How to Create a Private Debian Repository with Reprepro
Last week, I built a Debian package for Dynamsoft Barcode Reader. Installing .deb file is apparently more efficient than using the .tar file on Linux OS based on Debian. Despite this, I believe most of Linux developers will give priority to the command-line package tool apt-get, unless the software repository is out of date. This is why I decided to create a private Debian repository to simplify the process of downloading and installing Dynamsoft Barcode Reader SDK for Linux.
Environment
Use the following command to check Ubuntu version:
lsb_release -a
-
Ubuntu 14.04 for building Debian repository in a virtual machine:
No LSB modules are available. Distributor ID: Ubuntu Description: Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS Release: 14.04 Codename: trusty -
Ubuntu on Windows for testing the private Debian repository:
No LSB modules are available. Distributor ID: Ubuntu Description: Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS Release: 16.04 Codename: xenial
Creating Debian Repository
To set up a Debian repository, we can follow the article - SetupWithReprepro.
Generating and exporting GPG keys
Use the following command to generate the key:
gpg --gen-key
I got the following error message after running the command:
Not enough random bytes available. Please do some other work to give
the OS a chance to collect more entropy!
If you suffered from this issue, use the solution from StackOverflow:
find / > /dev/null
The location of the generated keys:
ls ~/.gnupg/
gpg.conf pubring.gpg pubring.gpg~ random_seed secring.gpg trustdb.gpg
Check the key-id (the subkey):
gpg --list-keys
Export the public part of your GnuPG keypair from the keychain:
gpg --armor --output dbr.gpg.key --export <key-id>
Configuring Apache
Install Apache:
sudo apt-get install apache2
Create a directory for the apt repository:
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/repos/apt/debian
Create a configuration file:
sudo cp /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf /etc/apache2/sites-available/000- debian.conf
Edit the file:
# /etc/apache2/sites-available/debian.conf
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
DocumentRoot /var/www/
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
<Directory /var/www/repos/ >
# We want the user to be able to browse the directory manually
# Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Multiviews
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
<Directory "/var/www/repos/apt/*/db/">
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
</Directory>
<Directory "/var/www/repos/apt/*/conf/">
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
</Directory>
<Directory "/var/www/repos/apt/*/incoming/">
Order allow,deny
Deny from all
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
Enable the site:
sudo a2ensite /etc/apache2/sites-available/debian.conf
I also changed the DocumentRoot to /var/www/ in default configuration file.
Copy the GPG key to /var/www/repos/apt/Debian/dbr.gpg.key.
Check the configuration and reload Apache server:
sudo apache2ctl configtest
sudo service apache2 reload
Configuring reprepro
Create a configuration folder:
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/repos/apt/debian/conf
Create the conf/distributions file:
Origin: Dynamsoft
Label: dbr_5.2
Codename: dbr
Architectures: amd64 armel
Components: main non-free
Description: Dynamsoft Barcode SDK for Linux
SignWith: 80F43A5E
DebOverride: override.dbr
How to get the Debian release name If you want to use it as the Codename? Run:
cat /etc/debian_version
The architectures here include amd64 for 64-bit Intel CPUs and armel for ARM processors.
Create the conf/override.dbr file:
dbr Priority optional
dbr Section net
Generate all index files：
sudo reprepro --ask-passphrase export
Add packages to the repository:
sudo reprepro --ask-passphrase includedeb dbr ~/package/dbr_5.2.deb
Here is my repository:
Now, in addition to Apache, I can copy the Debian folder and deploy it to other web servers, such as Nginx, IIS and so on.
Installing Dynamsoft Barcode Reader on Ubuntu and Raspberry Pi
Download and add GPG key to your key chains:
wget -O - http://labs.dynamsoft.com/debian/conf/dbr.gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -
Add the source to your source list:
sudo vim /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://labs.dynamsoft.com/debian/ dbr main non-free
Install Dynamsoft Barcode Reader with apt-get:
sudo apt-get update && apt-get install dbr
Check the software:
Remove Dynamsoft Barcode Reader:
sudo apt-get remove dbr