Some notes from the WLUG meeting on Debian and packaging:

To create Debian packages, install:

dpkg-dev, file, gcc, g++, libc6-dev, make, patch, perl, dh-make, debhelper, fakeroot, gnupg and lintian.

• Get the source, make sure the source works
• Run dh_make -e your@maintainer.address -f ../filename-version.tar.gz in the source dir & pick package type
• Make the program install in a subdirectory using Makefile and debian/rules
• Edit debian/control, changelog, copyright, README.Debian etc
• dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot

Investigate package with dpkg --info file, dpkg --contents file and lintian file