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NOTE: DRAFT / WORK-IN-PROGRESS / INCOMPLETE

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• Much of my learnings stemmed from the following pages:

  • https://wiki.debian.org/HowToPackageForDebian

  • https://wiki.debian.org/Packaging/Intro?action=show&redirect=IntroDebianPackaging

• Install the debian package building scripts with:

  • sudo apt install devscripts

• Install mingw compilers with:

  • sudo apt install gcc-mingw-w64-x86-64 g++-mingw-w64-x86-64 gcc-mingw-w64 g++-mingw-w64

• cd ~

• mkdir debs

• cd debs

• I think one fruitful path I took was to make use of an existing *-mingw-w64 source package file, study how it was structured, then slowly tweak/modify it to transform it into a package for another program.

• E.g., I think I did this when I used ubuntu’s libz-mingw-w64 package and tweaked it into libpng-mingw-w64 and libusb-mingw-w64 packages.

• I’ll now retrieve Ubuntu’s libusb and Ubuntu focal’s libz-mingw-w64 .dsc (source package) file with:

  • Run software-properties-gtk

  • Under the Ubuntu software tab, check (x) Source code
    

    

  • Click ‘OK’ button

  • Back in a console, then type:
    

    Code Block
    cd ~/debs mkdir libz cd libz

  • Then grab the libz source package with:
    apt source libusblibz-1.0mingw-0w64
    
    This will retrieve the following:

    • libusb-1.0libz-mingw-w64-1.02.2311+dfsg/… (lots of files in here)libusb-1.0_1.0.23

    • libz-mingw-w64_1.2.11+dfsg-2.debian.tar.xz

    • libz-mingw-w64_1.2.11+dfsg-2.dsc

    • libz-mingw-w64_1.2.11+dfsg.orig.tar.bz2libusb-1.0xz
      

• Make a copy of the libz folder as libusb:

  Code Block
  cd .. cp -r libz libusb cd libusb

Step 1: Rename the upstream tarball

• I’ll grab the desired version of libusb from their site:
  wget https://github.com/libusb/libusb/archive/refs/tags/v1.0.24.tar.gz
  

• Rename the source tar file to debian standards:
  mv v1.0.24.tar.gz libusb-mingw-w64_1.0.

  23-2build1.debian

  24.orig.tar.gz
  

• Delete the libz source tar:
  rm libz-mingw-w64_1.2.11+dfsg.orig.tar.xz
  

Step 2: Unpack the upstream tarball

• Extract it with:
  tar xvf libusb-mingw-w64_1.0

  _

  .24.orig.tar.gz
  

• Rename extracted folder name to match “<source-package-name>-<upstream-version-number>”:
  mv libusb-1.0.

  23-2build1.dsc

  24 libusb-mingw-w64-1.0.24
  

Step 3: Add the Debian packaging files

• cd libusb-mingw-w64-1.0.24

• Copy the debian/rules file from libz into libusb:

  Code Block
  language m
  mkdir debian cp ../libz-mingw-w64-1.2.11+dfsg/debian/rules debian/

• Create an initial changelog file with:
  dch --create -v1.0.23.24-1 --package libusb-mingw-w64
  

  • You’ll need to pick you’re favourite editor from a list and then edit the default contents.

  • Be sure to replace the default email address with your own valid one (otherwise there will be build errors later)

  • Save the file and exit your editor
    

• Copy across the debian/compat file:
  cp ../libz-mingw-w64-1.2.11+dfsg/debian/compat debian/
  

• Copy across the debian/control file:
  cp ../libz-mingw-w64-1.2.11+dfsg/debian/control debian/
  

  • It contains descriptions for one source and two packages.

  • Try update these details to suit ‘libusb’, put your own name as maintainer.

  • You can remove those Vcs-Browser/Vcs-Git/Homepage lines if you can’t be bothered chasing up those details.

  • Search for the term ‘libz’ and sure any past references to it are now saying ‘libusb’
    

• Copy across the debian/source/format file:

  Code Block
  language m
  mkdir debian/source cp ../libz-mingw-w64-1.2.11+dfsg/debian/source/format debian/source/

Step 4: Build the package

• Let's try building with:

  debuild -us -uc
  

• Google around for any issues that arise on each build attempt…

• Edit the debian/rules file and add the following stuff in green:
  
  CFLAGS="$(CFLAGS) -Os" CC=x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc CXX=x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++ dh_auto_configure --builddirectory build-udeb -- --libdir=\$${prefix}/lib/
  

• Run debuild -us -uc and make note of any errors spotted there. E.g. for me:
  
  dpkg-checkbuilddeps: error: Unmet build dependencies: debhelper (>= 12.4) libudev-dev doxygen
  

• In this case, I just needed to install a few dependencies:
  
  sudo apt install debhelper libudev-dev doxygen
  

• If you get an error like this:
  
  /usr/bin/x86_64-w64-mingw32-ld: unrecognized option '-z'
  

  • Edit the following files and remove and reference to -Wl,-z,relro

    • build-deb/Makefile

    • build-deb/tests/Makefile

    • build-deb/libusb/Makefile

    • build-deb/examples/Makefile

    • build-deb/doc/Makefile
      

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