{
    "mode": "man",
    "parameter": "devscripts",
    "section": "1",
    "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/devscripts/1/json",
    "generated": "2026-08-29T08:52:14Z",
    "sections": {
        "NAME": {
            "content": "devscripts - scripts to ease the lives of Debian developers\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "DESCRIPTION": {
            "content": "The  devscripts package provides a collection of scripts which may be of use to Debian devel‐\nopers and others wishing to build Debian packages.  For a summary of the  available  scripts,\nplease see the file /usr/share/doc/devscripts/README.gz, and for full details, please see the\nindividual  manpages.   They  are  contributed by multiple developers; for details of the au‐\nthors, please see the code or manpages.\n\nAlso, the directory /usr/share/doc/devscripts/examples contains an example  exim  script  for\nsorting mail arriving to Debian mailing lists.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "ENVIRONMENT": {
            "content": "Several  scripts  of  the devscripts suite use the following environment variables. Check the\nman pages of individual scripts for more details on how the variables are used.\n\nDEBEMAIL\nEmail of the person acting on a given Debian package via devscripts.\n\nDEBFULLNAME\nFull name (first + family) of the person acting on a given Debian package via devscripts.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "SCRIPTS": {
            "content": "Here is the complete list of available devscripts. See their man pages for  additional  docu‐\nmentation.\n\nannotate-output(1)\nrun  a command and prepend time and stream (O for stdout, E for stderr) for every line\nof output.\n\narchpath(1)\nPrints arch (tla/Bazaar 1.x) package names.  Also  supports  calculating  the  package\nnames for other branches. [tla]\n\nbts(1) A  command-line  tool for accessing the Debian Bug Tracking System, both to send mails\nto control@bts.debian.org and to access the web pages and SOAP interface of  the  BTS.\n[www-browser,  libauthen-sasl-perl,  libsoap-lite-perl, liburi-perl, libwww-perl, bsd-\nmailx | mailx]\n\nbuild-rdeps(1)\nSearches for all packages that build-depend on a given package. [dctrl-tools, dose-ex‐\ntra, libdpkg-perl]\n\nchdist(1)\ntool to easily play with several distributions. [dctrl-tools]\n\ncheckbashisms(1)\ncheck whether a /bin/sh script contains any common bash-specific constructs.\n\ncowpoke(1)\nupload a Debian source package to a cowbuilder host  and  build  it,  optionally  also\nsigning and uploading the result to an incoming queue. [ssh-client]\n\ncvs-debi, cvs-debc(1)\nwrappers  around  debi and debc respectively (see below) which allow them to be called\nfrom the CVS working directory. [cvs-buildpackage]\n\ncvs-debrelease(1)\nwrapper around debrelease which allows it to be called from the CVS working directory.\n[cvs-buildpackage, dupload | dput, ssh-client]\n\ncvs-debuild(1)\nA wrapper for cvs-buildpackage to use debuild as its package building  program.  [cvs-\nbuildpackage, lintian, gnupg |gnupg2]\n\ndcmd(1)\nrun  a  given  command  replacing the name of a .changes or .dsc file with each of the\nfiles referenced therein. *\n\ndd-list(1)\ngiven a list of packages, pretty-print it ordered by maintainer. *\n\ndebbisect(1)\nbisect snapshot.debian.org to find which change in the archive  introduced  a  certain\nproblem. [mmdebstrap, python3-debian]\n\ndebc(1)\nList  contents of current package.  Do this after a successful \"debuild\" to see if the\npackage looks all right.\n\ndebchange (abbreviation dch)(1)\nModifies debian/changelog and manages version numbers for you.  It will either  incre‐\nment  the  version  number or add an entry for the current version, depending upon the\noptions given to it. [libdistro-info-perl, libsoap-lite-perl]*\n\ndebcheckout(1)\ncheckout the development repository of a Debian package. *\n\ndebclean(1)\nClean a Debian source tree.  Debclean will clean all Debian  source  trees  below  the\ncurrent  directory,  and  if requested, also remove all files that were generated from\nthese source trees (that is .deb, .dsc and .changes files).  It will keep  the  .diffs\nand  original  files,  though,  so that the binaries and other files can be rebuilt if\nnecessary. *\n\ndebcommit(1)\nCommits changes to cvs, darcs, svn, svk, tla, bzr, git, or hg, using  new  entries  in\ndebian/changelog as the commit message. Also supports tagging Debian package releases.\n[cvs | darcs | subversion | svk | tla | bzr | git-core | mercurial, libtimedate-perl]\n\ndebdiff(1)\nA  program which examines two .deb files or two .changes files and reports on any dif‐\nference found in their file lists.  Useful for ensuring that no  files  were  inadver‐\ntently  lost  between  versions.   