Creating and Hosting Your Own DEB Packages and APT Repository

This guide will walk you through the steps to create your own DEB packages and host them in a custom APT repository. This allows you to easily distribute software to Debian-based systems (like Ubuntu) in a manageable way.

Table of Contents

• Prerequisites
• Creating a DEB Package
• Setting Up an APT Repository
• Adding Your Repository to APT Sources
• Installing Packages from Your Repository

Prerequisites

• A Debian-based operating system (Ubuntu, Debian, etc.)
• gcc, dpkg-dev, gpg package installed:

  sudo apt-get install -y gcc dpkg-dev gpg

Creating a DEB Package

• Sample app can be found in app
• To build deb package:

  cd app
  make build

  This will crete a file name hello-world_<version>-1_amd64.deb

Setting Up an APT Repository

• Initial setup:

  1. Generate GPG signing key:

     make gen-key

     gpg (GnuPG) 2.2.27; Copyright (C) 2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
     This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
     There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
     
     Please select what kind of key you want:
     (1) RSA and RSA (default)
     (2) DSA and Elgamal
     (3) DSA (sign only)
     (4) RSA (sign only)
     (7) DSA (set your own capabilities)
     (8) RSA (set your own capabilities)
     (9) ECC and ECC
     (10) ECC (sign only)
     (11) ECC (set your own capabilities)
     (13) Existing key
     (14) Existing key from card
     Your selection? 9
     Please select which elliptic curve you want:
     (1) Curve 25519
     (3) NIST P-256
     (4) NIST P-384
     (5) NIST P-521
     (6) Brainpool P-256
     (7) Brainpool P-384
     (8) Brainpool P-512
     (9) secp256k1
     Your selection? 1
     Please specify how long the key should be valid.
             0 = key does not expire
         <n>  = key expires in n days
         <n>w = key expires in n weeks
         <n>m = key expires in n months
         <n>y = key expires in n years
     Key is valid for? (0) 
     Key does not expire at all
     Is this correct? (y/N) y
     
     GnuPG needs to construct a user ID to identify your key.
     
     Real name: dg6repo
     Email address: [email protected]
     Comment: 
     You selected this USER-ID:
         "dg6repo <[email protected]>"
     
     Change (N)ame, (C)omment, (E)mail or (O)kay/(Q)uit? O
     

  2. Export gpg public key:

     make exp-gpgkey

• Release package:

  1. Move your .deb file into apt-repo/pool/main
  2. Update repo Packages:

     make gen-packages

  3. Update repo Release:

     make release

  4. Upload the repository apt-repo and gpgkey to your server.

Adding Your Repository to APT Sources

1. Configure Source List:

   # Add GPG key
   curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dev6699/dg6-repo/refs/heads/master/gpgkey | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/dg6-repo-keyring.gpg
   
   # Add repo
   echo "deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/dg6-repo-keyring.gpg] https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dev6699/dg6-repo/refs/heads/master/apt-repo stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/dg6-repo.list

   NOTE: replace https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dev6699/dg6-repo/refs/heads/master/ with your own host

2. Update APT:

   sudo apt-get update

Installing Packages from Your Repository

sudo apt-get install hello-world