Did some reading of the man pages for dpkg and dpkg-deb. It appears that "dpkg-deb -b" will do what I want. Except for the control files, which are not explained in the man pages. So:

Where can I learn about the internals of the dpkg and dpkg-deb systems -- specifically how to build a control tree?

BTW, thanks for the link to checkinstall. I tried it some time ago for help in compiling under rpm, but it installed the packages it built with the --force --nodeps option (equivalent to deb -force -nodepends) which almost guaranteed no installation information output and a broken installation.

Quote Originally Posted by Stephen
Quote Originally Posted by annamerikin
I guess I wasn't clear. I want to use programs that are neither available as .debs or rpms. In my old Red Hat, I simply compiled these programs under RPM with -ta option and got a RPM that I could install with rpm -i progname.

How do I compile a source tarball under Knoppix so I end up with a .deb which I can install so it is seen by the database?
Read your post earlier today and read this a few minutes ago and thought it might be just what you are looking for checkinstall will make a debian package and install it using dpkg.