Or use FPM and ignore all the official rules. It will still work. https://github.com/jordansissel/fpm
In Creating Debian packages from upstream Gitjordansissel
fpm
Ruby2011–2025
jordansissel / fpm
fpm
Effing package management! Build packages for multiple platforms (deb, rpm, etc) with great ease and sanity.
67Distinct people
80Mentions
1Explicit recommenders
11.5KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
Effing package management! Build packages for multiple platforms (deb, rpm, etc) with great ease and sanity.
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
Yeah, there's more than a whiff of entitlement to that phrasing. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend looking at fpm for packaging. Unless you're doing something weird or…
_lqaf used a recommendation phrase. One indexed comment matches. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.
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Also in these discussions
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This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 5:04:57 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year80 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2011-08-27 17:21:25 UTC to 2025-05-26 22:47:13 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 2011-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 2012 | 2012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| 2013 | 2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 8 | 0 | 8 |
| 2014 | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 14 | 0 | 14 |
| 2015 | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 11 | 2 | 9 |
| 2016 | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 9 | 0 | 9 |
| 2017 | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
From the project README
An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 13, 2026.
Read the project’s introduction
fpm
The goal of fpm is to make it easy and quick to build packages such as rpms,
debs, OSX packages, etc.
fpm, as a project, exists to help you build packages, therefore:
If fpm is not helping you make packages easily, then there is a bug in fpm.
If you are having a bad time with fpm, then there is a bug in fpm.
If the documentation is confusing, then this is a bug in fpm.
If there is a bug in fpm, then we can work together to fix it. If you wish to
report a bug/problem/whatever, I welcome you to do on the project issue tracker.
You can find out how to use fpm in the documentation.
You can learn how to install fpm on your platform in the installation guide.
Project Principles
Community: If a newbie has a bad time, it's a bug.
Engineering: Make it work, then make it right, then make it fast.
Capabilities: If it doesn't do a thing today, we can make it do it tomorrow.
Backstory
Sometimes packaging is done wrong (because you can't do it right for all
situations), but small tweaks can fix it.
And sometimes, there isn't a package available for the tool you need.
And sometimes if you ask "How do I get python 3.9 on RHEL 8?" some unhelpful
trolls will tell you to "Use another distro"
Further, job switches have me flipping between Ubuntu and CentOS. These use
two totally different package systems with completely different packaging
policies and support tools. Learning both was painful and confusing. I want to
save myself (and you) that pain in the future.
It should be easy to say "here's my install dir and here's some dependencies;
please make a package"
The Solution - FPM
I wanted a simple way to create packages without needing to memorize too much.
I wanted a tool to help me deliver software with minimal steps or training.
The goal of FPM is to be able to easily build platform-native packages.
With fpm, you can do many things, including:
Creating packages easily (deb, rpm, freebsd, etc)
Tweaking existing packages (removing files, changing metadata/dependencies)
Stripping pre/post/maintainer scripts from packages
Things that should work
Sources:
gem (even autodownloaded for you)
python modules (autodownload for you)
pear (also downloads for you)
directories
tar(.gz) archives
rpm
deb
node packages (npm)
pacman (ArchLinux) packages
Targets:
deb
rpm
solaris
freebsd
tar
directories
Mac OS X .pkg files (osxpkg)
pacman (ArchLinux) packages
Read the full README on GitHubWhat Hacker News says
80 sourcesI have had good luck with fpm, which makes it easy to make packages of all different kinds, including deb and rpm: https://github.com/jordansissel/fpm
In A new Debian package helper: debputyIf you ever revisit that decision, check out FPM. It can shave off a few of the rough edges related to packaging: https://github.com/jordansissel/fpm
In Debian discusses vendoring again (2021)Making a .deb isn't as simple as it might seem. If you want to use shared libraries, especially so. Which version of Ubuntu/Debian/Mint/... whatever are you targetting? You can tools like FPM[1] (which is awesome btw, used it for some great hacks in the past), but that won't make you .debs that are necessarily done to the debian guidelines but usable.
There are a load os SaaS companies that do that allow you to make multiple targets though, so perhaps some integrations there would work.
[1]https://github.com/jordansissel/fpm
In A currently maintained fork of SSHFSFind a sysadmin and point them at FPM:
https://github.com/jordansissel/fpm
In PackagingCon – A conference only for software package managementSince this is written in Go, it's almost trivial to use fpm [1] to generate a variety of packages. Alternatively you can use nfpm [2] if you don't want to have to deal with installing Ruby & a gem.
[1]: https://github.com/jordansissel/fpm
[2]: https://github.com/goreleaser/nfpm
In Fq: Jq for Binary FormatsAsk HN: How to publish command line tools?
