[maemo-developers] [maemo-developers] Tips for making an application installer package

[From: Neil Jerram]

Through somewhat painful trial and error, I've discovered that the
most effective way to make a package from a standard source tarball
(which uses autoconf) is to:

- configure with --prefix=/var/lib/install/usr

- add the following lines to debian/rules after the $(MAKE) install
  line:

	mv $(CURDIR)/debian/p/var/lib/install/* $(CURDIR)/debian/p/
	rm -rf $(CURDIR)/debian/p/var

  (where "p" is replaced by the package name).

This method means that the installed files correctly reference
/var/lib/install where they need to (e.g. config files, shell scripts,
libtool .la files), but that the .deb contains files whose names don't
include the leading /var/lib/install - which appears to be what the
application installer requires.

Has anyone else reached the same or a different conclusion?  Are these
tips already documented anywhere?

Regards,
        Neil