NAME

       debsnap - retrieve old snapshots of Debian packages

SYNOPSIS

       debsnap [options] package [version]

       debsnap [-h | --help] [--version]

DESCRIPTION

       debsnap  is  a tool to help with retrieving snapshots of old packages from a daily archive
       repository.

       The   only   publicly   available   snapshot   archive    is    currently    located    at
       http://snapshot.debian.org

       By default, debsnap will download all the available versions for package that are found in
       the snapshot archive.  If a version is specified, only that  particular  version  will  be
       downloaded, if available.

OPTIONS

       The following options are available:

       -d destination, --destdir destination
              Directory to place retrieved packages.

       -f, --force
              Force  writing  into  an  existing destination.  By default debsnap will insist the
              destination directory does not exist yet unless it is explicitly  specified  to  be
              '.'  (the  current  working  directory).  This is to avoid files being accidentally
              overwritten by what is fetched from the archive and  to  provide  a  guarantee  for
              other scripts that only the files fetched will be present there upon completion.

       -v, --verbose
              Report  on  the  debsnap  configuration being used and progress during the download
              operation.  Please always use this option when reporting bugs.

       --binary
              Download binary packages instead of source packages.

       -a, --architecture
              Specify architecture of downloaded binary packages. Implies --binary.  This can  be
              given   multiple   times   in  order  to  download  binary  packages  for  multiple
              architectures.

       -h, --help
              Show a summary of these options.

       --version
              Show the version of debsnap.

CONFIGURATION OPTIONS

       debsnap may also be configured through the use of the following options in the  devscripts
       configuration files:

       DEBSNAP_VERBOSE
              Same as the command line option --verbose.  Set to yes to enable.

       DEBSNAP_DESTDIR
              Set a default path for the destination directory.  If unset ./source-<package_name>
              will be used.  The command line option --destdir will override this.

       DEBSNAP_BASE_URL
              The base url for the snapshots archive.

              If unset this defaults to http://snapshot.debian.org

EXIT STATUS

       debsnap will return an exit status of 0 if all operations succeeded, 1 if  a  fatal  error
       occurred,  and  2  if  some  packages  failed  to  be  downloaded but operations otherwise
       succeeded as expected.  In some cases packages may fail to be downloaded because they  are
       no  longer available on the snapshot mirror, so any caller should expect this may occur in
       normal use.

EXAMPLES

       debsnap -a amd64 xterm 256-1
              Download the binary package of a specific xterm version for amd64 architecture.

       debsnap -a armel xterm
              Download binary packages for all versions of xterm for armel architecture.

       debsnap --binary xterm 256-1
              Download binary packages for a specific xterm version but for all architectures.

       debsnap --binary xterm
              Download binary packages for all versions of xterm for all architectures.

       aptitude search '~i' -F '%p %V' | while read pkg ver; do  debsnap  -a  $(dpkg-architecture
       -qDEB_HOST_ARCH) -a all $pkg $ver; done
              Download binary packages of all packages that are installed on the system.

FILES

       /etc/devscripts.conf
              Global devscripts configuration options.  Will override hardcoded defaults.

       ~/.devscripts
              Per-user configuration options.  Will override any global configuration.

SEE ALSO

       devscripts(1), devscripts.conf(5), git-debimport(1)

AUTHORS

       David Paleino <dapal@debian.org>

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright © 2010 David Paleino

       Permission  is  granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of
       the GNU General Public License, Version 3 or (at your option) any later version  published
       by the Free Software Foundation.

       On  Debian  systems,  the  complete text of the GNU General Public License can be found in
       /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL.

BUGS

   Reporting bugs
       The program is part of the  devscripts  package.   Please  report  bugs  using  `reportbug
       devscripts`