How to build Debian packages with Chef.

What are Debian packages?

Debian is a free operating system ( OS ) for your computer. An operating system is the set of basic programs and utilities that make your computer run. Debian uses the Linux kernel (the core of an OS) along with thousands of software packages (also called 'packages') that are each distributed in a separate file. The packages contain the program code that does all the work, and are connected to each other in what is called a package dependency hierarchy . Each package depends on some smaller package or packages, which in turn depend on even smaller packages, and so on.

What is Chef?

Chef is an open source configuration management tool designed to help you manage infrastructure by using a model-driven, data-driven approach. Power your deployment with innovative global search and scripting capabilities, and make sure tools integrate seamlessly through a well-documented API. Chef is collaborative, ensuring that you can work most efficiently with developers, DevOps teams and operations professionals.

Building Debian package with Chef via packagecloud

If you’re looking to build Debian package with Chef, you can use packagecloud to handle all of your package management and integrations with your CI/CD tools. Packagecloud works with all kinds of packages, not only Debian packages. As well, you can integrate with all kinds of CI/CD tools, not only Chef.