dpkg-scansources - Man Page

dpkg-scansources [option...] binary-dir [override-file [path-prefix]] > Sources

dpkg-scansources scans the given binary-dir for .dsc files. These are used to create a Debian source index, which is output to stdout.

The override-file, if given, is used to set priorities in the resulting index stanzas and to override the maintainer field given in the .dsc files. The file can be compressed (since dpkg 1.15.5). See deb-override(5) for the format of this file.

Note: Since the override file is indexed by binary, not source packages, there's a bit of a problem here. The current implementation uses the highest priority of all the binary packages produced by a .dsc file for the priority of the source package, and the override entry for the first binary package listed in the .dsc file to modify maintainer information. This might change.

The path-prefix, if given, is prepended to the directory field in the generated source index. You generally use this to make the directory fields contain the path from the top of the Debian archive hierarchy.

Note: If you want to access the generated Sources file with apt(8) you will probably need to compress the file with gzip(1) (generating a Sources.gz file). apt(8) ignores uncompressed Sources files except on local access (i.e. file:// sources).

-n,  --no-sort

Do not sort the index stanzas. Normally they are sorted by source package name.

-e,  --extra-override file

Scan file to find supplementary overrides (since dpkg 1.15.4; the file can be compressed since dpkg 1.15.5). See deb-extra-override(5) for more information on its format.

-s,  --source-override file

Use file as the source override file (the file can be compressed since dpkg 1.15.5). The default is the name of the override file you specified with .src appended.

The source override file is in a different format from the binary override file. It contains only two whitespace separated fields, the first is the source package name and the second is the section. Blank lines and comment lines are ignored in the normal manner. If a package appears in both files the source override takes precedence for setting the section.

--debug

Turn debugging on.

--help

Show the usage message and exit.

--version

Show the version and exit.

DPKG_COLORS

Sets the color mode (since dpkg 1.18.5). The currently accepted values are: auto (default), always and never.

DPKG_NLS

If set, it will be used to decide whether to activate Native Language Support, also known as internationalization (or i18n) support (since dpkg 1.19.0). The accepted values are: 0 and 1 (default).

deb-override(5), deb-extra-override(5), dpkg-scanpackages(1).

apt-ftparchive(1), deb-extra-override(5), deb-override(5), dpkg-scanpackages(1).