man > devscripts.conf(5)

📛 NAME

devscripts.conf - configuration file for the devscripts package

🚀 Quick Reference

🎯 Use Case	⌨️ Command	📖 Description
⚙️ View example configuration	cat /usr/share/doc/devscripts/devscripts.conf.ex	Show all configurable options and their defaults
🔧 Override a setting (per-user)	echo 'DEBCHANGE_VENDOR=ubuntu' >> ~/.devscripts	Append a variable to the user’s config file
📝 Set system‑wide defaults	sudo nano /etc/devscripts.conf	Edit the global configuration file
🚫 Ignore all config files	debchange --no-conf	Disable reading any configuration (use as first option)
📜 List available scripts	dpkg -L devscripts | grep /usr/bin	See all tools that honour this configuration

📖 DESCRIPTION

📦 The devscripts package provides a collection of scripts which may be of use to Debian developers and others wishing to build Debian packages. Many of these have options which can be configured on a system-wide and per-user basis.

📚 Every script in the devscripts package which makes use of values from these configuration files describes the specific settings recognised in its own manpage. (For a list of the scripts, either see /usr/share/doc/devscripts/README.gz or look at the output of dpkg -L devscripts | grep /usr/bin.)

📁 The two configuration files are /etc/devscripts.conf for system‑wide defaults and ~/.devscripts for per-user settings. They are written with bash(1) syntax, but should only have comments and simple variable assignments in them; they are both sourced (if present) by many of the devscripts scripts. Variables corresponding to simple switches should have one of the values yes and no; any other setting is regarded as equivalent to the default setting.

📝 All variable names are written in uppercase, and begin with the script name. Package‑wide variables begin with “DEVSCRIPTS”, and are listed below, as well as in the relevant manpages.

📄 For a list of all of the available options variables, along with their default settings, see the example configuration file /usr/share/doc/devscripts/devscripts.conf.ex. This is copied to /etc/devscripts.conf when the devscripts package is first installed. Information about configuration options introduced in newer versions of the package will be appended to /etc/devscripts.conf when the package is upgraded.

⚙️ Every script which reads the configuration files can be forced to ignore them by using --no-conf as the first command-line option.

🌐 PACKAGE-WIDE VARIABLES

🔹 The currently recognised package‑wide variables are:

• DEVSCRIPTS_CHECK_DIRNAME_LEVEL, DEVSCRIPTS_CHECK_DIRNAME_REGEX
  These variables control scripts which change directory to find a debian/changelog file or suchlike, and some other miscellaneous cases. In order to prevent unwanted, even possibly dangerous, behaviour, these variables control when actions will be performed. The scripts which currently make use of these variables are: debc, debchange/dch, debclean, debi, debrelease, debuild and uscan, but this list may change with time (and I may not remember to update this manpage). Please see the manpages of individual scripts for details of the specific behaviour for each script.

🔗 SEE ALSO

• 📘 devscripts(1)
• 📄 /usr/share/doc/devscripts/README.gz

✍️ AUTHOR

✍️ This manpage was written for the devscripts package by the package maintainer Julian Gilbey <jdg@debian.org>.