I’d like to kick off the new, less profane Badger Alert! by posting information about this neat new tool very unimaginatively called the Debian Package Creator which, as expected, create a deb package from a given tarball containing source code an application’s source code. Fuck yeah … oops.

The project has just been started and is at version 0.3.9.1 and there is no official website or SVN/CVS repository. Development can be tracked at this thread on the Ubuntu Forums.

Compiling source packages has always been a task that gives newbie Linux users cold feet, and even seasoned penguin lovers prefer to stick to binaries created by some poor soul in their favorite Linux distribution’s packaging team. But for those who want to use the newest development version of a program – brave men indeed – there is no option but to compile the packages from source. Compiling packages is not that tough a task, but installing source packages makes managing software packages system wide difficult (unless you use Gentoo, in which case you are probably not human). This package creator comes as a significant relief to those who want the latest version of everything, but can not be bothered with creating manageable packages for their respective systems.

If you are a registered Ubuntu Forums member, then I suggest that you direct all your comments and feedback to leibowitz, the creator and maintainer of Debian Package Creator.