Ubuntu Manpage: debsign - sign a Debian .changes and .dsc file pair using GPG

NAME

       debsign - sign a Debian .changes and .dsc file pair using GPG

SYNOPSIS

       debsign [options] [changes-file|dsc-file|commands-file ...]

DESCRIPTION

debsign mimics the signing aspects (and bugs) of dpkg-buildpackage(1). It takes a .dsc,
.buildinfo, or .changes file and signs it, and any child .dsc, .buildinfo, or .changes
files directly or indirectly referenced by it, using the GNU Privacy Guard. It is careful
to calculate the size and checksums of any newly signed child files and replace the
original values in the parent file.

If no file is specified, debian/changelog is parsed to determine the name of the .changes
file to look for in the parent directory.

If a .commands file is specified it is first validated (see the details at
ftp://ftp.upload.debian.org/pub/UploadQueue/README), and the name specified in the
Uploader field is used for signing.

This utility is useful if a developer must build a package on one machine where it is
unsafe to sign it; they need then only transfer the small .dsc, .buildinfo and .changes
files to a safe machine and then use the debsign program to sign them before transferring
them back. This process can be automated in two ways. If the files to be signed live on
the remote machine, the -r option may be used to copy them to the local machine and back
again after signing. If the files live on the local machine, then they may be transferred
to the remote machine for signing using debrsign(1). However note that it is probably
safer to have your trusted signing machine use debsign to connect to the untrusted non-
signing machine, rather than using debrsign to make the connection in the reverse
direction.

This program can take default settings from the devscripts configuration files, as
described below.

OPTIONS

-r [username@]remotehost
The files to be signed live on the specified remote host. In this case, a .dsc,
.buildinfo or .changes file must be explicitly named, with an absolute directory or
one relative to the remote home directory. scp will be used for the copying. The
[username@]remotehost:filename syntax is permitted as an alternative. Wildcards (*
etc.) are allowed.

-pprogname
When debsign needs to execute GPG to sign it will run progname (searching the PATH
if necessary), instead of gpg.

-mmaintainer
Specify the maintainer name to be used for signing. (See dpkg-buildpackage(1) for
more information about the differences between -m, -e and -k when building
packages; debsign makes no use of these distinctions except with respect to the
precedence of the various options. These multiple options are provided so that the
program will behave as expected when called by debuild(1).)

-emaintainer
Same as -m but takes precedence over it.

-kkeyid
Specify the key ID to be used for signing; overrides any -m and -e options.

-S Look for a source-only .changes file instead of a binary-build .changes file.

-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.

--multi
Multiarch .changes mode: This signifies that debsign should use the most recent
file with the name pattern package_version_*+*.changes as the .changes file,
allowing for the .changes files produced by dpkg-cross.

--re-sign, --no-re-sign
Recreate signature, respectively use the existing signature, if the file has been
signed already. If neither option is given and an already signed file is found the
user is asked if he or she likes to use the current signature.

--debs-dir DIR
Look for the files to be signed in directory DIR instead of the parent of the
source directory. This should either be an absolute path or relative to the top of
the source directory.

--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:

       DEBSIGN_PROGRAM
              Setting this is equivalent to giving a -p option.

       DEBSIGN_MAINT
              This is the -m option.

       DEBSIGN_KEYID
              And this is the -k option.

       DEBSIGN_ALWAYS_RESIGN
              Always re-sign files even if they are already signed, without prompting.

       DEBRELEASE_DEBS_DIR
              This  specifies  the  directory in which to look for the files to be signed, 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.

AUTHOR