I just tested stdeb (see https://pypi.python.org/pypi/stdeb), a Python package for turning any other Python package into a Debian package.
First I installed stdeb:
apt-get install python-stdeb
Then I made a simple script called myscript.py with the following contents:
def main():
print "Hello world, says myscript!"
# wait for input from the user
raw_input()
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
Importantly, your directory structure should be:
somewhere/myscript/
setup.py
myscript/
__init__.py
myscript.py
In the setup.py file, you do something like:
import os
from setuptools import setup
from nvpy import nvpy
setup(
name = "myscript",
version = "1.0",
author = "Charl P. Botha",
author_email = "cpbotha@vxlabs.com",
description = "Demo of packaging a Python script as DEB",
license = "BSD",
url = "https://github.com/cpbotha/nvpy",
packages=['myscript'],
entry_points = {
'console_scripts' : ['myscript = myscript.myscript:main']
},
data_files = [
('share/applications/', ['vxlabs-myscript.desktop'])
],
classifiers=[
"License :: OSI Approved :: BSD License",
],
)
The console_scripts directive is important, and it'll create an executable script called my_script, which will be available system-wide after you install the resultant DEB. If your script uses something like tkinter or wxpython and has a graphical user interface, you should use gui_scripts instead of console_scripts.
The data_files directive will install a suitable desktop file into /usr/share/applications, so that you can also start myscript from your desktop environment. vxlabs-myscript.desktop looks like this:
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=myscript
Comment=Minimal stdeb example
# myscript should wait for user input at the end, else the terminal
# window will disappear immediately.
Exec=myscript
Icon=/usr/share/icons/gnome/48x48/apps/file-manager.png
Categories=Utility;
# desktop should run this in a terminal application
Terminal=true
StartupNotify=true
StartupWMClass=myscript
To build the DEB, you do the following in the top-level myscript:
python setup.py --command-packages=stdeb.command bdist_deb
Which will create a .deb in the deb_dist directory.
After having installed the DEB I created like this, I could run myscript from the command-line, and I could also invoke it from my desktop environment.
Here's a GitHub repository with the example code above: https://github.com/cpbotha/stdeb-minimal-example
