NAME

       debc - view contents of a generated Debian package

SYNOPSIS

       debc [options] [changes file] [package ...]

DESCRIPTION

       debc  figures out the current version of a package and displays information about the .deb
       and .udeb files which have been generated in the current build  process.   If  a  .changes
       file is specified on the command line, the filename must end with .changes, as this is how
       the program distinguishes it from package names.  If not, then debc has to be called  from
       within  the  source code directory tree.  In this case, it will look for the .changes file
       corresponding to the current package version (by determining the name and  version  number
       from  the  changelog,  and the architecture in the same way as dpkg-buildpackage(1) does).
       It then runs dpkg-deb -I and dpkg-deb -c on every .deb and .udeb  archive  listed  in  the
       .changes  file  to  display  information about the contents of the .deb / .udeb files.  It
       precedes every .deb or .udeb file with the name of the file.  It assumes that all  of  the
       .deb  / .udeb archives live  in the same directory as the .changes file.  It is useful for
       ensuring that the expected files have ended up in the Debian package.

       If a list of packages is given on the command line, then only those  debs  or  udebs  with
       names in this list of packages will be processed.

Directory name checking

       In  common  with  several  other  scripts  in  the devscripts package, debc will climb the
       directory tree until it finds a debian/changelog file.  As a safeguard against stray files
       causing potential problems, it will examine the name of the parent directory once it finds
       the debian/changelog file, and check that the directory name corresponds  to  the  package
       name.   Precisely  how  it  does  this  is  controlled by two configuration file variables
       DEVSCRIPTS_CHECK_DIRNAME_LEVEL and DEVSCRIPTS_CHECK_DIRNAME_REGEX, and their corresponding
       command-line options --check-dirname-level and --check-dirname-regex.

       DEVSCRIPTS_CHECK_DIRNAME_LEVEL can take the following values:

       0      Never check the directory name.

       1      Only  check the directory name if we have had to change directory in our search for
              debian/changelog.  This is the default behaviour.

       2      Always check the directory name.

       The directory name is checked by testing whether the current directory name (as determined
       by    pwd(1))    matches    the   regex   given   by   the   configuration   file   option
       DEVSCRIPTS_CHECK_DIRNAME_REGEX or by the command line option --check-dirname-regex  regex.
       Here  regex  is  a Perl regex (see perlre(3perl)), which will be anchored at the beginning
       and the end.  If regex contains a '/', then it must match the  full  directory  path.   If
       not,  then it must match the full directory name.  If regex contains the string ´PACKAGE',
       this will be replaced by the source package name, as determined from the  changelog.   The
       default  value  for  the  regex is: ´PACKAGE(-.+)?', thus matching directory names such as
       PACKAGE and PACKAGE-version.

OPTIONS

       -adebian-architecture, -tGNU-system-type
              See dpkg-architecture(1) for a description  of  these  options.   They  affect  the
              search  for  the  .changes file.  They are provided to mimic the behaviour of dpkg-
              buildpackage when determining the name of the .changes file.

       --debs-dir directory
              Look for the .changes, .deb and .udeb files in directory instead of the  parent  of
              the  source  directory.   This should either be an absolute path or relative to the
              top of the source directory.

       --check-dirname-level N
              See the above section Directory name checking for an explanation of this option.

       --check-dirname-regex regex
              See the above section Directory name checking for an explanation of this option.

       --list-changes
              List the filename of the .changes file, and do  not  display  anything  else.  This
              option  only makes sense if a .changes file is NOT passed explicitly in the command
              line. This can be used for example in a script that needs to reference the .changes
              file,  without  having to duplicate the heuristics for finding it that debc already
              implements.

       --list-debs
              List the filenames of the .deb packages, and do not display their contents.

       --no-conf, --noconf
              Do not read any configuration files.  This can only be used  as  the  first  option
              given on the command-line.

       --help, --version
              Show help message and version information respectively.

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:

       DEBRELEASE_DEBS_DIR
              This specifies the directory in which to look for  the  .changes,  .deb  and  .udeb
              files,  and  is  either an absolute path or relative to the top of the source tree.
              This corresponds to the --debs-dir command line option.  This  directive  could  be
              used,  for  example,  if  you always use pbuilder or svn-buildpackage to build your
              packages.  Note that it also affects debrelease(1)  in  the  same  way,  hence  the
              strange name of the option.

       DEVSCRIPTS_CHECK_DIRNAME_LEVEL, DEVSCRIPTS_CHECK_DIRNAME_REGEX
              See  the  above  section  Directory  name  checking  for  an  explanation  of these
              variables.  Note that these are  package-wide  configuration  variables,  and  will
              therefore  affect  all  devscripts scripts which check their value, as described in
              their respective manpages and in devscripts.conf(5).

SEE ALSO

       debdiff(1), dpkg-deb(1), devscripts.conf(5)

AUTHOR

       Julian  Gilbey  <jdg@debian.org>,  based  on  an  original  script  by  Christoph  Lameter
       <clameter@debian.org>.