I built a small CLI tool and thought it'd be nice to let Ubuntu users install it via apt. Seemed straightforward enough.

Turns out Launchpad builds run in a network-isolated environment, so you can't fetch dependencies at build time. The toolchain versions available vary by Ubuntu release, and each version needs its own build configuration. The debian packaging format has a steep learning curve, and debugging failed builds means digging through walls of logs for cryptic errors.

After a few hours of fixing one build error only to hit the next, I realized I was spending more time on packaging than I spent writing the actual tool.

What surprises me is that there doesn't seem to be a modern alternative. Homebrew solved this for macOS years ago with simple tap repositories. Flathub and Snapcraft exist but target GUI apps and come with their own baggage. For a simple CLI binary, there's no equivalent of "push to repo, users run one command to install." PPAs are the closest thing Ubuntu has, and they feel stuck in 2010.

Is anyone working on making this easier, or is this just how it is?