man > ORIGTARGZ(1)

ORIGTARGZ(1)                                                                            ORIGTARGZ(1)

NAME
       origtargz - fetch the orig tarball of a Debian package from various sources, and unpack it

SYNOPSIS
       origtargz [OPTIONS] [--unpack[=no|once|yes]]
       origtargz --help

DESCRIPTION
       origtargz  downloads  the  orig  tarball  of  a  Debian package, and also unpacks it into the
       current directory, if it just contains a debian directory. The main use for origtargz is with
       debian-dir-only repository checkouts, but it is useful as a general tarball download wrapper.
       The version number for the tarball to be downloaded is determined from  debian/changelog.  It
       should be invoked from the top level directory of an unpacked Debian source package.

       Various download locations are tried:

       •   First, an existing file is looked for.

       •   Directories given with --path are searched.

       •   pristine-tar is tried.

       •   pristine-lfs is tried.

       •   apt-get source is tried when apt-cache showsrc reports a matching version.

       •   Finally, uscan --download --download-current-version is tried.

       When  asked  to unpack the orig tarball, origtargz will remove all files and directories from
       the current directory, except the debian directory, and the VCS repository directories.  Note
       that this will drop all non-committed changes for the patch system in use (e.g. source format
       "3.0  (quilt)"), and will even remove all patches from the package when no patch system is in
       use (the original "1.0" source format). Some VCS  control  files  outside  debian/  preserved
       (.bzr-builddeb, .bzr-ignore, .gitignore, .hgignore), if stored in VCS.

       The  default  behavior is to unpack the orig tarball if the current directory is empty except
       for a debian directory and the VCS files mentioned above.

NOTES
       Despite origtargz being called "targz", it will work with any compression scheme used for the
       tarball.

       A similar tool to  unpack  orig  tarballs  is  uupdate(1).  uupdate  creates  a  new  working
       directory,  unpacks  the  tarball,  and  applies  the  Debian  .diff.gz changes. In contrast,
       origtargz uses the current directory, keeping VCS metadata.

       For Debian package repositories that keep the full upstream source,  other  tools  should  be
       used  to  upgrade  the  repository  from  the  new  tarball.  See gbp-import-orig(1) and svn-
       upgrade(1) for examples. origtargz is still useful for downloading the current tarball.

OPTIONS
       -p, --path directory
           Add directory to the list of locations to search for an existing tarball.  When found,  a
           hardlink is created if possible, otherwise a symlink.

       -u, --unpack[=no|once|yes]
           Unpack  the downloaded orig tarball to the current directory, replacing everything except
           the debian directory. Existing files are removed,  except  for  debian/  and  VCS  files.
           Preserved  are: .bzr, .bzrignore, .bzr-builddeb, .git, .gitignore, .hg, .hgignore, _darcs
           and .svn.

           no  Do not unpack the orig tarball.

           once (default when --unpack is not used)
               If the current  directory  contains  only  a  debian  directory  (and  possibly  some
               dotfiles), unpack the orig tarball. This is the default behavior.

           yes (default for --unpack without argument)
               Always unpack the orig tarball.

       -d, --download-only
           Alias for --unpack=no.

       -t, --tar-only
           When  using  apt-get  source,  pass --tar-only to it. The default is to download the full
           source package including .dsc and .diff.gz or .debian.tar.gz components so debdiff can be
           used to diff the last upload  to  the  next  one.  With  --tar-only,  only  download  the
           .orig.tar.* file.

       --clean
           Remove  existing  files  as  with  --unpack.  Note  that  like --unpack, this will remove
           upstream files even if they are stored in VCS.

SEE ALSO
       debcheckout(1), gbp-import-orig(1), pristine-tar(1), svn-upgrade(1), uupdate(1)

AUTHOR
       origtargz and this manpage have been written by Christoph Berg <myon AT debian.org>.

Debian Utilities                             2026-02-25                                 ORIGTARGZ(1)