The simplest possible way to create a Debian package is to use defined package metadata and prepared target directory structure.
Create a package directory.
$ mkdir /tmp/personal-script_0.1_all
Create package metadata.
$ mkdir -p /tmp/personal-script_0.1_all/DEBIAN
$ cat << EOF | tee /tmp/personal-script_0.1_all/DEBIAN/control Package: personal-script Architecture: all Depends: debconf, bash Version: 0.1 Maintainer: Milosz <milosz@example.org> Homepage: https://example.org Priority: optional Description: personal shell script personal shell script with configuration EOF
$ cat << EOF | tee /tmp/personal-script_0.1_all/DEBIAN/conffiles /usr/local/etc/personal-script.cfg EOF
Create a target directory structure and files.
$ mkdir -p /tmp/personal-script_0.1_all/usr/local/bin/
$ mkdir -p /tmp/personal-script_0.1_all/usr/local/etc
$ cat << EOF | tee /tmp/personal-script_0.1_all/usr/local/etc/personal-script.cfg # configuration file message="my message" EOF
$ cat << EOF | tee /tmp/personal-script_0.1_all/usr/local/bin/personal-script.sh
#!/bin/bash
# shell script
source /usr/local/etc/personal-script.cfg
echo "My message is \${message}"
EOF
Set the target owner and permissions.
$ sudo chown -R root:root /tmp/personal-script_0.1_all
$ sudo chmod 755 /tmp/personal-script_0.1_all/usr/local/bin/personal-script.sh
$ sudo chmod 644 /tmp/personal-script_0.1_all/usr/local/etc/personal-script.cfg
Build package.
$ dpkg-deb --build /tmp/personal-script_0.1_all /tmp
Verify package contents and metadata.
$ dpkg --contents /tmp/personal-script_0.1_all.deb drwxrwxr-x root/root 0 2017-11-27 23:25 ./ drwxrwxr-x root/root 0 2017-11-27 23:25 ./usr/ drwxrwxr-x root/root 0 2017-11-27 23:25 ./usr/local/ drwxrwxr-x root/root 0 2017-11-27 23:26 ./usr/local/etc/ -rw-r--r-- root/root 42 2017-11-27 23:26 ./usr/local/etc/personal-script.cfg drwxrwxr-x root/root 0 2017-11-27 23:26 ./usr/local/bin/ -rwxr-xr-x root/root 101 2017-11-27 23:26 ./usr/local/bin/personal-script.sh
$ dpkg --info /tmp/personal-script_0.1_all.deb
new debian package, version 2.0.
size 892 bytes: control archive=344 bytes.
35 bytes, 1 lines conffiles
245 bytes, 9 lines control
Package: personal-script
Architecture: all
Depends: debconf, bash
Version: 0.1
Maintainer: Milosz <milosz@example.org>
Homepage: https://example.org
Priority: optional
Description: personal shell script
personal shell script with configuration
Install the package on the target system.
$ sudo dpkg --install /tmp/personal-script_0.1_all.deb Selecting previously unselected package personal-script. (Reading database ... 35902 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack .../personal-script_0.1_all.deb ... Unpacking personal-script (0.1) ... Setting up personal-script (0.1) ...
$ personal-script.sh My message is my message