Problems creating a .deb file with dependencies

Question

I have created a directory structure with an executable file. Following is the output of tree:

program-5
├── debian
│   ├── DEBIAN
│   │   ├── changelog
│   │   ├── compat
│   │   ├── control
│   │   ├── copyright
│   │   ├── docs
│   │   ├── emacsen-install.ex
│   │   ├── emacsen-remove.ex
│   │   ├── emacsen-startup.ex
│   │   ├── init.d.ex
│   │   ├── manpage.1.ex
│   │   ├── manpage.sgml.ex
│   │   ├── manpage.xml.ex
│   │   ├── menu.ex
│   │   ├── postinst.ex
│   │   ├── postrm.ex
│   │   ├── preinst.ex
│   │   ├── prerm.ex
│   │   ├── program.cron.d.ex
│   │   ├── program.debhelper.log
│   │   ├── program.default.ex
│   │   ├── program.doc-base.EX
│   │   ├── README.Debian
│   │   ├── README.source
│   │   ├── rules
│   │   └── watch.ex
│   └── usr
│       └── local
│           └── include
│               └── myprog
│                   ├── file.txt
└── program *(executable)*

This however, is not working with "file.txt". I want this file to go into /usr/local/include/myprog/ but that is not happening. it's giving me the error:

(Reading database ... 
(Reading database ... 5%
...
(Reading database ... 100%
(Reading database ... 204105 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking program-v5 (from .../program-5_1.4.2_i386.deb) ...
dpkg: error processing /tmp/program-5/debian/program-5_1.4.2_i386.deb (--install):
 trying to overwrite '/usr/local/include/myprog/file.txt', which is also in package program2 20120329-1
dpkg-deb (subprocess): data: internal gzip write error: Broken pipe
dpkg-deb: error: subprocess <decompress> returned error exit status 2
dpkg-deb (subprocess): failed in write on buffer copy for failed to write to pipe in copy: Broken pipe
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /tmp/program-5/debian/program-5_1.4.2_i386.deb

Can anyone offer any advice?

Answer 1

The error is pretty clear: You try to install program-v5 and it attempts to overwrite a file already present and owned by package program2 .

So you need to either

• manually uninstall program2 before installing program-v5 , or

• add the required Conflicts: , Provides: , Replaces: flags in debian/control -- see the docs.

Lastly, for packages, /usr is a more natural choice then /usr/local .

Answer 2

From the error message:

trying to overwrite '/usr/local/include/myprog/file.txt', which is also in package program2

It looks like you have a package program2 already installed on your system that have already installed this file usr/local/include/myprog/file.txt .

You should first uninstall this package dpkg -r program2