README

Package Suite


This is a port of the Debian Packaging System (Dpkg), along with associated
tools and front-end applications, to platforms other than Linux.

The initial target platform is Mac OS X. Other platforms may follow later.

This repository contains only build logic and resources. The actual sources are
contained within submodules. The logic is far from pretty -- building from
source yourself is probably not recommended if you can help it (but should
be straightforward enough if you have the Developer Tools installed and know
your way around makefiles.

The build logic for Mac OS X is contained within mk/Darwin.mk. By default it
will build dpkg for x86, x86_64 and ppc architectures, use 'lipo' to generate
fat binaries, and then construct a .deb package for dpkg itself. Once the
.deb has been built, packagemaker is invoked to generate a native Mac OS X
package.

The Mac OS X package installs a copy of dpkg's executables, along with the dpkg
.deb package, to /usr/local/var/dpkg/bootstrap. The postinstall script executed
by Installer.app when the package is installed ensures the files and
directories that dpkg needs to work exist, and invokes the bootstrap copy to
install dpkg itself. The intention is that dpkg can be upgraded via apt-get
(or dpkg alone) if needed, and also that re-installation of the Mac OS X
package won't interfere with that.

The scripts assume by default (for now) that the Mac OS X developer tools are
installed in /Local/Developer. Set the DEVTOOLS variable to the path that
you installed them while invoking 'make'. For example:

make DEVTOOLS=/Xcode4

You can also set the 'prefix' variable to build everything targeted at a prefix
other than /usr/local.