# phpman > man > RMADISON(1)

[RMADISON(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/RMADISON/1/markdown)                                                                              [RMADISON(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/RMADISON/1/markdown)



## NAME
       rmadison -- Remotely query the Debian archive database about packages

## SYNOPSIS
       **rmadison** [_OPTIONS_] _PACKAGE_ ...

## DESCRIPTION
       **dak** **ls** queries the Debian archive database ("projectb") and displays which package version is
       registered per architecture/component/suite.  The CGI at **<https://qa.debian.org/madison.php>**
       provides that service without requiring SSH access to ftp-master.debian.org or the mirror on
       mirror.ftp-master.debian.org. This script, **rmadison**, is a command line frontend to this CGI.

## OPTIONS
### -a --architecture=
           only show info for ARCH(s)

### -b --binary-type=
           only show info for binary TYPE

### -c --component=
           only show info for COMPONENT(s)

### -g --greaterorequal
           show buildd 'dep-wait pkg >= {highest version}' info

### -G --greaterthan
           show buildd 'dep-wait pkg >> {highest version}' info

### -h --help
           show this help and exit

### -s --suite=
           only show info for this suite

### -r --regex
           treat PACKAGE as a regex

           **Note:** Since **-r** can easily DoS the database ("-r ."), this option is not supported by the
           CGI on qa.debian.org and most other installations.

### -S --source-and-binary
           show info for the binary children of source pkgs

### -t --time
           show projectb snapshot and reload time (not supported by all archives)

### -u --url=
           use _URL_ for the query. Supported shorthands are
            **debian** <https://api.ftp-master.debian.org/madison>
            **new** <https://api.ftp-master.debian.org/madison?s=new>
            **qa** <https://qa.debian.org/madison.php>
            **ubuntu** <https://ubuntu-archive-team.ubuntu.com/madison.cgi>
            **udd** <https://qa.debian.org/cgi-bin/madison.cgi>

           See the **RMADISON**___**URL**___**MAP**___ variable below for a method to add new shorthands.

### --version
           show version and exit

       **--no-conf**, **--noconf**
           don't read the devscripts configuration files

       ARCH, COMPONENT and SUITE can be comma (or space) separated lists, e.g.
       --architecture=m68k,i386

## CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
       The two configuration files _/etc/devscripts.conf_ and _~/.devscripts_ are sourced by a shell in
       that order to set configuration variables. Command line options can be used to override
       configuration file settings. Environment variable settings are ignored for this purpose. The
       currently recognised variables are:

       **RMADISON**___**URL**___**MAP**__SHORTHAND_=_URL_
           Add an entry to the set of shorthand URLs listed above. _SHORTHAND_ should be replaced with
           the shorthand form to be used to refer to _URL_.

           Multiple shorthand entries may be specified by using multiple **RMADISON**___**URL**___**MAP**___*****
           variables.

       **RMADISON**___**DEFAULT**___**URL**=_URL_
           Set the default URL to use unless overridden by a command line option.  For Debian this
           defaults to debian. For Ubuntu this defaults to ubuntu.

       **RMADISON**___**ARCHITECTURE**=_ARCH_
           Set the default architecture to use unless overridden by a command line option.  To run
           an unrestricted query when **RMADISON**___**ARCHITECTURE** is set, use **--architecture='*'**.

       **RMADISON**___**SSL**___**CA**___**FILE**=_FILE_
           Use the specified CA file instead of the default CA bundle for curl/wget, passed as
           --cacert to curl, and as --ca-certificate to wget.

       **RMADISON**___**SSL**___**CA**___**PATH**=_PATH_
           Use the specified CA directory instead of the default CA bundle for curl/wget, passed as
           --capath to curl, and as --ca-directory to wget.

## NOTES
       **dak** **ls** was formerly called **madison**.

       The protocol used by rmadison is fairly simple, the CGI accepts query the parameters a, b, c,
       g, G, r, s, S, t, and package. The parameter text is passed to enable plain-text output.

## SEE ALSO
       [**dak**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/dak/1/markdown), [**madison-lite**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/madison-lite/1/markdown)

## AUTHOR
       rmadison and <https://qa.debian.org/madison.php> were written by Christoph Berg
       <<myon@debian.org>>. dak was written by James Troup <<james@nocrew.org>>, Anthony Towns
       <<ajt@debian.org>>, and others.



Debian Utilities                             2026-03-04                                  [RMADISON(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/RMADISON/1/markdown)