extracting and creating ipk files

I have tested "ar x package-name.ipk" command but it didn't help

I found bellow command which worked perfectly

tar zxpvf package-name.ipk

This extracts three files:

debian-binary

data.tar.gz

control.tar.gz

use the same command to open data.tar.gz and control.tar.gz files

for more information refer to https://cognito.me.uk/computers/manual-extractioninstallation-of-ipk-packages-on-gargoyleopenwrt/

You need to create a control file, and then do some archiving using tar and ar. In my case, I was distributing just python scripts, so there was no architecture dependency. You should check the control and Makefile into version control, and delete all the other intermediate files.

Here are the contents of control

Package: my-thing-python
Version: 1.0
Description: python scripts for MyCompany
Section: extras
Priority: optional
Maintainer: John 
License: CLOSED
Architecture: all
OE: my-thing-python
Homepage: unknown
Depends: python python-distutils python-pyserial python-curses python-mmap python-ctypes
Source:  N/A

Here is my Makefile which sits in the same directory as all my python scripts.

all: my-thing-python.ipk


my-thing-python.ipk:
        rm -rf ipk
        mkdir -p ipk/opt/my-thing-python
        cp *.py ipk/opt/my-thing-python
        tar czvf control.tar.gz control
        cd ipk; tar czvf ../data.tar.gz .; cd ..
        echo 2.0 > debian-binary
        ar r my-thing-python.ipk control.tar.gz data.tar.gz  debian-binary

clean: FORCE
        rm -rf ipk
        rm -f control.tar.gz
        rm -f data.tar.gz
        rm -f my-thing-python.ipk

FORCE:

I figured it out.

You can extract the main package with the ar x command, then extract the control.tar.gz with the tar -zxf command.