Debian – How to add a custom package to debian repository

aptdebianrepository

I run my own debian apt repository server. I have a .deb file that i would like to add into the repository (Adaptec Storage Manager deb). I need the ability to manage that package independent of the rest of the repo.

Question:

How can I add the .deb file to the repo so that I can do a 'apt-get storman' on the client machines and have it installed?

Best Answer

Set up a separate repo for your local packages. It just makes sense, as observed by vonbrand and thecarpy.

Related Solutions

Debian – Creating a Debian package repository for distributing multiple versions of a custom deb package

After spending some time digging around the a number of documentation sources, I came up with the following solution, which I am sharing:

On the machine used to host the repository, set up a personal repository according to the description of Ubuntu documentation, but do NOT add the sources.list entry on that machine.
Expose the directory with the DEB files and the Packages.gz file via a web server, e.g. with Nginx so that it is available all the machines that will consume the DEB file.
On the machines, which will fetch the DEB package, add an entry to the /etc/apt/sources.list file, which points to your server (replace foobar with your own URL): deb [trusted=yes] http://foobar/ /
Run sudo apt update
Run sudo apt install foobar to install your own package (replace foobar with your own package name)

NOTE: this setup hosts the DEB packages without any protection provided by signed packages/repositories. In case the repository is made available for a wider audience than your team's servers residing on a protected subnet behind a company firewall, you probably want to implement signing of the repository and packages.

APT Package Management – How to Generate the Release File on a Local Package Repository

There are a number of ways of going about this; I use apt-ftparchive.

Create an aptftp.conf file in the root of your repository:
```
APT::FTPArchive::Release {
  Origin "Your origin";
  Label "Your label";
  Suite "unstable";
  Codename "sid";
  Architectures "amd64 i386 source";
  Components "main";
  Description "Your description";
};
```
with the appropriate values (change “Origin”, “Label”, “Description” at least, and adjust “Architectures” to match the binaries you host).

Create a matching aptgenerate.conf file alongside:

Dir::ArchiveDir ".";
Dir::CacheDir ".";
TreeDefault::Directory "pool/";
TreeDefault::SrcDirectory "pool/";
Default::Packages::Extensions ".deb";
Default::Packages::Compress ". gzip bzip2";
Default::Sources::Compress ". gzip bzip2";
Default::Contents::Compress "gzip bzip2";

BinDirectory "dists/unstable/main/binary-amd64" {
  Packages "dists/unstable/main/binary-amd64/Packages";
  Contents "dists/unstable/Contents-amd64";
  SrcPackages "dists/unstable/main/source/Sources";
};

BinDirectory "dists/unstable/main/binary-i386" {
  Packages "dists/unstable/main/binary-i386/Packages";
  Contents "dists/unstable/Contents-i386";
  SrcPackages "dists/unstable/main/source/Sources";
};

Tree "dists/unstable" {
  Sections "main"; # contrib non-free";
  Architectures "amd64 i386 source";
};

(removing i386 if you don’t need that).

In your repository, clear the database:

rm -f packages-i386.db packages-amd64.db

Generate the package catalogs:

apt-ftparchive generate -c=aptftp.conf aptgenerate.conf

Generate the Release file:

apt-ftparchive release -c=aptftp.conf dists/unstable >dists/unstable/Release

Sign it:

gpg -u yourkeyid -bao dists/unstable/Release.gpg dists/unstable/Release
gpg -u yourkeyid --clear-sign --output dists/unstable/InRelease dists/unstable/Release

(with the appropriate id instead of yourkeyid).

Whenever you make a change to the repository, you need to run steps 3 to 6 again.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Debian – Creating a Debian package repository for distributing multiple versions of a custom deb package

APT Package Management – How to Generate the Release File on a Local Package Repository

Related Question