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 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 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!). 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.
OPTIONS
This is a summary of what was explained above.
--upstream-version version, -v version
Specify the version number of the upstream package explicitly.
--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.
--no-conf, --noconf
Do not read any configuration files. This can only be used as the
first option given on the command-line.
--help, -h
Display a help message and exit successfully.
--version
Display version and copyright information and exit successfully.
CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
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.
ACTIONS TAKEN ON AN ARCHIVE
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".
ACTIONS TAKEN ON A PATCH FILE
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".
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>.