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>.

DEBIAN                                          Debian Utilities                                         DEBC(1)