[Distutils] bdist_debian

[Greg Ward]

On 03 September 2000, Bastian Kleineidam said:
>                Debian Packages with Distutils:
> 
> 1) You are on a Debian system

I think we can assume this most of the time.  To build RPMs, you have to
be a on a system with "rpm"; to build Windows installers with binary
code, you have to be on a Windows system.  The fact that you can build
pure Python Windows installers under Linux is a happy accident.

> 2) But I am running a non-Debian system
>    a) Read something about the .deb format in deb(5):
>       The  file is an ar archive with a magic number of !<arch>.

As soon as I saw the word "magic", I knew that trying to do it this way
was Wrong Wrong Wrong.

>    This internal format is subject to change (between major releases 
>    of Debian GNU/Linux), therefore please always use dpkg-deb(8) for 
>    manipulating .deb files.

More confirmation.

Bottom line: go ahead and assume the presence of Debian package-building 
tools for building Debian packages.

Now, here's the interesting question: is it possible to install RPM on a
Debian system, or the Debian tools on an RPM system, solely for use in
producing the "other" type of package?  Seems like it ought to be
possible at least for RPM-under-Debian, since AFAIK creating RPMs
doesn't affect or use the RPM database in /var/lib/rpm.  Can anyone
speak for creating Debian packages on an RPM system?

        Greg
-- 
Greg Ward - geek-at-large                               gward@python.net
http://starship.python.net/~gward/
"One world, one web, one program" --Microsoft
"Eine volk, eine reich, eine führer" --Hitler