.deb package: cannot upload to Bintray when package is build using Ubuntu 18.04

Question

so I am trying to upload my package that I compiles and build on a machine running 18.04 to Bintray.

It doesn't work. I get a message like this:

Unable to upload files: Could not extract metadata for artifact 'pool/m/myapp/myapp_1.0~bionic1_amd64.deb', content might be malformed.

I tried installing the package and no issues with that. I also tried getting the package information using:

dpkg-deb --build myapp_1.0~bionic1_amd64.deb

and no problem with that either.

This is the command I use to build the package:

dpkg-deb --build myapp_1.0~bionic1_amd64

If I build the package using 16.04 (booted off LiveDVD) and ran the same command, I can upload the .deb without any issues.

I've tried 1 other repo (cannot remember the exact site but it starts with "gem") and I get the same error.

Any ideas on what I could be doing wrong and how to fix it?

Thank

Answer 1

I am not sure, but Ubuntu 18.04 use dpkg 1.19.0, which use per default uniform compression. Maybe Travis CI doesn't support it.

--[no-]uniform-compression

Specify that the same compression parameters should be used for all archive members (i.e. control.tar and data.tar; since dpkg 1.17.6). Otherwise only the data.tar member will use those parameters. The only supported compression types allowed to be uniformly used are none, gzip and xz. The --no-uniform-compression option disables uniform compression (since dpkg 1.19.0). Uniform compression is the default (since dpkg 1.19.0).

Answer 2

The difference is indeed in the compression used in the control part of the package:

$ ar t example.deb # 16.04
debian-binary
control.tar.gz
data.tar.xz

$ ar t example.deb # 18.04
debian-binary
control.tar.xz
data.tar.xz

Bintray still doesn't support packages created on Ubuntu 18.04.

It is possible to workaround this issue by specifying options to dh_builddeb in the debian/rules file:

override_dh_builddeb:
        dh_builddeb -- --no-uniform-compression

Answer 3

This feature would be welcome in bintray?

I pinged them at: https://github.com/travis-ci/travis-ci/issues/9656

Stay tuned