MINI-DINSTALL(1)

🌸 MINI-DINSTALL(1) 🌸

okay bestie, welcome to the mini-dinstall manual page 💖 this is the one and only, from section 1 of the manual, and she's a whole icon. buckle up, we're going in 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

mini-dinstall — daemon for updating Debian packages in a repository 👑

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

mini-dinstall [options] [directory]

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💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so like, mini-dinstall is a tool for installing Debian packages into a personal APT repository. it's giving very similar to the dinstall tool on auric: it takes a changes file and installs it into the Debian archive. no cap 💀

the main character of this whole operation is a changes file. this file specifies a set of Debian binary packages, and often contains a source package too. changes files are literally designed to group both Debian source and binary packages together, so that there's a single file to manipulate when uploading a package. one file, so much power ✨

mini-dinstall takes a changes file in its incoming directory (or on its command line in batch mode, iykyk), and installs the files it references into a directory, and sets up Packages and Sources files for use with APT. slay.

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🌈 RUNNING 🌈

mini-dinstall can run in one of two modes: batch mode or daemon mode. in batch mode, the queue is processed immediately, and the command exits when it is done. in daemon mode — which is the default, just so you know 👀 — mini-dinstall runs in the background and continually checks the queue, and will process it whenever it has changed.

the optional directory argument specifies the root directory of the queue. if no argument is specified, the value from the configuration file is used.

the following options can be used:

• -v, --verbose — display extra information while running
• -q, --quiet — display as little information as possible 🤫
• -c, --config=FILE — use FILE as the configuration file, instead of ~/.mini-dinstall.conf
• -d, --debug — output debugging information to the terminal and to the log
• -f, --foreground — run in daemon mode but do not detach from the console
• --no-log — don't write any information to the logs
• --no-db — disable lookups on package database. apt-ftparchive run without --db option
• -n, --no-act — don't perform any changes; useful in combination with the -v flag
• -b, --batch — run in batch mode
• -r, --run — tell the currently running daemon to process the queue immediately
• -k, --kill — kill the currently running daemon 💀
• --help — display a short overview of available options
• --version — display the software version

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🎀 CONFIGURATION 🎀

mini-dinstall's main configuration file is ~/.mini-dinstall.conf. the file consists of a number of different sections, each one applying to a different distribution (which corresponds to the Distribution field in a changes file). there is also a default section (DEFAULT), which applies to all distributions. bestie, she's organized 💅

each section can contain any number of

name = value

combinations, which set a configuration parameter for that distribution (or the default one). lists should be separated by commas, and strings need only be enclosed with quotes if they contain spaces or commas.

the configuration parameters available in the DEFAULT section are as follows:

• archivedir — the root of the mini-dinstall archive. must be set, either here or on the command line.
• extra_keyrings — additional GnuPG keyrings to use for signature verification.
• incoming_permissions — the permissions for the incoming directory. mini-dinstall will attempt to set the directory's permissions at startup. a value of zero (0 or 0o000) will disable permission setting. doing this, you MUST set permission for incoming by hand! defaults to 0o750.
• keyrings — GnuPG keyrings to use for signature verification of changes files. setting this parameter will modify the default list; it is generally better to modify extra_keyrings instead. defaults to the keyrings from the debian-keyring package.
• logfile — the filename (relative to archivedir) where information will be logged. defaults to mini-dinstall.log.
• mail_log_flush_count — number of log messages after which queued messages will be sent to you. defaults to 10.
• mail_log_flush_level — the log level upon which to immediately send all queued log messages. valid values are the same as for the mail_log_level option. defaults to ERROR.
• mail_log_level — the default log level which is sent to you by email. valid values include DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR, and CRITICAL. defaults to ERROR.
• mail_to — the user to whom logs should be mailed. defaults to the current user.
• mail_subject_template — style of the email subject. available substitution variables are source, version, maintainer, ... (all statements in .changes) and changes_without_dot (same as changes, but without lines with only a dot). default is:

mini-dinstall: Successfully installed %(source)s %(version)s to %(distribution)s

• mail_body_template — style of the email body. valid values are the same as for the mail_subject_template option. default is:

Package: %(source)s
Maintainer: %(maintainer)s
Changed-By: %(changed-by)s
Changes:
%(changes_without_dot)s

• tweet_server — server to push tweets. possible values are twitter or identica
• tweet_user — username to login on tweet server
• tweet_password — password to login on tweet server 🔐
• tweet_template — style of the tweet body. valid values are the same as for the mail_subject_template option. default is:

