I have just finished rolling my own debian dpkg for amanda as I need to
compile amanda specifically for our setup here.  I was using 2.4.2p2. My
biggest problem is that DESTDIR did not work.  I had to manually copy each
file into my package build directory.  If I speficied DESTDIR on the cmd
line the make file was created with "DESTDIR =" and nothing else.  Is this
a known issue?

> - what config options should be used?
>
Maybe --with-user, --with-group, --with-amandahosts, --with-fqdn

> - should tapetype be precompiled too?
>

Some newer AIT types would be nice.  I can provide AIT-1 and AIT-2 if
necessary.  (I believe both are aleady in the FAQ-o-matic).  Maybe break
tapetypes out of the example/amanda.conf and a file with default
tapetypes.  This would clean up the config file a bit.

> - how does a package handle the "defaults" like tape device, ...
>

The package could probe for the tape device or just ask the user prior to
install.  I know FreeBSD pkgs, Debian dpkgs, and RedHat rpms all have
this ability.  This would be true for any other "default".

> - should an amanda specific user and backup group be created by
>   the installation, which names?
>

Defaults could be there and a user could be prompted.  Maybe "amanda" or
"backup".  The debian dpkg uses the "backup" user and group last time I
installed it.

> - should a default amanda configuration directory, with example
>   conf files be installed
>

I am of the firm opinion that packages should never have config files
that are named the same as the default config file.  Meaning, this pkg
would not contain the file /usr/local/etc/amanda/DailySet1/amanda.conf but
/usr/local/etc/amanda/DailySet1/amanda.conf.example or something like
that.  This insures that the package will never overwrite an existing
config file.



Drew