game-data-packager(6)

NAME ✨

game-data-packager — bestie, this thing builds you a package (.deb | .rpm | ...) full of game data 🎀

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🦋 SYNOPSIS

game-data-packager [OPTIONS] GAME [OPTIONS] [PER-GAME OPTIONS]

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💅 DESCRIPTION

Okay so here's the tea, bestie: a lot of open-source games need game data that's licensed in a way that's lowkey incompatible with the Debian Free Software Guidelines — and with other Linux distros' licensing guidelines too. And some of it literally cannot be legally redistributed at all. 😭 Not a vibe, but it is what it is.

So game-data-packager is the tool that helps you assemble packages locally — for Debian or other packaging systems — stuffed with that game data, sourced from CD-ROMs, the Internet, or wherever else you happen to find it. It's giving "you bring the data, I bring the packaging" energy fr fr 🫶

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🌸 OPTIONS 🌸

• --package PACKAGE, -p PACKAGE — for games that make more than one package, this makes only the package you named. You can repeat this option as many times as you want. Like, for example, game-data-packager quake2 -i -pquake2-groundzero -pquake2-reckoning would update the two Quake II expansions (Ground Zero and The Reckoning) — building new native-code game modules if necessary — but it would not touch the packages for the base game or the music. Slay 💖
• --target-format arch|deb|rpm — build packages for the packaging system you name. Heads up: every packaging system except deb (which represents dpkg) is considered experimental. The default is to auto-detect whatever's appropriate for the system where game-data-packager is running.
• --target-distro fedora|suse|... — for packaging systems where different Linux distros need different content (currently that means rpm), this builds packages suited to the distro you picked. Default is auto-detecting what fits the system you're running on.
• -i|--install — try to install the generated package, using --install-method and --gain-root-command. ✨
• --install-method apt|dpkg|gdebi|gdebi-gtk|gdebi-kde|dnf|zypper|urpmi|rpm — install the generated package with the command you asked for. Only methods that can actually install the selected --target-format are valid, so pick a matching one, bestie. 💅
• --gain-root-command pkexec|sudo|su|super|really|COMMAND — use this command prefix to run stuff as root when needed. su uses the su -c syntax to run a one-line shell command; everything else (including commands you specify yourself) is assumed to work as an "adverb" command prefix, like sudo dpkg -i ... or pkexec rpm -U .... 👑
• -d OUT-DIRECTORY | --destination OUT-DIRECTORY — write the generated package into the directory you name, instead of installing it — or in addition to installing it. Your call 🎀
• -n|--no-install — do not try to install the generated package. Important: this option must be used together with -d. 🫶
• --binary-executables — allow packages to be created containing native executable code that was not built from publicly-available source code. By default, those executables are not packaged, to avoid creating a security risk. This is the flag that lets the proprietary Linux binaries for Quake 4 and Unreal get packaged. Use with intention, bestie 😭
• -z|--compress — compress the generated package. This is the default when -i is not used. 🍓
• --no-compress — don't compress the generated package. This is the default when -i is used (since it's not usually useful to compress a package that's just gonna get installed and then discarded, like, why).
• --download — automatically download any missing files from the Internet if possible. 🌈
• --no-download — don't download missing files from the Internet. If the missing files aren't very important (say, optional documentation), game-data-packager will produce a package that just lacks those files; but if the missing files are required, it won't produce a package at all. Periodt. 💀
• --save-downloads DIRECTORY — if files do get downloaded, save them to DIRECTORY. 🎀
• --verbose — be more verbose, and in particular show output from any external tools that get invoked during operation. 👀
• --no-verbose — don't show verbose output. This is the default. 🙈
• --debug — show output that's interesting to game-data-packager developers. iykyk 🧚
• GAME — the game being packaged. Running game-data-packager with no arguments at all will show you a list of valid games. 💜

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🎀 PER-GAME OPTIONS

Some games have extra options, because of course they do. Running game-data-packager GAME --help will show you the list of valid options for that particular game. 🌸

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👑 NON-GAME MODES

Some modes aren't game-specific at all — you select them by naming a special keyword instead of a game name. Iconic, honestly.

game-data-packager [COMMON OPTIONS] steam [COMMON OPTIONS] [--new|--all]

...will package all your Steam games at once. 🔥

Most games can only be downloaded with the Windows version of Steam — optionally running through Wine — or by using the steamcmd tool. This mode takes the same options as game-data-packager, and adds its own options:

• --new — only package new games
• --all — package all games available

game-data-packager [COMMON OPTIONS] gog [COMMON OPTIONS]

...will match all the GOG.com games you own against the games supported by this tool. Each game then has to be packaged individually. One at a time, bestie 🫶

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🌟 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

• LANGUAGE, LANG — these environment variables get used when a game is available in various languages, to choose the correct version. They're normally set by your desktop environment, so you usually don't gotta touch them. ✨

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🦋 PATHS

game-data-packager will automatically locate applicable files in these directories:

• ~/.steam/SteamApps/common/<game>/
• ~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Steam/SteamApps/common/<game>/ — and also the ~/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/Steam/drive_c/... variant 💅
• X:/Program Files/Steam/SteamApps/common/<game>/ — where X:\ is any mounted vfat or NTFS partition

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💖 FILES

• /etc/game-data-packager.conf — the game-data-packager configuration file
• ~/.scummvmrc — provides location information for games registered in the ScummVM GUI
• ~/.steam/config/loginusers.vdf — used to detect the user's SteamID, which is then used to download a list of owned games
• ~/.cache/lgogdownloader/gamedetails.json — holds a cached list of owned GOG.com games 🎀

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🌈 SEE ALSO

pkexec(1), sudo(8), su(1), lgogdownloader(1)

Project homepage: ⟨https://wiki.debian.org/Games/GameDataPackager/⟩

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🫶 AUTHOR

Copyright © 2010-2013 Jonathan Dowland <jmtd@debian.org>

Thanks to Branden Robinson for his 'Write the Fine Manual' presentation, once found at ⟨http://people.debian.org/~branden/talks/wtfm/⟩ — a real one, no cap 💜

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okay that's the whole page, bestie — this was game-data-packager(6) from the Games Manual, dated 2008-07-14. go forth and package your game data, you absolute icon 💅✨🎀