A management system for software package distribution

There are two popular ways to distribute software in Linux world, by distributing source code or pre-compiled binary. Source-code distribution is suitable for open-source software. However, for close-source software pre-compiled binary is the only option. Unlike Windows, there are many versions of Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu, Red Hat, CentOS, and Debian. Different Linux distributions require different binary installation package. For example, Red Hat and CentOS use .rpm package while Ubuntu and Debian need .deb package. To generate a software package suitable for many Linux distributions, developers must compile software on as many Linux machines as their supported Linux versions. This process is cumbersome, inefficient and difficult to manage. We develop a system to generate and manage software packages, which requires only one Linux machine. This system automatically exports software source code from a version control system, edits package configuration, builds software package, and manages software version. This system is tested and used on a production scale to build our network management software named NetHAM. It is shown to expedite the software release process and reduce number of computers required. In addition, it is easy to use even by someone with no Linux skill.