Hi Nick, On Tue, Nov 26, 2013 at 2:09 PM, Nick Rudnick <nick.rudn...@gmail.com> wrote: > Dear all, > > how to build Debian source packages, e.g. > nvidia-graphics-drivers_331.20-1.debian.tar.gz > (http://packages.debian.org/source/experimental/nvidia-graphics-drivers)?? > It seems different to common DEB as well as tarballs with configure/make. > Well, you happened to pick a really complicated package: Nvidia graphics drivers are in non-free and the source is split into multiple binary packages.
A few points: - "Common DEB" are the result of compiling source package (i.e. the binary output), so you don't actually compile .deb files. - You don't compile the .debian.tar.gz file either. Look towards the end of the page that you provided. There are actually three files which comprises a debian source package: the .dsc (basically a description of the debian source package), the .orig.tar.gz (the original tarball from upstream), and the .debian.tar.gz (containing things specific to the debian package). - In order to see the complete debian source package, you have to unpack the upstream tarball, unpack the .debian.tar.gz into a debian/ directory under the upstream source, and apply the patches in debian/patches/ to the upstream source. - The .debian.tar.gz contains a file "rules", which is a makefile specifying how the binary package is to be generated. It is usually more than just a make file though; for the nvidia drivers, it contains directions for debhelper. - debhelper (as the name suggests) is a handy helper to make packaging easier. It hides some of the more tedious/common things during package creation, such as having to manually write makefiles. > Even a search term would help, as trying with Google/Wikipedia/Debian.org > wasn't too lucky yet. > Sorry to say, but for a complicated package such as nvidia drivers, you either use the already built binary package (through apt-get), or you probably have to know enough about packaging that you could've been a maintainer. For the latter, here are some resources: http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/maint-guide/ http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ Regards, Vincent Chen -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/cafuqieysluo7e08cdyx+s7l1j+kdo3aegufz9hiumz3-3fd...@mail.gmail.com