I wrote a shell script, I'd like to make available for others to use. Scripting language ideally shouldn't matter. Users should not have to care what I used. I'd like to target users who want to easily install a new command line tool on Linux/Mac and receive updates, but preferably without the need to install another package manager.
There is the possibility to package it for many package managers, like https://github.com/jordansissel/fpm
Other possibilities would be npm (most people have it already installed), zsh plugins (limited user base), deno (rewrite your shell script in typescript - which is probably a good thing).
Any other ideas? What are you using?
2 points · Open discussionI rely on FPM the Effing Package manager[0]. Occasionally, I run into php-fpm [1]. There's an unfortunate naming collision, at least with the first.
[0]: https://github.com/jordansissel/fpm
[1]: https://www.php.net/manual/en/install.fpm.php
In Fortran Package ManagerBut there is a lot of work to be done before you can do the simple apt install. I (gladly) don't know how it is nowadays but before Dockerfiles/Docker creating your own packages according to the various standards was a pita. Most companies needed a 'packaging specialist/release engineer' role as most developers where not up to the task. Solutions like FPM[0] did help somewhat, but it was still hard when dealing with non-homogeneous environments. Containers solved that problem universally for all distributions.
[0] https://github.com/jordansissel/fpm
In Tiny Container Challenge: Building a 6kB Containerized HTTP ServerAsk HN: Is there an easy way to release a CLI program for all major platforms?
I just wrote a small CLI program[0] (actually a wrapper for a collection of shell scripts, similar to git) and would like to package it for easy installation on Debian/Ubuntu, Red Hat/Fedora, Arch, macOS, and hopefully even Windows (via WSL?).
Is there a tool or service for making this easy? So far, I've found fpm[1]. I haven't dug into it enough to know whether it's the solution I'm looking for, but I also wanted to solicit the community for alternatives in case I'm missing something even better.
The dependencies are minimal (just Ruby stdlib). Here are options I've considered and opted against:
• rubygems: I'm not a huge fan of using a language's package manager for end-user software. What happens when the system upgrades its version of Ruby? Does the user have a ruby version manager like rvm or rbenv installed? and so on.
• docker: a c
Read the rest
ouple weeks back, an article entitled "Run More Stuff in Docker" was trending here[2]. I like the idea, but the approach is a minor hobby unto itself and way too burdensome to ask of general-audience, potentially not-very-technical end-users.
My program is simple enough that I hope it could be used as an introduction to CLI concepts/UNIX/shell pipes for the uninitiated; someone should not have to be a developer to use it or understand how it works. Assuming a very limited familiarity with the command line, I want to offer install instructions that make no assumptions about the user's system and should always just work; e.g., `brew install cram` / `sudo dpkg -i cram.deb` / etc.
[0]: https://github.com/rlue/cram
[1]: https://github.com/jordansissel/fpm
[2]: https://jonathan.bergknoff.com/journal/run-more-stuff-in-docker/
After compiling the binary (with haskell-stack) I use fpm to package it up as a .deb (https://github.com/jordansissel/fpm).
I then scp the file into the pool directory on my server, and re-run a script that calls apt-ftparchive and regenerates the contents of the repo (https://manpages.debian.org/buster/apt-utils/apt-ftparchive....).
My web server hosts that directory with indexing enabled, but I don't use apache for it like most examples do. There's nothing special about it, it's just a directory tree built in a way that apt likes. (https://pkg.kamelasa.dev/). In fact, the entire configuration of the repo is visible there.
There's a step in the middle where I sign the packages with my GPG key, and the public key is available on Ubuntu's keyserver (http://keyserver.ubuntu.com/).
I don't need to run this workflow very often, as it'll take
Read the rest
about 40 minutes to rebuild and push. But if I do update my SSG I know it'll end up in my debian repo with a version bump, so I'm happy.
On a second pipeline I can just do a simple 'add-apt-repository' and 'apt install'.
Devs might consider something like FPM (https://github.com/jordansissel/fpm) to make DEB/RPM/whatever packages that are a lot easier to install and manage.
In HiFiBerryOSMaking deb _is_ painful, the politics of how packages are folded, bent, welded, drilled and smashed is not a simple landscape to navigate.
A lot of Docker is a response to how difficult it is to build packages and how invasive package installation is to the base system (Nix gets this right).
If in the future you need to build packages again, I'd take a look at fpm.
The goal of fpm is to make it easy and quick to build packages such as rpms, debs, OSX packages, etc.
https://fpm.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
https://github.com/jordansissel/fpm
In Debian project has plenty of money but not enough developersYeah, there's more than a whiff of entitlement to that phrasing.
If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend looking at fpm for packaging. Unless you're doing something weird or need an obscure format, it is the tool you want.
https://github.com/jordansissel/fpm
In Ubuntu 20.04 LTS’ snap obsession has snapped me off of itShowing the 15 most recent of 80 sources. Enable JavaScript to search and browse every indexed mention.