NAME

       debcommit - commit changes to a package

SYNOPSIS

       debcommit [options] [--all | files to commit]

DESCRIPTION

       debcommit generates a commit message based on new text in debian/changelog, and commits
       the change to a package's repository. It must be run in a working copy for the package.
       Supported version control systems are: cvs, git, hg (mercurial), svk, svn (Subversion),
       baz, bzr, tla (arch), darcs.

OPTIONS

       -c, --changelog path
           Specify an alternate location for the changelog. By default debian/changelog is used.

       -r, --release
           Commit a release of the package. The version number is determined from
           debian/changelog, and is used to tag the package in the repository.

           Note that svn/svk tagging conventions vary, so debcommit uses svnpath(1) to determine
           where the tag should be placed in the repository.

       -R, --release-use-changelog
           When used in conjunction with --release, if there are uncommited changes to the
           changelog then derive the commit message from those changes rather than using the
           default message.

       -m text, --message text
           Specify a commit message to use. Useful if the program cannot determine a commit
           message on its own based on debian/changelog, or if you want to override the default
           message.

       -n, --noact
           Do not actually do anything, but do print the commands that would be run.

       -d, --diff
           Instead of committing, do print the diff of what would have been committed if this
           option were not given. A typical usage scenario of this option is the generation of
           patches against the current working copy (e.g. when you don't have commit access
           right).

       -C, --confirm
           Display the generated commit message and ask for confirmation before committing it. It
           is also possible to edit the message at this stage; in this case, the confirmation
           prompt will be re-displayed after the editing has been performed.

       -e, --edit
           Edit the generated commit message in your favorite editor before committing it.

       -a, --all
           Commit all files. This is the default operation when using a VCS other than git.

       -s, --strip-message, --no-strip-message
           If this option is set and the commit message has been derived from the changelog, the
           characters "* " will be stripped from the beginning of the message.

           This option is set by default and ignored if more than one line of the message begins
           with "[*+-] ".

       --sign-tags, --no-sign-tags
           If this option is set, then tags that debcommit creates will be signed using gnupg.
           Currently this is only supported by git.

       --changelog-info
           If this option is set, the commit author and date will be determined from the
           Maintainer and Date field of the first paragraph in debian/changelog.  This is mainly
           useful when using debchange(1) with the --no-mainttrailer option.

CONFIGURATION VARIABLES

       The two configuration files /etc/devscripts.conf and ~/.devscripts are sourced by a shell
       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:

       DEBCOMMIT_STRIP_MESSAGE
           If this is set to no, then it is the same as the --no-strip-message command line
           parameter being used. The default is yes.

       DEBCOMMIT_SIGN_TAGS
           If this is set to yes, then it is the same as the --sign-tags command line parameter
           being used. The default is no.

       DEBCOMMIT_RELEASE_USE_CHANGELOG
           If this is set to yes, then it is the same as the --release-use-changelog command line
           parameter being used. The default is no.

       DEBSIGN_KEYID
           This is the key id used for signing tags. If not set, a default will be chosen by the
           revision control system.

VCS SPECIFIC FEATURES

       tla / baz
           If the commit message contains more than 72 characters, a summary will be created
           containing as many full words from the message as will fit within 72 characters,
           followed by an ellipsis.

       Each of the features described below is applicable only if the commit message has been
       automatically determined from the changelog.

       git If only a single change is detected in the changelog, debcommit will unfold it to a
           single line and behave as if --strip-message was used.

           Otherwise, the first change will be unfolded and stripped to form a summary line and a
           commit message formed using the summary line followed by a blank line and the changes
           as extracted from the changelog. debcommit will then spawn an editor so that the
           message may be fine-tuned before committing.

       hg / darcs
           The first change detected in the changelog will be unfolded to form a single line
           summary. If multiple changes were detected then an editor will be spawned to allow the
           message to be fine-tuned.

       bzr If the changelog entry used for the commit message closes any bugs then --fixes
           options to "bzr commit" will be generated to associate the revision and the bugs.

LICENSE

       This code is copyright by Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>, all rights reserved.  This program
       comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.  You are free to redistribute this code under the terms
       of the GNU General Public License, version 2 or later.

AUTHOR

       Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>

SEE ALSO

       debchange(1), svnpath(1)