Can  also  examine two .dsc files and report on the\nchanges between source versions. For a deeper comparison one can  use  the  diffoscope\npackage. [wdiff, patchutils]*\n\ndebdiff-apply(1)\nApply unified diffs of two Debian source packages, such as those generated by debdiff,\nto a target Debian source package. Any changes to debian/changelog are dealt with spe‐\ncially,  to  avoid  the  conflicts that changelog diffs typically produce when applied\nnaively. May be used to check that old patches still apply to newer versions of  those\npackages. [python3-debian, python3-unidiff, quilt]\n\ndebi(1)\nInstalls  the  current package by using dpkg.  It assumes that the current package has\njust been built (for example by debuild), and the .deb lives in the parent  directory,\nand  will effectively run dpkg -i on the .deb. The ability to install the package with\na very short command is very useful when troubleshooting packages.\n\ndebootsnap(1)\nCombines debootstrap and snapshot.debian.org to create a chroot containing exactly the\nrequested selection of packages. This can be used to re-create a chroot from the past,\nfor example to reproduce a bug. The tool is also used by debrebuild to build a package\nin a chroot with build dependencies in the same version as recorded in  the  buildinfo\nfile. [apt-utils, dpkg-dev, equivs, mmdebstrap, python3-pycurl]\n\ndebrelease(1)\nA  wrapper  around dupload or dput which figures out which version to upload, and then\ncalls dupload or dput to actually perform the upload. [dupload | dput, ssh-client]\n\ndebrebuild(1)\nA script that provided a .buildinfo file reports the instructions on how to try to re‐\nproduce the reported build. [sbuild | mmdebstrap, python3-pycurl, libdpkg-perl]\n\ndebrepro(1)\nA script that tests reproducibility of Debian packages. It will build a  given  source\ndirectory  twice, with a set of variation between the first and second build, and com‐\npare the binary packages produced. If diffoscope is installed, it is used  to  compare\nnon-matching  binaries. If disorderfs is installed, it is used during the build to in‐\nject non-determinism in filesystem listing operations. [faketime,  diffoscope,  disor‐\nderfs]\n\ndebrsign(1)\nThis  transfers a .changes/.dsc pair to a remote machine for signing, and runs debsign\non the remote machine over an SSH connection. [gnupg |  gnupg2,  debian-keyring,  ssh-\nclient]\n\ndebsign(1)\nUse  GNU Privacy Guard to sign the changes (and possibly dsc) files created by running\ndpkg-buildpackage with no-sign options.  Useful if you are building a package on a re‐\nmote machine and wish to sign it on a local one.  This script is capable of  automati‐\ncally  downloading  the .changes and .dsc files from a remote machine. [gnupg |gnupg2,\ndebian-keyring, ssh-client]*\n\ndebsnap(1)\ngrab packages from https://snapshot.debian.org [libwww-perl, libjson-perl]\n\ndebuild(1)\nA wrapper for building a package (i.e., dpkg-buildpackage) to avoid problems with  in‐\nsufficient permissions and wrong paths etc. Debuild will set up the proper environment\nfor  building  a package. Debuild will also run lintian to check that the package does\nnot have any major policy violations. [lintian, gnupg | gnupg2]*\n\ndeb-janitor(1)\ncommand-line client for interacting with the Debian Janitor.\n\ndeb-reversion(1)\nincreases a binary package version number and repacks the package, useful for  porters\nand the like.\n\ndeb-why-removed(1)\nshows the reason a package was removed from the archive. [libdpkg-perl]\n\ndep3changelog(1)\ngenerate a changelog entry from a DEP3-style patch header.\n\ndesktop2menu(1)\ngiven  a  freedesktop.org desktop file, generate a skeleton for a menu file. [libfile-\ndesktopentry-perl]\n\ndget(1)\nDownloads Debian source and binary packages. Point at a .changes or .dsc  to  download\nall  references  files.  Specify a package name to download it from the configured apt\nrepository. [wget | curl]\n\ndiff2patches(1)\nextracts patches from a .diff.gz file placing them under debian/ or, if  present,  de‐\nbian/patches. [patchutils]\n\ndpkg-depcheck, dpkg-genbuilddeps(1)\nRuns  a  specified  command (such as debian/rules build) or dpkg-buildpackage, respec‐\ntively, to determine the packages used during the build process.  This information can\nbe helpful when trying to determine the packages  needed  in  the  Build-Depends  etc.\nlines in the debian/control file. [build-essential, strace]\n\ndscextract(1)\nextract a single file from a Debian source package. [patchutils]\n\ndscverify(1)\ncheck the signature and MD5 sums of a dsc file against the most current Debian keyring\non your system. [gnupg | gnupg2, debian-keyring]\n\nedit-patch(1)\nadd/edit a patch for a source package and commit the changes. [quilt | dpatch | cdbs]\n\ngetbuildlog(1)\ndownload package build logs from Debian auto-builders. [wget]\n\ngit-deborig(1)\ntry  to  produce  Debian orig.tar using git-archive(1). [libdpkg-perl, libgit-wrapper-\nperl, liblist-compare-perl, libstring-shellquote-perl, libtry-tiny-perl]\n\ngrep-excuses(1)\ngrep britney's excuses to find out what is happening  to  your  packages.  [libdbd-pg-\nperl, libterm-size-perl, libyaml-syck-perl, wget, w3m]\n\nhardening-check(1)\nreport the hardening characteristics of a set of binaries.\n\nlist-unreleased(1)\nsearches for packages marked UNRELEASED in their changelog.\n\nltnu (Long Time No Upload)(1)\nList  all uploads of packages by the given uploader or maintainer and display them or‐\ndered by the last upload of that package, oldest uploads first.\n\nmanpage-alert(1)\nlocate binaries without corresponding manpages. [man-db]\n\nmass-bug(1)\nmass-file bug reports. [bsd-mailx | mailx]\n\nmergechanges(1)\nmerge .changes files from the same release but built on different architectures.\n\nmk-build-deps(1)\nGiven a package name and/or control file, generate a binary package which may  be  in‐\nstalled to satisfy the build-dependencies of the given package. [equivs]\n\nmk-origtargz(1)\nRename  upstream  tarball,  optionally  changing the compression and removing unwanted\nfiles. [libfile-which-perl, unzip, xz-utils, file]\n\nnamecheck(1)\nCheck project names are not already taken.\n\nnmudiff(1)\nprepare a diff of this version (presumably an NMU against the previously released ver‐\nsion (as per the changelog) and submit the diff to the BTS. [patchutils, mutt]\n\norigtargz(1)\nfetch the orig tarball of a Debian package from various sources, and unpack it. [pris‐\ntine-tar, pristine-lfs]\n\nplotchangelog(1)\ndisplay information from a changelog  graphically  using  gnuplot.  [libtimedate-perl,\ngnuplot]\n\npts-subscribe(1)\nsubscribe  to  the  PTS  (Package Tracking System) for a limited period of time. [bsd-\nmailx | mailx, at]\n\nrc-alert(1)\nlist installed packages which have release-critical bugs. [wget | curl]\n\nreproducible-check(1)\nreports on the reproducible status of installed packages. For more details please  see\n<https://reproducible-builds.org>.\n\nrmadison(1)\nremotely query the Debian archive database about packages. [liburi-perl, wget | curl]\n\nsadt(1)\nrun DEP-8 tests. [python3-debian, autodep8]\n\nsalsa(1)\nmanipulates salsa.debian.org repositories and users [libgitlab-api-v4-perl]\n\nsuspicious-source(1)\noutput a list of files which are not common source files. [python3-magic]\n\nsvnpath(1)\nPrints  the  path to the Subversion repository of a Subversion checkout. Also supports\ncalculating the paths for branches and tags in a repository independent fashion.  Used\nby debcommit to generate svn tags. [subversion]\n\ntagpending(1)\nruns  from  a  Debian  source  tree  and tags bugs that are to be closed in the latest\nchangelog as pending. [libsoap-lite-perl]\n\ntransition-check(1)\nCheck a list of source packages for involvement in transitions for  which  uploads  to\nunstable are currently blocked. [libwww-perl, libyaml-syck-perl]\n\nuscan(1)\nAutomatically  scan  for and download upstream updates.  Uscan can also call a program\nsuch as uupdate to attempt to update the Debianised version based on the  new  update.\nWhilst  uscan could be used to release the updated version automatically, it is proba‐\nbly better not to without testing it first.  Uscan can also  verify  detached  OpenPGP\nsignatures  if  upstream's  signing key is known. [file, gpgv | gpgv2, gnupg | gnupg2,\nlibfile-dirlist-perl, libfile-touch-perl,  libfile-which-perl,  liblwp-protocol-https-\nperl, libmoo-perl, libwww-perl, unzip, xz-utils]*\n\nuupdate(1)\nUpdate  the  package with an archive or patches from an upstream author.  This will be\nof help if you have to update your package.  It will try to apply the latest diffs  to\nyour package and tell you how successful it was. [patch]\n\nwhat-patch(1)\ndetermine what patch system, if any, a source package is using. [patchutils]\n\nwhodepends(1)\ncheck which maintainers' packages depend on a package.\n\nwho-permits-upload(1)\nRetrieve  information  about  Debian Maintainer access control lists. [gnupg | gnupg2,\nlibencode-locale-perl, libwww-perl, debian-keyring]\n\nwho-uploads(1)\ndetermine the most recent uploaders of a package  to  the  Debian  archive.  [gnupg  |\ngnupg2, debian-keyring, debian-maintainers, wget]\n\nwnpp-alert(1)\nlist installed packages which are orphaned or up for adoption. [wget | curl]\n\nwnpp-check(1)\ncheck whether there is an open request for packaging or intention to package bug for a\npackage. [wget | curl]\n\nwrap-and-sort(1)\nwrap long lines and sort items in packaging files. [python3-debian]\n\nDEBIAN                                    Debian Utilities                             DEVSCRIPTS(1)",
            "subsections": []
        }
    },
    "summary": "devscripts - scripts to ease the lives of Debian developers",
    "flags": [],
    "examples": [],
    "see_also": []
}