NAME

       plotchangelog - graph Debian changelogs

SYNOPSIS

       plotchangelog [options] changelog ...

DESCRIPTION

       plotchangelog  is  a  tool  to  aid  in visualizing a Debian changelog. The changelogs are
       graphed with gnuplot(1) , with the X axis of the graph denoting time of release and the  Y
       axis  denoting  the  Debian  version number of the package. Each individual release of the
       package is represented by a point, and the points are color coded to indicate who released
       that  version  of  the  package.  The  upstream  version number of the package can also be
       labeled on the graph.

       Alternatively, the Y axis can be configured to display the size of the changelog entry for
       each  new  version.  Or  it  can be configured to display approximately how many bugs were
       fixed for each new version.

       Note that if the package is a Debian-specific package, the entire package version will  be
       used for the Y axis. This does not always work perfectly.

READING THE GRAPH

       The  general  outline  of a package's graph is typically a series of peaks, starting at 1,
       going up to n, and then returning abruptly to 1. The higher the peaks, the  more  releases
       the  maintainer made between new upstream versions of the package. If a package is Debian-
       only, it's graph will just grow upwards without ever  falling  (although  a  bug  in  this
       program  may  cause it to fall sometimes, if the version number goes from say, 0.9 to say,
       0.10 - this is interpreted wrong...)

       If the graph dips below 1, someone made a NMU of the package and  upgraded  it  to  a  new
       upstream  version,  thus  setting  the  Debian  version  to  0. NMU's in general appear as
       fractional points like 1.1, 2.1, etc. A NMU can also be easily detected by looking at  the
       points  that  represent  which  maintainer  uploaded  the package -- a solitary point of a
       different type than the points before and after it is typically a NMU.

       It's also easy to tell by looking at the points when a package changes maintainers.

OPTIONS

       -l, --linecount
              Instead of using the Debian version number as the Y axis, use the number  of  lines
              in the changelog entry for each version.  Cannot be used together with --bugcount.

       -b, --bugcount
              Instead  of  using  the Debian version number as the Y axis, use the number of bugs
              that were closed by each changelog entry. Note that  this  number  is  obtained  by
              searching  for  "#dddd"  in  the changelog, and so it may be inaccurate.  Cannot be
              used together with --linecount.

       -c, --cumulative
              When used together with either --bugcount or  --linecount,  graphs  the  cumulative
              count rather than the count in each individual changelog entry.

       -v, --no-version
              Do not show upstream version labels. Useful if the graph gets too crowded.

       -m, --no-maint
              Do not differentiate between different maintainers of the package.

       -s file, --save=file
              Save the graph to file in PostScript format instead of immediately displaying it.

       -u, --urgency
              Use larger points when displaying higher-urgency package uploads.

       --verbose
              Output the gnuplot script that is fed into gnuplot (for debugging purposes).

       -gcommands, --gnuplot=commands
              This  allows you to insert gnuplot(1) commands into the gnuplot script that is used
              to generate the graph. The commands are placed after all initialization but  before
              the  final  plot command. This can be used to override the default look provided by
              this program in arbitrary ways. You can also use  things  like  "set  terminal  png
              color"  to  change the output file type, which is useful in conjunction with the -s
              option.

       --help Show a usage summary.

       --version
              Display version, author and copyright information.

       --noconf, --no-conf
              Do not read any configuration files (see below).

       changelog ...
              The changelog files to graph. If multiple files are  specified  they  will  all  be
              displayed  on  the  same  graph. The files may be compressed with gzip. Any text in
              them that is not in Debian changelog format will be ignored.

CONFIGURATION VARIABLES

       The two configuration files /etc/devscripts.conf and ~/.devscripts are sourced by a  shell
       in that order to set configuration variables.  The --no-conf option can be used to prevent
       reading these files.  Environment variable settings are ignored when  these  configuration
       files are read.  The currently recognised variables are:

       PLOTCHANGELOG_OPTIONS
              This is a space-separated list of options to always use, for example -l -b.  Do not
              include -g or --gnuplot among this list as it may be ignored; see the next variable
              instead.

       PLOTCHANGELOG_GNUPLOT
              These  are  gnuplot  commands which will be prepended to any such commands given on
              the command line.

SEE ALSO

       devscripts.conf(5)

AUTHOR

       Joey Hess <joey@kitenet.net>