[Feature Request]: Provide a Debian package

[daschuer]

Feature description

With Mixxx, we are considering to use this library here: mixxxdj/mixxx#14747. We are building on Windows and macOS using VCPKG and are now looking for a solution for various distros. Since we maintain our own Launchpad PPA for Ubuntu which does not support external downloads, I consider to create a Debian package and distribute it via https://launchpad.net/~mixxx/+archive/ubuntu/mixxx. The source could live as a GitHub fork or at https://salsa.debian.org. However it would be much streamlined to maintain the debian folder upstream in this repository.

What do you think? Are you aware of existing packages for Linux? Code we can reuse? What do we need to consider to make a success?

Additional context

No response

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[rikyoz]

Hi!
First of all, thank you for considering using bit7z in your project!
Yeah, I think a Debian package via PPA would be useful for projects that use that form of dependency management.
However, I'm not aware of any existing PPAs for bit7z.
According to this, it should be possible to generate a DEB package using CMake and cpack. I never had the chance to test it on bit7z, though.
One pain point might be keeping the customizability of bit7z, but I'm not that familiar with Debian packages.
If you decide to distribute the package, I'll gladly add a link to your PPA in the README and acknowledge your work, of course!

[daschuer]

The cpack DEB creates the Debian packages itself, which works nice. However for distribution with Debian based distros you need to create a source package that builds using the debian build tools,
The generation of the debian package itself is then performed on their build servers. In Mixxx we use an external cpack builder for that. Since this is only a static library, a it is probably reasonable to provide the debian folder and call cmake from the rules file.

I will keep you informed.

[rikyoz]

The cpack DEB creates the Debian packages itself, which works nice. However for distribution with Debian based distros you need to create a source package that builds using the debian build tools,
The generation of the debian package itself is then performed on their build servers. In Mixxx we use an external cpack builder for that. Since this is only a static library, a it is probably reasonable to provide the debian folder and call cmake from the rules file.

Yeah, it makes sense.
Let me know if you need anything on bit7z's side!

I will keep you informed.

Thank you!