NAME

       dctrl2xml - Debian control data to XML converter

SYNOPSIS

       dctrl2xml [-x | -j] [-f FILE]

DESCRIPTION

       dctrl2xml  is  a tool that converts Debian control data into an XML representation. It can
       be used to convert data  which  is  normally  found  in  debian/control,  .changes,  .dsc,
       Packages, Sources, and similar files to XML.

       For  most  fields dctrl2xml just uses the field name as element name and the field data as
       element content. For other fields, such  as  package  interrelationship  fields  (Depends,
       Build-Depends,  etc.)  or  the  Files  field  in  .changes  or  Sources  files,  dctrl2xml
       additionally parses their field data to represent it in a more fine-structured form.

OPTIONS

       For a full summary of options, run dctrl2xml --help.

       --version
              Show dctrl2xml's version number.

       -h, --help
              Show help about options.

       -f FILE, --file=FILE
              Read Debian control data from file FILE instead of standard  input.   FILE  can  be
              either a plain text file or a gzip, bzip2 or ZIP file.

       -x, --xml
              Output Debian control data as XML (default).

       -j, --json
              Output Debian control data as JSON.

EXAMPLES

       dctrl2xml -f /var/lib/dpkg/available
              Convert  the  whole  dpkg(1) available file to XML and print it to standard output.
              This is a typical stress test for dctrl2xml.

       apt-cache show hello build-essential | dctrl2xml
              Convert the package records of the hello and build-essential packages  to  XML  and
              print  it  to  standard  output. This is an example of how dctrl2xml can be used in
              pipes where it reads the control data from standard input.

       apt-cache showsrc hello | dctrl2xml | xmllint --format -
              This is similar to the above example, except that the xmllint(1) tool (which is  in
              the  libxml2-utils  Debian  package)  is  used to reformat and reindent dctrl2xml's
              output to make it more human readable and that the source package  records  of  the
              hello package are used.

       apt-cache showsrc hello | dctrl2xml -j
              In this example hello's source package record is printed as JSON instead of XML.

SEE ALSO

       deb-control(5)

AUTHOR

       Written by Frank S. Thomas <fst@debian.org>.

                                          20 August 2010                             dctrl2xml(1)