Ubuntu Manpage: uupdate - upgrade a source code package from an upstream revision

NAME

       uupdate - upgrade a source code package from an upstream revision

SYNOPSIS

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

DESCRIPTION

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.

OPTIONS

       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.

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.”.

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

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.