I've now set up mod_rewrite to force https on the Jenkins servers. We'll see if that breaks anything in the builds; my guess is that the occasional call to retrieve a product in a preceding build may fail when it hits the redirect.
In the past I have generated local Debian packages on my workstation and uploaded them to the apt server.
Recently I moved them to the apt server itself so packages can be updated remotely if need be.
The build script is basically a fancy wrapper around a pretty standard debian build method. It downloads upstream code (like for oxygen) and re-packages it, as well as building meta packages and a config package that is site-specific.
hcmc-desktop - a meta package that installs packages we use like java, fonts, ssh, subversion, etc.
hcmc-conf - a configuration package that includes a collection of scripts/files that set up a machine for use in our lab. This includes everything from setting JAVA_HOME and mimelists (for oXygen etc.) to auto-configuring hostname, default skel and firefox profiles.
hcmc-auth-sssd - this installs and configures SSSD, which we use for LDAP authentication on our machines. It's a separate package from hcmc-conf for practical reasons.
hcmc-oxygen - this is a repackaging of the oXygen XML editor for deployment in our labs. Doing this way allows easy upgrades.
hcmc-style - basically just look-and-feel stuff such as wallpaper, theme, icons, and colour-schemes that I like.
The script finishes by invoking reprepro to ingest the package and offer it via apt install.
Once deleted, log out and back in, and you will get the default settings for the machine.
If you want to change the icon of a specific folder/file for some reason, you need to edit the gvfs metadata that is stored in a binary file.
Unlike .desktop files, you cannot refer to a canonical FreeDesktop-type icon. You must use an explicit path to the icon you want to use.
NOTE: in a .desktop file you can ref the icon like ICON=folder-open and you'll get the icon theme's icon for folder-open. This icon will change with the theme.
The migration of ten workstations from the old lab space to the new one is complete.