- dh-virtualenv is a very neat way of packaging python into debs with the key advantage that these apps are packaged as a virtualenv so that the latest packages can be use without relying on the packages on the system... But system packages can also be used. A key advantage is that the latest python libraries can be used in a self contained way.
- The dh-virtualenv documentation mainly focuses on terminal scripts and I couldn't find a good example of packaging an app.
- So I've included one here that adds a terminal command as well as a desktop shortcut and icon.
- The example I've used is from a previous blog post on pyside dragging and dropping
- Install the python development packages
sudo apt-get install python-dev
- Create a virtualenv (so that the latest pip and setuptools and activate
virtualenv virt-example
source ~/virt-example/bin/activate
pip install -U pip
pip install -U setuptools
-
Install the latest dh-virtualenv from source as discussed in step 1 of the dh-virtualenv instructions
-
Install pyside in your virtualenv (Requires Qt4)
-
Test that the script works before packaging it as a deb
python ExImView/image_app.py
In the folder containing the source
dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc -b
This should build a debian outside the folder
For a full discussion on the setup and files, see the corresponding blog post.
Install the newly created debian
The icon appears in search
Once launched an icon appears in the dock
The app functions as expected
To uninstall the test app
sudo apt-get remove ExImView
Note that this example doesn't take advantage of the main use of dh-virtualenv, which is packaging the latest dependencies with the app. But this can be done trivially by adding them to the requirements.txt file as explained in the dh-virtualenv documentation.
Please suggest changes that improve this example