deb-pkg-tools is a Python package that helps writing software that builds Debian packages or queries the system for package/version information. The primary use case is to automate builds.
The Python package deb-pkg-tools is a collection of functions to work with Debian packages and repositories. Some of those functions have a command line interface (see below) because they're very convenient to use in shell scripts, while other functions are meant to be called directly from Python code. It's currently tested on cPython 2.6, 2.7, 3.4 and 3.5 and PyPy (2.7).
Please note that deb-pkg-tools is quite opinionated about how Debian binary packages should be built and it enforces some of these opinions on its users. Most of this can be avoided with optional function arguments and/or environment variables. If you find something that doesn't work to your liking and you can't work around it, feel free to ask for an additional configuration option; I try to keep an open mind about the possible use cases of my projects.
On the one hand the deb-pkg-tools package is based on my experiences with Debian packages and repositories over the past couple of years, on the other hand deb-pkg-tools itself is quite young. Then again most functionality is covered by automated tests; at the time of writing coverage is around 90% (some of the error handling is quite tricky to test if we also want to test the non-error case, which is of course the main focus :-)
You can install the deb-pkg-tools package using the following command:
$ pip install deb-pkg-toolsAfter installation you'll have the deb-pkg-tools program available:
Usage: deb-pkg-tools [OPTIONS] ...
Wrapper for the deb-pkg-tools Python project that implements various tools to inspect, build and manipulate Debian binary package archives and related entities like trivial repositories.
Supported options:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
-i, --inspect=FILE |
Inspect the metadata in the Debian binary package archive given by FILE (similar to "dpkg --info"). |
-c, --collect=DIR |
Copy the package archive(s) given as positional arguments (and all package archives required by the given package archives) into the directory given by DIR. |
-C, --check=FILE |
Perform static analysis on a package archive and its dependencies in order to recognize common errors as soon as possible. |
-p, --patch=FILE |
Patch fields into the existing control file given by FILE. To be used together with the -s, --set option. |
-s, --set=LINE |
A line to patch into the control file (syntax: "Name: Value"). To be used together with the -p, --patch option. |
-b, --build=DIR |
Build a Debian binary package with "dpkg-deb --build" (and lots of intermediate Python magic, refer to the API documentation of the project for full details) based on the binary package template in the directory given by DIR. The resulting archive is located in the system wide temporary directory (usually /tmp). |
-u, --update-repo=DIR |
Create or update the trivial Debian binary package repository in the directory given by DIR. |
-a, --activate-repo=DIR |
Enable "apt-get" to install packages from the trivial repository (requires root/sudo privilege) in the directory given by DIR. Alternatively you can use the -w, --with-repo option. |
-d, --deactivate-repo=DIR |
Cleans up after --activate-repo (requires root/sudo privilege). Alternatively you can use the -w, --with-repo option. |
-w, --with-repo=DIR |
Create or update a trivial package repository, activate the repository, run the positional arguments as an external command (usually "apt-get install") and finally deactivate the repository. |
--gc, --garbage-collect |
Force removal of stale entries from the persistent (on disk) package metadata cache. Garbage collection is performed automatically by the deb-pkg-tools command line interface when the last garbage collection cycle was more than 24 hours ago, so you only need to do it manually when you want to control when it happens (for example by a daily cron job scheduled during idle hours :-). |
-y, --yes |
Assume the answer to interactive questions is yes. |
-v, --verbose |
Make more noise! (useful during debugging) |
-h, --help |
Show this message and exit. |
One thing to note is that the operation of deb-pkg-tools --update-repo can be influenced by a configuration file. For details about this, please refer to the documentation on deb_pkg_tools.repo.select_gpg_key().
If you're interested in using deb-pkg-tools as a Python module, please refer to the function reference on Read the Docs.
The deb-pkg-tools package depends on the python-debian package for control file parsing (it will be automatically installed as a dependency). The following external programs are also required (depending on which functionality you need of course):
| Program | Package |
|---|---|
apt-ftparchive |
apt-utils |
apt-get |
apt |
cp |
coreutils |
dpkg-deb |
dpkg |
dpkg-architecture |
dpkg-dev |
du |
coreutils |
fakeroot |
fakeroot |
gpg |
gnupg |
gzip |
gzip |
lintian |
lintian |
The majority of these programs/packages will already be installed on most Debian based systems so you should only need the following to get started:
$ sudo apt-get install dpkg-dev fakeroot lintianSeveral things can be tweaked via environment variables if they don't work for your system or platform. For example on Mac OS X the cp command doesn't have an -l parameter and the root user and group may not exist, but despite these things it can still be useful to test package builds on Mac OS X. The following environment variables can be used to adjust such factors:
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
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Normalize ownership of files during packaging. |
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During package builds the ownership of all directories and files is reset to this user. |
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During package builds the ownership of all directories and files is reset to this group. |
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Reset sticky bit on directories inside package templates before building. |
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Run commands using either fakeroot or sudo (depending on which is available). |
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Enable the usage of |
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Allow the usage of hard links to speed up file copies between directories on the same file system. |
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Force the system to generate entropy based on disk I/O. |
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Shell to use for the |
Environment variables for boolean options support the strings yes, true, 1, no, false and 0 (case is ignored).
To disable any use of sudo you can use the following:
export DPT_ALLOW_FAKEROOT_OR_SUDO=false
export DPT_CHOWN_FILES=false
export DPT_RESET_SETGID=false
export DPT_SUDO=falseThe latest version of deb-pkg-tools is available on PyPI and GitHub. The documentation is hosted on Read the Docs. For bug reports please create an issue on GitHub. If you have questions, suggestions, etc. feel free to send me an e-mail at peter@peterodding.com.
This software is licensed under the MIT license.
© 2016 Peter Odding.