Installed %(source)s %(version)s to %(distribution)s

• trigger_reindex — in daemon mode, whether or not to recreate the Packages and Sources files after every upload. if you disable this, you probably want to enable dynamic_reindex. you may want to disable this if you install a lot of packages. defaults to enabled.
• use_dnotify — if enabled, uses the dnotify(1) command to monitor directories for changes. only relevant if dynamic_reindex is enabled. defaults to false.
• verify_sigs — whether or not to verify signatures on changes files. defaults to enabled if the debian-keyring package is installed, disabled otherwise.

the configuration parameters that can be set in the DEFAULT section and the distribution-specific sections are:

• alias — a list of alternative distribution names.
• architectures — a list of architectures to create subdirectories for. defaults to all, i386, powerpc, sparc.
• archive_style — either flat or simple-subdir. a flat archive style puts all of the binary packages into one subdirectory, while the simple archive style splits up the binary packages by architecture. must be set.

sources for the flat style should look like:

deb file:///home/walters/debian/ unstable/
deb-src file:///home/walters/debian/ unstable/
deb file:///home/walters/debian/ experimental/
deb-src file:///home/walters/debian/ experimental/

sources for the subdir style should look like:

deb http://localhost/~walters/debian/ local/$(ARCH)/
deb http://localhost/~walters/debian/ local/all/
deb-src http://localhost/~walters/debian/ local/source/

• restrict_changes_files — determines if the changes files should be made unreadable by others. this is enabled by default, and is a good thing, since somebody else could unexpectedly upload your package. think carefully before changing this. ⚠️
• dynamic_reindex — if enabled, directories are watched for changes and new Packages and Sources files are created as needed. only used in daemon mode. defaults to true.
• generate_release — causes a Release file to be generated (see release_* below) if enabled. disabled by default.
• keep_old — whether or not old packages should be kept, instead of deleting them when newer versions of the same packages are uploaded. defaults to false.
• mail_on_success — whether to mail on successful installation. defaults to true.
• tweet_on_success — whether to tweet (e.g. on twitter/identi.ca) on successful installation. defaults to false.
• max_retry_time — the maximum amount of time to wait for an incomplete upload before rejecting it. specified in seconds. defaults to two days.
• poll_time — how often to poll directories (in seconds) for changes if dynamic_reindex is enabled. defaults to 30 seconds.
• post_install_script — this script is run after the changes file is installed, with the full path of the changes file as its argument.
• pre_install_script — this script is run before the changes file is installed, with the full path of the changes file as its argument. if it exits with an error, the changes file is skipped.
• release_codename — the Codename field in the Release file. defaults to None.
• release_description — the Description field in the Release file. defaults to None.
• release_label — the Label field in the Release file. defaults to the current user's username.
• release_origin — the Origin field in the Release file. defaults to the current user's username.
• release_suite — the Suite field in the Release file. defaults to None.
• backport_release — if enabled, automatically install package upgrades from this repository only if the installed version of the package is higher than the version of the package in other sources. defaults to false.
• experimental_release — if enabled, packages will not automatically install or upgrade to newer versions from this repository

if this option is set, it overrides the option backport_release. defaults to false.

• release_signscript — if specified, this script will be called to sign Release files. it will be invoked in the directory containing the Release file, and should accept the filename of the Release file to sign as the first argument (note that it is passed a temporary filename, not Release). it should generate a detached signature in a file named Release.gpg. 🖊️

🌸 USING DPUT 🌸

okay bestie, so here's a whole vibe for you: one of the most convenient ways to use mini-dinstall is to pair it up with dput's “local” method. The author literally tests his own Debian packages this way — he uses dput to upload them to a local repository, and then uses APT's “file” method to grab them locally. it's giving self-sufficient icon ✨

Here's a sample dput stanza, verbatim, no edits, slay:

[local]
fqdn = space-ghost.verbum.private
incoming = /src/debian/mini-dinstall/incoming
method = local
run_dinstall = 0
post_upload_command = mini-dinstall -r

ngl, obviously you should swap out the “fqdn” and “incoming” values for whatever actually makes sense on <em>your</em> machine 💅. Some sample APT methods were listed back in the configuration section, so go peek at those if you need inspo 🎀

So now, literally all you have to do to test your Debian packages is this, and I'm obsessed:

$ dpkg-buildpackage
$ dput local ../program_1.2.3-1_powerpc.changes
# wait a few seconds
$ apt-get update
$ apt-get install program

periodt. 🦋

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

mini-dinstall was originally written by Colin Walters <walters@debian.org> and is now maintained by Christoph Goehre <christoph.goehre@gmx.de>. shoutout to the maintainers, fr fr 🫶

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💖 SEE ALSO 💖

• apt-get(8)
• dnotify(1)
• dput(1)
• gpg(1)

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aaaand that's the whole page bestie, we made it to the end and I'm so proud of you 🥹💜 this one came from the Debian Project, dated December 29, 2003, and it's MINI-DINSTALL(1) — go forth and install your minis, you absolute main character 💅✨🌸