Last changed: 09 July 2016

Building packages for Alpine

Files in this directory:
  alpine.spec - spec file for building RPMs on RedHat, Fedora and OpenSuse.
  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.x86_64.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