Etherpad Debian / RPM packaging

Produces native .deb (and, with the same manifest, .rpm / .apk) packages for Etherpad using nfpm.

Layout

packaging/
  nfpm.yaml                # nfpm package manifest
  bin/etherpad             # /usr/bin launcher
  scripts/                 # preinst / postinst / prerm / postrm
  systemd/etherpad.service
  systemd/etherpad.default
  etc/settings.json.dist   # populated in CI from settings.json.template

Built artefacts land in ./dist/.

Building locally

Prereqs: Node 24 (current LTS; engines.node floor is 20), pnpm 10+, nfpm.

pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
pnpm run build:etherpad

# Stage the tree the way CI does:
STAGE=staging/opt/etherpad
mkdir -p "$STAGE"
cp -a src bin package.json pnpm-workspace.yaml README.md LICENSE \
      node_modules "$STAGE/"
printf 'packages:\n  - src\n  - bin\n' > "$STAGE/pnpm-workspace.yaml"
cp settings.json.template packaging/etc/settings.json.dist

VERSION=$(node -p "require('./package.json').version") \
ARCH=amd64 \
    nfpm package --packager deb -f packaging/nfpm.yaml --target dist/

End-to-end test (Docker, no real systemd needed)

packaging/test-local.sh builds the .deb and runs the same smoke test the CI workflow does, inside a throwaway systemd-enabled container:

packaging/test-local.sh                # build + smoke + purge
packaging/test-local.sh --shell        # leave the container up so you can poke around
packaging/test-local.sh --build-only   # just produce dist/*.deb

This is the fastest way to validate that the systemd hardening, plugin path symlinks, and tsx wrapper actually work together before pushing.

Installing via the Etherpad apt repository (recommended)

The release workflow publishes a signed apt repository at https://etherpad.org/apt/ on every tagged release. Three lines on any Debian/Ubuntu/Mint:

curl -fsSL https://etherpad.org/key.asc \
  | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/etherpad.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/etherpad.gpg] https://etherpad.org/apt stable main" \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/etherpad.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install etherpad

apt upgrade works going forward. Repo metadata is signed with the GPG keypair documented in packaging/apt/key.asc (long key id AF0CD687D51A6E63).

Installing a single .deb directly

The release page publishes both versioned and stable filenames per arch:

# Stable URL — always points at the most recent release:
curl -fsSL -o etherpad-latest_amd64.deb \
  https://github.com/ether/etherpad/releases/latest/download/etherpad-latest_amd64.deb
sudo apt install ./etherpad-latest_amd64.deb

# Or pin to a specific version:
sudo apt install ./dist/etherpad_<version>_amd64.deb

sudo systemctl start etherpad
curl http://localhost:9001/health

apt will pull in nodejs (>= 22) (matches Etherpad's engines.node). Recommended runtime is the current Node.js LTS (24); on distros without a new enough Node, add NodeSource first:

curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_lts.x | sudo -E bash -

Configuration

• Edit /etc/etherpad/settings.json, then sudo systemctl restart etherpad.
• Environment overrides: /etc/default/etherpad.
• Logs: journalctl -u etherpad -f.
• Data (sqlite default): /var/lib/etherpad/etherpad.db.

The shipped settings template defaults to dbType: "dirty", which the template itself warns is for testing only. postinstall rewrites the seeded /etc/etherpad/settings.json to sqlite and points it at /var/lib/etherpad/etherpad.db so fresh installs get an ACID-safe DB out of the box. Existing /etc/etherpad/settings.json is never touched on upgrade.

Upgrading

dpkg --install etherpad_<new>.deb (or apt install) replaces the app tree under /opt/etherpad while preserving /etc/etherpad/* and /var/lib/etherpad/*. The service is restarted automatically.

Removing

• sudo apt remove etherpad — keeps config and data.
• sudo apt purge etherpad — also removes config, data, and the etherpad system user.

Publishing to an APT repository (follow-up)

Out of scope here — requires credentials and ownership decisions. Recipes once a repo is picked:

• Cloudsmith (easiest, free OSS tier): cloudsmith push deb ether/etherpad/any-distro/any-version dist/*.deb
• Launchpad PPA: requires signed source packages (a debian/ tree), which nfpm does not produce — use debuild separately.
• Self-hosted reprepro: reprepro -b /srv/apt includedeb stable dist/*.deb

Wire the chosen option into .github/workflows/deb-package.yml after the release job.