review on #ubuntu-motu.  One MOTU will point out a list of errors, and help you resolve them. You correct, and you try again. And so on until it is shining! Here is my entry. Yeah, it took one month!

But once you have made your first package, the packaging internals are much more clear, and IMO this is a very good place to start!