how to easly edit control file in deb package

Question

Is there a way to easly edit control file in deb package. Doesnt matter on which system (linux, mac os etc.) Maybe someone knows a good script to make it automated?

Answer 1

Check this out: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=636724 Just in case that thread ever gets deleted, I'll post a copy of the code here as well:

DEBFILE="$1"
TMPDIR=`mktemp -d /tmp/deb.XXXXXXXXXX` || exit 1
OUTPUT=`basename "$DEBFILE" .deb`.modfied.deb

if [[ -e "$OUTPUT" ]]; then
  echo "$OUTPUT exists."
  rm -r "$TMPDIR"
  exit 1
fi

dpkg-deb -x "$DEBFILE" "$TMPDIR"
dpkg-deb --control "$DEBFILE" "$TMPDIR"/DEBIAN

if [[ ! -e "$TMPDIR"/DEBIAN/control ]]; then
  echo DEBIAN/control not found.

  rm -r "$TMPDIR"
  exit 1
fi

CONTROL="$TMPDIR"/DEBIAN/control

MOD=`stat -c "%y" "$CONTROL"`
vi "$CONTROL"

if [[ "$MOD" == `stat -c "%y" "$CONTROL"` ]]; then
  echo Not modfied.
else
  echo Building new deb...
  dpkg -b "$TMPDIR" "$OUTPUT"
fi

rm -r "$TMPDIR"

Change vi to any editor of choice. Save it as a shell script (i.e. debcontrol.sh), make it executable (chmod +x), and use the deb as first parameter (./debcontrol.sh xxxxx.deb)