Cpack as a checkinstall alternative

Recently I built a copy of the Luanti (formerly minetest) software from source so that I can run the most recent version on my PureOS 11 computer.

Previously I had used checkinstall to create .deb packages from source builds for easier management and uninstallation. Checkinstall is getting a bit long in the tooth and is not always well supported these days. I was having problems using it to create a Luanti package from the build.

A helpful user on github pointed out that I can create .deb packages for software built with cmake using the cpack utility.

Simply run this command from the root of the build directory.

cpack -G deb

Note: This only seems to work on software compiled using cmake.

2 Likes