Last changed: 06 Apr 2007 Building packages for Alpine Files in this directory: alpine.spec - spec file for building RPMs on RedHat and Fedora. It should also work with Mandrake. debian/* - files containing instructions for building .deb files for use with dpkg windows/* - files used to build the Windows Alpine installer. Upon release, we set up directory dist.wnt.d with all of the files to be installed, and we then run the command binstaller wnt 0.98 (or whatever the current version is). These scripts are used with Inno Setup 5. README - this file. Most Linux distributions include a package management system to simplify the installing and uninstalling of programs. There are two types of these systems commonly used; RPM is the system used by default on RedHat, Fedora, Ubuntu, Mandrake, and SuSE, and dpkg is a system used by default on Debian and Mac OS X's fink. Why build your own packages? An RPM and a .deb file are already provided on the Alpine Information Center (http://www.washington.edu/alpine). Additionally, many distributions roll their own alpine packages. The files provided here will allow people to build their own versions of the same package in the event that the provided packages fail to install due to compatibility issues, or in the case where one would want to have a modified alpine package. Unlike the alpine packages provided by the various distributions, the packages built with these scripts are built directly from source, and will be released concurrently with every alpine release. It may be preferable to use the distributions' alpine packages, as they do tend to add value which is intended to enhance their users' experience. Building RPMs: For building RPMs, first find the directory where RPMs are built on your system. On Redhat 9, this directory is /usr/src/redhat. You can change this directory by editing your .rpmmacros file. Also, you need not be root to build an rpm. To build the RPM, place the alpine-{version}.tar.gz file in the SOURCES directory, and place the alpine.spec file contained here in the SPECS directory. Then, you need only issue the command: rpmbuild -ba alpine.spec The RPM file will be placed in the RPMS directory, and a source RPM will be placed in the SRPMS directory. Installing an RPM is done with the command: rpm -ivh alpine-{version}-1.i386.rpm Building .deb files: For building .deb files, dpkg, the program that builds them, looks in the "debian" directory for various control files and build scripts. This directory should reside in the top level of the alpine directory, in the same directory as the "build" file. This requires copying the debian directory contained here to the next level up, which can be done via the command: cp -pr debian ../ Then, from alpine's root directory, you would issue the command: dpkg-buildpackage Note that you must be root in order to build .deb packages. After running the above command, the .deb will have been built in the directory above the alpine root directory, and it would be of the form alpine_{version}_i386.deb. You can then install this package by running the command: dpkg -i alpine_{version}_i386.deb