Ubuntu Manpage: uupdate - upgrade a source code package from an upstream revision

Provided by: devscripts_2.14.1ubuntu0.1_amd64

NAME

       uupdate - upgrade a source code package from an upstream revision

SYNOPSIS

       uupdate [options] new_upstream_archive [version]
       uupdate [options] --patch|-p patch_file

DESCRIPTION

uupdate modifies an existing Debian source code archive to reflect an upstream update supplied as a patch
or from a wholly new source code archive. The utility needs to be invoked from the top directory of the
old source code directory, and if a relative name is given for the new archive or patch file, it will be
looked for first relative to the execution directory and then relative to the parent of the source tree.
(For example, if the changelog file is /usr/local/src/foo/foo-1.1/debian/changelog, then the archive or
patch file will be looked for relative to /usr/local/src/foo.) Note that the patch file or archive
cannot be within the source tree itself. The full details of what the code does are given below.

Currently supported source code file types are .tar.gz, .tar.bz2, .tar.Z, .tgz, .tar, .tar.lzma, .tar.xz,
.7z and .zip archives. Also supported are already unpacked source code archives; simply give the path of
the source code directory. Supported patch file types are gzip-compressed, bzip2-compressed, lzma-
compressed, xz-compressed and uncompressed patch files. The file types are identified by the file names,
so they must use the standard suffixes.

Usually uupdate will be able to deduce the version number from the source archive name (as long as it
only contains digits and periods). If that fails, you need to specify the version number explicitly
(without the Debian release number which will always be initially “1”, or “0ubuntu1” on Ubuntu-detected
systems). This can be done with an initial --upstream-version or -v option, or in the case of an
archive, with a version number after the filename. (The reason for the latter is so that uupdate can be
called directly from uscan.)

Since uupdate uses debuild to clean the current archive before trying to apply a patch file, it accepts a
--rootcmd or -r option allowing the user to specify a gain-root command to be used. The default is to
use fakeroot.

If an archive is being built, the pristine upstream source should be used to create the .orig.tar.gz file
wherever possible. This means that MD5 sums or other similar methods can be used to easily compare the
upstream source to Debian's copy of the upstream version. This is the default behaviour, and can be
switched off using the --no-pristine option below.

OPTIONS

       This is a summary of what was explained above.

       --upstream-version version, -v version
              Specify the version number of the upstream package explicitly.

       --rootcmd gain-root-command, -r gain-root-command
              Specify  the  command to be used to become root to build the package and is passed onto debuild(1)
              if it is specified.

       --pristine, -u
              Treat   the   source    as    pristine    upstream    source    and    symlink    to    it    from
              <package>_<version>.orig.tar.gz  whenever possible.  This option has no meaning for patches.  This
              is the default behaviour.

       --no-pristine
              Do not attempt to make a <package>_<version>.orig.tar.gz symlink.

       --symlink, -s
              Simply  create  a  symlink  when  moving   a   new   upstream   .tar.gz   archive   to   the   new
              <package>_<version>.orig.tar.gz location.  This is the default behaviour.

       --no-symlink
              Copy the upstream .tar.gz to the new location instead of making a symlink.

       --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:

       UUPDATE_PRISTINE
              If this is set to no, then it is the same as the --no-pristine command line parameter being used.

       UUPDATE_SYMLINK_ORIG
              If this is set to no, then it is the same as the --no-symlink command line parameter being used.

       UUPDATE_ROOTCMD
              This is equivalent to the --rootcmd option.

ACTIONS TAKEN ON AN ARCHIVE

Figure out new version number
Unless an explicit version number is provided, the archive name is analyzed for a sequence of
digits separated by dots. If something like that is found, it is taken to be the new upstream
version number. If not, processing is aborted.

Create the .orig.tar.gz archive
If the --pristine or -u option is specified and the upstream archive is a .tar.gz or .tgz archive,
then this will be copied directly to <package>_<version>.orig.tar.gz.

Unpacking
The archive is unpacked and placed in a directory with the correct name according to Debian
policy: package-upstream_version.orig. Processing is aborted if this directory already exists.

Patching
The .diffs.gz from the current version are applied to the unpackaged archive. A non-zero exit
status and warning message will occur if the patches did not apply cleanly or if no patch file was
found. Also, the list of rejected patches will be shown. The file debian/rules is made
executable and all of the .orig files created by patch are deleted.

Changelog update
A changelog entry with the new version number is generated with the text “New upstream release”.

When used on Ubuntu systems, dpkg-vendor detection is used to set the Debian revision to
“0ubuntu1”. You may change debian/changelog manually afterwards.

ACTIONS TAKEN ON A PATCH FILE

Figure out new version number
Unless an explicit version number is provided, the patch file name is analyzed for a sequence of
digits separated by dots. If something like that is found, it is taken to be the new upstream
version number. If not, processing is aborted.

Clean the current source tree
The command debuild clean is executed within the current Debian source archive to clean it. If a
-r option is given to uupdate, it is passed on to debuild.

Patching
The current source archive (.orig.tar.gz) is unpacked and the patch applied to the original
sources. If this is successful, then the .orig directory is renamed to reflect the new version
number and the current Debian source directory is copied to a directory with the new version
number, otherwise processing is aborted. The patch is then applied to the new copy of the Debian
source directory. The file debian/rules is made executable and all of the .orig files created by
patch are deleted. If there was a problem with the patching, a warning is issued and the program
will eventually exit with non-zero exit status.