How to create deb package from Windows applications?

I want to make a deb file from a Windows application which will be run with wine. how do I make it?

As an example, I use Ubuntu Christian Edition and I find the application Virtual Rosary is installed by default.

My plan: my application will be put in the folder /opt/*application-name*, and for the 'launcher.desktop', the Exec argument will bi filled with :

Exec= wine /opt/application-name/ application-name.exe

2 Answers

Yes, you can make that happen, but it would be a bit hackish. Fine for personal use, but it would never get accepted into Ubuntu proper.

I'm not sure about your level of knowledge about debian packaging, but giving a whole packaging tutorial is out of scope for this. If you need further information, the Ubuntu Packaging Guide is a good place to start, and of course there is always the Debian New Maintainer's Guide.

Essentially all you need to do is use dh_install to drop the files in the right place. So something like this in you debian/my_package_name.install file:

application-name.exe /opt/application-name/
application-name.desktop /usr/share/applications/

This is something I've personally experimented with a few times, and even made proof of concept packages. There are also a few ad-hoc packages in the archive such as pq (Progress Quest), although none of them are particularly complicated.

I suggest you follow the specification here: -- At the Developer Summit this month I hope to standardize the way we do this, or even develop a tool to do so, as I expect to have an awful lot of Windows packages in the medium term.