NAME

       how-can-i-help - show opportunities for contributing to Debian

SYNOPSIS

       how-can-i-help [-haoqs] [--help] [--all] [--old] [--quiet] [--show <type>...]

DESCRIPTION

       how-can-i-help hooks into APT to list opportunities for contributions to Debian (orphaned
       packages, bugs tagged newcomer) for packages installed locally, after each APT invocation.
       It can also be invoked directly, and then lists all opportunities for contribution (not
       just the new ones).

OPTIONS

       Options must come before the other command line arguments.

       -h, --help
           Show some help.

       -a, --all
           Show new opportunities for contribution to all available Debian packages.

       -o, --old
           Show opportunities that were already shown before (will also show the new ones).

       -q, --quiet
           Do not display header and footer.

       -j, --json
           Display output in JSON format.

       -p, --apt
           Always exit with code 0. By default run by apt hook to prevent apt failures.

       -s <type>..., --show <type>...
           Show only specific types of opportunities. Provided types have to be separated by
           commas.

PROXY SUPPORT

       how-can-i-help uses the HTTP_PROXY (or http_proxy) environment variable as HTTP proxy
       configuration.

RUNNING ON REGULAR BASIS

       You can run how-can-i-help in a cron job as a normal user so that you receive a mail when
       new things are reported. To receive only mails when new contributions are reported, use
       the -q flag.

       Crontab example:

           0 8 * * * how-can-i-help -q

DISPLAY OUTPUT IN JSON FORMAT

       how-can-i-help can be configured to provide machine readable JSON output. When running in
       this mode, only error messages and JSON output will be produced. If there are no packages
       that would be shown, no output will be produced. Elements in the JSON output are not
       sorted. All the other options can be used alongside the --json option.

       Simple example:

           how-can-i-help --json --show testing-autorm

EXIT CODES

       When run by apt hook, how-can-i-help will always exit with code 0, even if an error
       occurred. When how-can-i-help is called without --apt option, import and command line
       parsing errors will still exit with code 0, but all the other errors will return
       appropriate exit codes. Regardless of the --apt option, all error messages will be
       displayed normally.

SHOW ONLY SPECIFIC TYPES OF OPPORTUNITIES

       how-can-i-help can be configured to show only specific types of opportunities. You only
       need to run it with --show option followed by a single space and then a list of types.
       Types have to be separated only by commas.

       Simple example:

           how-can-i-help --show newcomer,RFH

       Example showing newcomer opportunities (also the ones that were already shown before):

           how-can-i-help --old --show newcomer

       The following types can be used: wnpp, newcomer, help, no-testing, testing-autorm, rfs

       Specific WNPP types: O, RFA, RFH, ITA

       And special types: pseudo-package

IGNORE SELECTED TYPES OF OPPORTUNITIES

       how-can-i-help can also ignore selected types of opportunities. These are listed in
       ~/.config/how-can-i-help/ignored separated by whitespaces or newlines.

       Allowed types: wnpp, newcomer, help, no-testing, testing-autorm, rfs

       Allowed WNPP types: O, RFA, RFH, ITA

       Allowed special types: pseudo-package

       Running with --show option will override "ignored types" configuration.

TYPES OF OPPORTUNITIES

       The following acronyms are used to describe the supported types:

       wnpp Work-Needing and Prospective Packages.

       newcomer Bugs tagged with the newcomer tag. Those bugs were formerly tagged with the now
       deprecated gift tag.

       help Bugs tagged with the help tag.

       no-testing Packages removed from Debian testing.

       testing-autorm Packages going to be removed from Debian testing.

       rfs Request For Sponsorship.

       O Orphaned.

       RFA Request For Adoption.

       RFH Request For Help.

       ITA Intent To Adopt.

       pseudo-package Newcomer bugs affecting Debian infrastructure (general Debian services).
       Those pseudo-packages cannot be installed.

ADDITIONAL PACKAGES

       how-can-i-help can also monitor packages not installed locally. These are listed in
       ~/.config/how-can-i-help/packages separated by whitespaces or newlines.

       For example one can monitor all package from a server as follow:

           # ssh myserver dpkg -l | tail -n+6 | awk '{ print $2 }' \
               >> ~/.config/how-can-i-help/packages

SEE ALSO

       https://wiki.debian.org/how-can-i-help

       https://wiki.debian.org/qa.debian.org/GiftTag

       https://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp

AUTHORS

       Tomasz Nitecki (tnnn@tnnn.pl)

       Lucas Nussbaum (lucas@debian.org)

DATE

       2016-03-03

                                            01/24/2017                          HOW-CAN-I-HELP(1)