Help to start packaging for Mint

[soup-n-sandwich]

I apologize if this post is in the wrong section.

I am interested in learning packaging for Mint. I was hoping to start by setting up a build environment and then building some known packages (from the Mint repo) from source but can't find any documentation to get me pointed in the right direction. Can anybody help me with this? I have some but very little experiance building package in RPM format and also have some devel experience mostly in KDE 3.5.- 4 on an RPM based distro (Mandriva/PClinux/Unity). I'm also just starting to learn Python as well.
I think it would be best to start from the beginning and was hoping that I could get some guidance in getting starting with a build environment and hopefully documentation.

[xenopeek]

Yeah, this isn't really the right place Except for Chat about Linux Mint, not sure of a better place so lets leave it here.

Linux Mint uses Debian packages. So you need not look for a way specifically to package for Linux Mint so much as you need to learn how to build Debian packages. The Debian Administrator's Handbook covers this to get your feet wet a bit:
- http://debian-handbook.info/browse/stab ... ng-package
- http://debian-handbook.info/browse/stab ... ckage.html

The more full-featured pragmatic approach on the Debian wiki: http://wiki.debian.org/HowToPackageForDebian. Lots of links to read more details, but start doing to learn faster

Come hang out with the developers on IRC, #linuxmint-dev channel. Just open Xchat to be automatically connected to #linuxmint-chat and #linuxmint-help channels. Then in either type:

Code: Select all

/join #linuxmint-dev

You can also configure Xchat to automatically connect to this channel at startup. Most Linux Mint developers and contributing Cinnamon developers hang out at this channel.

[zerozero]

i would add to Vincent links, this http://www.debian.org/doc/devel-manuals#maint-guide (might have something useful)

[soup-n-sandwich]

Thanks guys. I'll check it all out! I'm excited to get started.
Ok so there isn't a specific way to package specifically for Mint. That's good. A lot of distros, despite the fact that they use standards like RPMs the method of packaging is very different between other RPM based distros. It's nice to see a standard that Mint sticks too.

Oh just for the sake of conversation I'm using Mint KDE. KDE is my home. Since I'm using KDE and not the default DM for Mint there have been some references that a lot of folks use that don't jive when using the KDE DM. Including Xchat. It's not installed by default...at least I don't think it is. I've tried to stick with integrated apps. So in this case rather than using Pidgin, Xchat or Quassel I gravitate towards KDE apps. In this case it's Konversation. Anway thanks very much for the invite on the devels channel. So far nobody has said a word to me in that channel but hopefully some Soup and a Sandwich will warm them all up to me.
Thanks guys.
Let me know if we have to move this to another section of the forum...because I don't think this post is finish yet
Soup

[xenopeek]

Perhaps it is better at home here. As for Xchat vs. Quassel (or application you install yourself such as Konversation)... As I didn't know which desktop you were using, Xchat was the best guess. It is installed on Cinnamon, MATE and Xfce editions. Only KDE stands out