How to create a .deb file from installed package?

Question

You can install a .deb package file onto a system by using dpkg -i filename.deb.

Is it possible to do the reverse? By reverse, I mean create a .deb package file from an installed package given a package name?

You should already have the .deb file in /var/cache/apt/archives — Doug Smythies, Mar 4 '15 at 7:43

Tommaso Di Bucchianico · Accepted Answer · 2020-05-27 22:05:33Z

36

Install dpkg-repack package:

sudo apt-get install dpkg-repack

Example usage:- dpkg-repack gparted

replace gparted with your package_name

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answered Mar 4 '15 at 7:45

Panta

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an example would be great ;) – Postadelmaga Mar 25 '15 at 1:25
@postadelmanga if you wanted to repack an independently installed program you may run sudo dpkg-repack vlc for say the vlc player. however, i do not know about other packages with dependencies and everything else. – Aditya Soni Oct 25 '15 at 12:52
3

You can use fakeroot -u dpkg-repack gparted to run it without root privileges, if your user can read all files of the package you want to rebuild. – Selivanov Pavel Mar 7 '17 at 12:58

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