Repackaging a Debian package for use with Breezy

[Andrew Conkling]

Hello,

I am new to Ubuntu (for the second time :), having gone around the
block a time or two and having spent a lot of time with Arch Linux)
and this time around I am looking to get into packaging a bit more.
My first goal is to get my own Python program (and its dependencies)
packaged for Breezy.  Fortunately, another guy has packaged it for
Debian (http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/pygmy) so it would
just be a matter of hacking the various packages to work with Ubuntu.

There's a veritable wealth of information out there regarding Debian
packaging.  From the Debian maintainers' guide, I get the impression
that all I would have to change is the control file for the package.
However, I'm not sure if anything else would need to be changed, nor
am I sure how to go about getting to the control file from the
package.  The pbuilder howto explains how to get a source package from
an Ubuntu repository, but this package isn't in an Ubuntu repository,
unfortunately.  Would I add a Debian repository to my pbuilder's apt
list, or would there be a better way?

(I was surprised to find that the Ubuntu wiki didn't have a salient
howto for modifying an existing Debian package for Ubuntu, but I'd
certainly be willing to write one once I get this ball rolling.)

Could anyone help with that, and provide any pointers for other things
that I would need to check?  I've set up a pbuilder chroot just fine,
but the howto is lean on explaining how to use it to build packages
and I couldn't find another page that laid out the process for
building and testing in pbuilder and then installing on Breezy.

Thanks in advance; my head is spinning with all the information that
I've been trying to take in!

Kind regards,
Andrew Conkling

P.S.- I originally posted this on Ubuntu-users, but I think this is
better suited here.  Let me know if I'm wrong. :)

--
http://aconkling.blogspot.com