uupdate - Man Page

uupdate [options] new_upstream_archive [version]
uupdate [options] --find|-f
uupdate [options] --patch|-p patch_file

uupdate modifies an existing Debian source code archive to reflect an upstream update supplied as a patch or from a wholly new source code archive.  The utility needs to be invoked from the top directory of the old source code directory, and if a relative name is given for the new archive or patch file, it will be looked for first relative to the execution directory and then relative to the parent of the source tree.  (For example, if the changelog file is /usr/local/src/foo/foo-1.1/debian/changelog, then the archive or patch file will be looked for relative to /usr/local/src/foo.) Note that the patch file or archive cannot be within the source tree itself.  The full details of what the code does are given below.

Currently supported source code file types are .tar.gz, .tar.bz2, .tar.Z, .tgz, .tar, .tar.lzma, .tar.xz, .7z and .zip archives.  Also supported are already unpacked source code archives; simply give the path of the source code directory.  Supported patch file types are gzip-compressed, bzip2-compressed, lzma-compressed, xz-compressed and uncompressed patch files.  The file types are identified by the file names, so they must use the standard suffixes.

Usually uupdate will be able to deduce the version number from the source archive name (as long as it only contains digits and periods).  If that fails, you need to specify the version number explicitly (without the Debian release number which will always be initially “1”, or “0ubuntu1” on Ubuntu-detected systems).  This can be done with an initial --upstream-version or -v option, or in the case of an archive, with a version number after the filename. (The reason for the latter is so that uupdate can be called directly from uscan.)

Since uupdate uses debuild to clean the current archive before trying to apply a patch file, it accepts a --rootcmd or -r option allowing the user to specify a gain-root command to be used.  The default is to use fakeroot.

If an archive is being built, the pristine upstream source should be used to create the .orig.tar.gz file wherever possible.  This means that MD5 sums or other similar methods can be used to easily compare the upstream source to Debian's copy of the upstream version. This is the default behaviour, and can be switched off using the --no-pristine option below.

This is a summary of what was explained above.

--no-conf,  --noconf

Do not read any configuration files.  This can only be used as the first option given on the command-line.

--upstream-version version, -v version

Specify the version number of the upstream package explicitly.

--force-bad-version,  -b

Force a version number to be less than the current one (e.g., when backporting).

--rootcmd gain-root-command, -r gain-root-command

Specify the command to be used to become root to build the package and is passed onto debuild(1) if it is specified.

--pristine,  -u

Treat the source as pristine upstream source and symlink to it from <package>_<version>.orig.tar.gz whenever possible.  This option has no meaning for patches.  This is the default behaviour.

--no-pristine

Do not attempt to make a <package>_<version>.orig.tar.gz symlink.

--symlink,  -s

Simply create a symlink when moving a new upstream .tar.gz archive to the new <package>_<version>.orig.tar.gz location. This is the default behaviour.

--no-symlink

Copy the upstream .tar.gz to the new location instead of making a symlink, if <package>_<version>.orig.tar.gz is missing.   Otherwise, do nothing.

--find,  -f

Find all upstream tarballs in ../ which match <pkg>_<version>.orig.tar.{gz|bz2|lzma|xz} or <pkg>_<version>.orig-<component>.tar.{gz|bz2|lzma|xz} ; --upstream-version required; pristine source required; not valid for --patch; This option uses dpkg-source as the backend to enable support for the multiple upstream tarballs and to resolve minor bugs reported previously.  The use of this option is highly recommended.

--verbose

Give verbose output.

--help,  -h

Display a help message and exit successfully.

--version

Display version and copyright information and exit successfully.

The two configuration files /etc/devscripts.conf and ~/.devscripts are sourced 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:

UUPDATE_PRISTINE

If this is set to no, then it is the same as the --no-pristine command line parameter being used.

UUPDATE_SYMLINK_ORIG

If this is set to no, then it is the same as the --no-symlink command line parameter being used.

UUPDATE_ROOTCMD

This is equivalent to the --rootcmd option.

Figure out new version number

Unless an explicit version number is provided, the archive name is analyzed for a sequence of digits separated by dots.  If something like that is found, it is taken to be the new upstream version number.  If not, processing is aborted.

Create the .orig.tar.gz archive

If the --pristine or -u option is specified and the upstream archive is a .tar.gz or .tgz archive, then this will be copied directly to <package>_<version>.orig.tar.gz.

Unpacking

The archive is unpacked and placed in a directory with the correct name according to Debian policy: package-upstream_version.orig. Processing is aborted if this directory already exists.

Patching

The .diffs.gz from the current version are applied to the unpackaged archive.  A non-zero exit status and warning message will occur if the patches did not apply cleanly or if no patch file was found.  Also, the list of rejected patches will be shown.  The file debian/rules is made executable and all of the .orig files created by patch are deleted.

Changelog update

A changelog entry with the new version number is generated with the text “New upstream release.”.

When used on Ubuntu systems, dpkg-vendor detection is used to set the Debian revision to “0ubuntu1”.  You may change debian/changelog manually afterwards.

Figure out new version number

Unless an explicit version number is provided, the patch file name is analyzed for a sequence of digits separated by dots.  If something like that is found, it is taken to be the new upstream version number.  If not, processing is aborted.

Clean the current source tree

The command debuild clean is executed within the current Debian source archive to clean it.  If a -r option is given to uupdate, it is passed on to debuild.

Patching

The current source archive (.orig.tar.gz) is unpacked and the patch applied to the original sources.  If this is successful, then the .orig directory is renamed to reflect the new version number and the current Debian source directory is copied to a directory with the new version number, otherwise processing is aborted.  The patch is then applied to the new copy of the Debian source directory.  The file debian/rules is made executable and all of the .orig files created by patch are deleted.  If there was a problem with the patching, a warning is issued and the program will eventually exit with non-zero exit status.

Changelog update

A changelog entry with the new version number is generated with the text “New upstream release.”.

When used on Ubuntu systems, dpkg-vendor detection is used to set the Debian revision to “0ubuntu1”.  You may change debian/changelog manually afterwards.

debuild(1), fakeroot(1), patch(1), devscripts.conf(5)

The Debian Policy Manual

The original version of uupdate was written by Christoph Lameter <clameter@debian.org>.  Several changes and improvements have been made by Julian Gilbey <jdg@debian.org>.

devscripts(1), mk-origtargz(1), origtargz(1), uscan(1).