Managing Computer Systems by Building Your Own Packages

Most operating systems use "package management" systems for installing software. These packages do not merely list files; they can express a wide variety of system configuration information. Building your own packages is easier than you might think, and can be a powerful way to manage and customize large numbers of computer systems, replacing tools such as cfengine. I build custom Debian packages to do most configuration of almost all of the Debian and Ubuntu machines I manage. In this talk I will tell you how to build your own. Similar approaches can be used with almost any modern computer system.