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I am trying to create a program, let's call it abcd like http://linux.die.net/man/6/fortune that can simply be installed like $ sudo apt-get install abcd. Now for the specifics, my program simply is fetching data from and API and printing it.

The API is already built. I can write a script in any language viable to access the API, extract data and print it.

Now, I want my script to function as follows. Anyone who wishes to install it should do sudo apt-get install abcd. After this, the user only has to type in $ abcd in the shell and the output will appear. Also, it can accept 3-4 parameters like $ abcd -typeA which will print different data.

What is the process to create such a program and get it up and running?

I am new to linux. I really want this done. Thanks for help in advance.

tsaebeht
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1 Answers1

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You need to learn how to package your program (no matter whether it's a script or binary executable) in the .deb format.

Then you can sign up to Launchpad and create a PPA (personal package archive) where you can upload the package.

Users may then add your PPA to their software sources (sudo add-apt-repository ppa:USERNAME/PPANAME && sudo apt-get update) and install it (sudo apt-get install abcd) afterwards.

To allow direct installation without having to add a PPA first, your package would have to be added to Canonical's official Ubuntu repositories, but that this is a rather long process which is probably not worth the effort in your case.

Useful links:

Packaging:

Creating a PPA:

Official repositories:

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