The goal of fpm is to make it easy and quick to build packages such as rpms, debs, OSX packages, etc.

fpm, as a project, exists with the following principles in mind:

• If fpm is not helping you make packages easily, then there is a bug in fpm.
• If you are having a bad time with fpm, then there is a bug in fpm.
• If the documentation is confusing, then this is a bug in fpm.

If there is a bug in fpm, then we can work together to fix it. If you wish to report a bug/problem/whatever, I welcome you to do on the project issue tracker.

You can find out how to use fpm in the documentation.

Backstory

Sometimes packaging is done wrong (because you can't do it right for all situations), but small tweaks can fix it.

And sometimes, there isn't a package available for the tool you need.

And sometimes if you ask "How do I get python 3 on CentOS 5?" some unhelpful trolls will tell you to "Use another distro"

Further, a job switches have me flipping between Ubuntu and CentOS. These use two totally different package systems with completely different packaging policies and support tools. Learning both was painful and confusing. I want to save myself (and you) that pain in the future.

It should be easy to say "here's my install dir and here's some dependencies; please make a package"

The Solution - FPM

I wanted a simple way to create packages without needing to memorize too much.

I wanted a tool to help me deliver software with minimal steps or training.

The goal of FPM is to be able to easily build platform-native packages.

With fpm, you can do many things, including:

• Creating packages easily (deb, rpm, freebsd, etc)
• Tweaking existing packages (removing files, changing metadata/dependencies)
• Stripping pre/post/maintainer scripts from packages

Things that should work

Sources:

• gem (even autodownloaded for you)
• python modules (autodownload for you)
• pear (also downloads for you)
• directories
• tar(.gz) archives
• rpm
• deb
• node packages (npm)
• pacman (ArchLinux) packages

Targets:

• deb
• rpm
• solaris
• freebsd
• tar
• directories
• Mac OS X .pkg files (osxpkg)
• pacman (ArchLinux) packages