Extract IPK from already installed package

This repository provides a script to create an IPK file from an already installed package.

Usage

./extract-ipk <package>

This will create a file named <package>.ipk in current working directory.

The IPK contains all files related to the package as well as all necessary pre- and post scripts to install or remove it.

Background

Lately, I noticed that OPKG preserves all files and information to extract an IPK file from an already installed package. I was't sure whether this will work, so I played around a bit. The result works very well for the packages I tried.

Caveats

Some uses cases will not work with the script in its current form:

• empty directories will get lost
• some meta data will get lost (depending on your OPKG configuration)
• special files (e.g. dev nodes) may get lost (unless they are created in preinst or postinst scripts)
• OPKG info path is hard coded to /var/lib/opkg/info