A basic Perl program that makes Debian software packages (.deb files) without needing dpkg installed. It works as a drop-in replacement for dpkg-deb -b, with compatible flags.

dm.pl is included with and used by Theos, so if you’re using an up-to-date version of Theos you already have access to it! If you believe that you're using a legacy version of Theos, see here for how to update.

Otherwise, you can either install with npm:

npm install -g @theosdev/dm.pl

…or clone a copy of this repo:

git clone https://github.com/theos/dm.pl.git

…and immediately start using it.

This will work on any system with Perl and xz-utils installed. (If you’re not sure, they almost certainly are already installed by your OS.)

dm.pl [options] <directory> <package>

• -b: This option exists solely for compatibility with dpkg-deb.
• -Z<compression>: Specify the package compression type. Valid values are gzip (default), bzip2, lzma, xz and cat (no compression).
• -z<compress-level>: Specify the package compression level. Valid values are between 0 and 9. Default is 9 for bzip2, 6 for others, and 0 is equivalent to cat. Refer to gzip(1), bzip2(1), xz(1) for explanations of what effect each compression level has.
• --help, -?: Print a brief help message and exit.
• --man: Print a manual page and exit.

Licensed under the MIT License. Refer to LICENSE.md.