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This really quick and dirty way to create your own Debian or Ubuntu packages can be done by anyone with little previous package creation experience. Even if you've never even compiled an application, I'll show you just how easy it is to download source code, compile the program and bundle everything up in a .deb package you can share with anyone.
"I have now added package.el, Tom Tromey's package system, to the trunk. It's been discussed on this list previously; to summarize, it provides a convenient way to download and install Emacs Lisp packages and have them loaded automatically at startup..."
If you happen to have .rpm file package that you would like to install on your Ubuntu machine, you will have to convert that file to .deb first for it to be installed. How will you do it? --Use the package converter application called “alien”.
Jigdo, if you’re not familiar, takes a current Ubuntu image and compares its contained packages with the packages within an updated image (ie; alpha vs beta, beta vs RC, RC vs final). Using this method you’re only downloading the packages that have *changed* between images and not the entire image again.
When a package is uninstalled, its configuration files are left on the system, in case you’ll want to install it again. Purging a package gets rid of these configuration files.
The installation instructions in most free software reviews aren't enough. If you decide a package sucks, how do you get rid of it? If a package rocks, how do you upgrade it? GNU Stow, a package manager for packages you compile and install yourself, provides an easy answer to both questions.