[Vmware-package-maintainers] Tools to trace upstream install process

[arbeels-list1 at yahoo.com]

I am trying to figure out how to make packages similar to vmware-package (for skype initially), and am curious if there are any tools that can be used to trace the install process of the original non-debianized package.  The idea is that you should be able to do:



root at impurity# foo skype-installer-1.5.sh



which would run the installer and leave you with a list of all files created or changed during the process.  That would make creating the debain package much easier.



Did you have anything similar at hand when analyzing the vmware installers when you were first working on the vmware-package package?  If not, do you have any suggestions to make for people trying to package non-free binary software distributions?



(I suppose I could do the equivalent by running 'find / ...' before and after the install and then diffing the results, but I was hoping there might be a more elegant approach...)

Many thanks!