A shell script to create Debian packages (works on symlinks)

build-package

#!/bin/bash
# This script builds a DEBIAN package. I use it as a replacement for
# dpkg-deb because dpkg-deb doesn't follow symlinks.

# make 'tar' follow symlinks
export TAR_OPTIONS=-h

# get a temporary directory
TMPDIR="$TEMPDIR"
if [ -z $TMPDIR ];
then
TMPDIR=/tmp
fi
D=$(mktemp -d --tmpdir=$TMPDIR)

# verify structure (as much as possible)
if [ ! -d DEBIAN ];
then
echo "$0: expected DEBIAN subdirectory"
exit
fi
if [ ! -f DEBIAN/control ];
then
echo "$0: no control file"
exit
fi

# create archives
tar czf $D/data.tar.gz [[:lower:]]*
cd DEBIAN
tar czf $D/control.tar.gz *
cd ..
echo 2.0 > $D/debian-binary

# build the package name from the control file
PACKAGE_NAME=$(grep 'Package' DEBIAN/control | cut -d' ' -f2)
PACKAGE_VERSION=$(grep 'Version' DEBIAN/control | cut -d' ' -f2)
PACKAGE_ARCH=$(grep 'Architecture:' DEBIAN/control | cut -d' ' -f2)

# build the actual package
DEBFILE=$PACKAGE_NAME\_$PACKAGE_VERSION\_$PACKAGE_ARCH.deb
ar r $DEBFILE $D/debian-binary $D/control.tar.gz $D/data.tar.gz
echo "$0: created package '$DEBFILE'"

# cleanup (safely)
rm -f $D/*
rmdir $D