How to manage multiple package dependencies with checkinstall? - bash

Question

I have a package that I've been building using checkinstall for a while now, and I wanted to automate it (pass the values in via command line instead of typing the selection, pasting the value in, etc...)
I am not sure if this is a checkinstall bug, or not, but how can I include multiple packages via the command line --requires option. It seems to barf if I include the minimum version of a package (for exmple --requires="libvte9 (>= 0.28.2)"), or multiple packages at once (for example --requires "libvte9, libc6")
Has anyone had better success with the command line arguments for multiple packages? Am I doing something wrong, or is this a bug.
Note: If I run the script, and choose the requires option (10), and paste my entire line with multiple packages and minimum versions (such as libvte9 (>= 0.28.2), libc6 (>= 2.13), it works fine, it just seems to be on the command line that it's having issues. Also this is with building a debian package, using the -D option.

Answer 1

After reading Aleks-Daniel Jakimenko-A.'s answer, Reallumpi's one and doing some tests on a real life case, here is what you should do:
use , (comma) without spaces to separate required packages ;
escape ( and ) parenthesis when specifying package's version ;
escape > (greater sign) when specifying package's version ;
Example
make && sudo -k checkinstall \
--pkgsource="https://github.com/raboof/nethogs/" \
--pkglicense="GPL2" \
--deldesc=no \
--nodoc \
--maintainer="$USER\\<$USER#$HOSTNAME\\>" \
--pkgarch=$(dpkg \
--print-architecture) \
--pkgversion="0.8.1" \
--pkgrelease="SNAPSHOT" \
--pkgname=nethogs \
--requires="libc6 \(\>= 2.4\),libgcc1 \(\>= 1:4.1.1\),libncurses5 \(\>= 5.5-5~\),libpcap0.8 \(\>= 0.9.8\),libstdc++6 \(\>= 4.1.1\),libtinfo5" \
make install
Output
*****************************************
**** Debian package creation selected ***
*****************************************
This package will be built according to these values:
0 - Maintainer: [ elopez<elopez#> ]
1 - Summary: [ Net top tool grouping bandwidth per process ]
2 - Name: [ nethogs ]
3 - Version: [ 0.8.1 ]
4 - Release: [ SNAPSHOT ]
5 - License: [ GPL2 ]
6 - Group: [ checkinstall ]
7 - Architecture: [ amd64 ]
8 - Source location: [ https://github.com/raboof/nethogs/ ]
9 - Alternate source location: [ ]
10 - Requires: [ libc6 (>= 2.4),libgcc1 (>= 1:4.1.1),libncurses5 (>= 5.5-5~),libpcap0.8 (>= 0.9.8),libstdc++6 (>= 4.1.1),libtinfo5 ]
11 - Provides: [ nethogs ]
12 - Conflicts: [ ]
13 - Replaces: [ ]

Answer 2

checkinstall uses , to separate multiple packages. That's it, a comma, without any spaces around it.

Answer 3

You need to escape brackets, e.g. --requires "package \(= 1.0\)"

Answer 4

This answer elaborates on how to properly format punctuation, within a shell script, to get multiple package dependencies for checkinstall to work.
PAK_USER='. , ? ! : + - ^ _ { } = $ % # [ ] / ; # & * ~ ( ) < > \ |'
PAK_NEEDS='. , ? ! : + - ^ _ { } = $ % # [ ] / ; # & * ~ ( ) < > \ |'
PAK_NEEDS=$(echo "$PAK_NEEDS" | perl -pe 's/([[:punct:]])/\\\1/g')
0 - Maintainer: [ . , ? ! : + - ^ _ { } = $ % # [ ] / ]
1 - Summary: [ This is a punctuation escape test. ]
10 - Requires: [ . , ? ! : + - ^ _ { } = $ % # [ ] / ; # & * ~ ( ) < > \ | ]
The ones that needs escaping appear to be shell operators ; # & * ~ ( ) < > \ | Some will return a value * ~ terminate the line ; # or wipe everything out ( ) < > | & while \ disappears since it's the escape character.
The regex perl -pe 's/([[:punct:]])/\\\1/g' escapes all the punctuation characters which is overkill but works quite well. Single and Double Quotes are already problematic, along with $, which will expand unless surrounded by single-quotes.
If you don't want to think about escaping, use the regex and caution with ' " $.
PAK_NEEDS="libasound2 (>= 1.0.16), libavcodec57 (>= 7:3.4.2) | libavcodec-extra57 (>= 7:3.4.2), libavformat57 (>= 7:3.4.2), libavutil55 (>= 7:3.4.2), libboost-filesystem1.65.1, libboost-system1.65.1, libc6 (>= 2.27), libcurl4 (>= 7.16.2), libexpat1 (>= 2.0.1), libgcc1 (>= 1:3.0), libgl1, libglu1-mesa | libglu1, libmad0 (>= 0.15.1b-3), libsdl2-2.0-0 (>= 2.0.8), libsdl2-image-2.0-0 (>= 2.0.2), libsdl2-net-2.0-0 (>= 2.0.1), libsdl2-ttf-2.0-0 (>= 2.0.14), libsndfile1 (>= 1.0.20), libspeex1 (>= 1.2~beta3-1), libspeexdsp1 (>= 1.2~beta3.2-1), libstdc++6 (>= 5.2), libswscale4 (>= 7:3.4.2), libvorbisfile3 (>= 1.1.2), libzzip-0-13 (>= 0.13.56), zlib1g (>= 1:1.1.4)"
PAK_NEEDS=$(echo "$PAK_NEEDS" | perl -pe 's/([[:punct:]])/\\\1/g')
10 - Requires: [ libasound2 (>= 1.0.16), libavcodec57 (>= 7:3.4.2) | libavcodec-extra57 (>= 7:3.4.2), libavformat57 (>= 7:3.4.2), libavutil55 (>= 7:3.4.2), libboost-filesystem1.65.1, libboost-system1.65.1, libc6 (>= 2.27), libcurl4 (>= 7.16.2), libexpat1 (>= 2.0.1), libgcc1 (>= 1:3.0), libgl1, libglu1-mesa | libglu1, libmad0 (>= 0.15.1b-3), libsdl2-2.0-0 (>= 2.0.8), libsdl2-image-2.0-0 (>= 2.0.2), libsdl2-net-2.0-0 (>= 2.0.1), libsdl2-ttf-2.0-0 (>= 2.0.14), libsndfile1 (>= 1.0.20), libspeex1 (>= 1.2~beta3-1), libspeexdsp1 (>= 1.2~beta3.2-1), libstdc++6 (>= 5.2), libswscale4 (>= 7:3.4.2), libvorbisfile3 (>= 1.1.2), libzzip-0-13 (>= 0.13.56), zlib1g (>= 1:1.1.4) ]