All the packaging work should be made by modifying files in the debian/ directory. The Debian documentation in Application Deployment, Release, and Maintenance (Step 3) includes a basic explanation of the files under this directory. The minimum necessary (required) main files under the Debian directory include:
- Control
- Metadata about the package (dependencies, package name, etc.). The fields of this file are described in the Debian Policy Manual, 5: Control files and their fields .
- Rules
- Specifies how to build the package. The main Makefile triggers the build/install/clean system for the source package).
- Copyright
- Copyright information for the package. Use the
dch
command to automatically fill the fields for the next update. - Changelog
- This is the history of the Debian package. The format is described in the Debian Policy Manual, 4.4 Debian changelog .
- Source/format
- The format of the source package. Add a single line
"3.0 (quilt)"
to this file.
For the basic packaging, delete rest of the files in the debian/ directory. For more advance settings and an explanation of the each of the files, refer to the Application Release Criteria and Functional Verification (Step 4) section. Other files under the Debian directory.