docs/packages/deb.rst
fpm supports input and output for Debian package (deb). This means you can read a deb and convert it to a different output type (such as a dir or rpm). It also means you can create a deb package.
For the sample command reading a deb file as input and outputting an rpm package::
fpm -s deb -t rpm file.deb
The argument is used as a file and read as a debian package file.
Let's create a Debian package of Hashicorp's Terraform. To do this, we'll need to download it and put the files into a Debian package::
# Download Terraform 1.0.10
% wget https://releases.hashicorp.com/terraform/1.0.10/terraform_1.0.10_linux_amd64.zip
The Terraform release .zip file contains a single file, terraform itself. You can see the files in this zip by using unzip -l::
% unzip -l ~/build/z/terraform_1.0.10_linux_amd64.zip
Archive: /home/jls/build/z/terraform_1.0.10_linux_amd64.zip
Length Date Time Name
--------- ---------- ----- ----
79348596 2021-10-28 07:15 terraform
--------- -------
79348596 1 file
We can use fpm to convert this zip file into a debian package with one step::
% fpm -s zip -t deb --prefix /usr/bin -n terraform -v 1.0.10 terraform_1.0.10_linux_amd64.zip
Created package {:path=>"terraform_1.0.10_amd64.deb"}
Nice! We just converted a zip file into a debian package. Let's talk through the command-line flags here:
-s zip tells fpm to use "zip" as the input type. This allows fpm to read zip files.-t deb tells fpm to output a Debian package.--prefix /usr/bin tells fpm to move all files in the .zip file to the /usr/bin file path. In this case, it results in a single file in the path /usr/bin/terraform-n terraform names the package "terraform"-v 1.0.10 sets the package version. This is useful to package systems when considering whether a given package is an upgrade, downgrade, or already installed.terraform_1.0.10_linux_amd64.zip. This is given to the fpm to process as a zip file.You can inspect the package contents with dpkg --contents terraform_1.0.10_amd64.deb::
% dpkg --contents terraform_1.0.10_amd64.deb
drwxr-xr-x 0/0 0 2021-11-02 23:33 ./
drwxr-xr-x 0/0 0 2021-11-02 23:33 ./usr/
drwxr-xr-x 0/0 0 2021-11-02 23:33 ./usr/share/
drwxr-xr-x 0/0 0 2021-11-02 23:33 ./usr/share/doc/
drwxr-xr-x 0/0 0 2021-11-02 23:33 ./usr/share/doc/terraform/
-rw-r--r-- 0/0 141 2021-11-02 23:33 ./usr/share/doc/terraform/changelog.gz
drwxr-xr-x 0/0 0 2021-11-02 23:33 ./usr/bin/
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0 79348596 2021-10-28 07:15 ./usr/bin/terraform
The changelog.gz file is a recommended Debian practice for packaging. FPM will provide a generated changelog for you, by default. You can provide your own with the --deb-changelog flag.
Lets install our terraform package and try it out::
% sudo apt install ./terraform_1.0.10_amd64.deb
...
% dpkg -l terraform
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Architecture Description
+++-========================-=================-=================-=====================================================
ii terraform 1.0.10 amd64 no description given
% terraform -version
Terraform v1.0.10
on linux_amd64
You may remove the package at any time::
% sudo apt remove terraform
...
Removing terraform (1.0.10) ...
Hi! The fpm project would love to have any fun examples you have for using this package type. Please consider contributing your ideas by submitting them on the fpm issue tracker: https://github.com/jordansissel/fpm/issues/new
Changing an existing deb
fpm supports deb as both an input and output type (``-s`` and ``-t`` flags), so you can use this to modify an existing deb.
For example, let's create an deb to use for our example::
% fpm -s empty -t deb -n example
Created package {:path=>"example_1.0_amd64.deb"}
Lets say we made a mistake and want to rename the package::
% fpm -s deb -t deb -n newname example_1.0_amd64.deb
Created package {:path=>"newname_1.0_amd64.deb"}
And maybe the architecture is wrong. fpm defaulted to amd64 (what fpm calls
"native"), and we really want what Debian calls "all"::
% fpm -s deb -t deb -a all newname_1.0_amd64.deb
Created package {:path=>"newname_1.0_all.deb"}
Deb-specific command line flags
-------------------------------
.. include:: cli/deb.rst