Ubuntu Manpage: debdeltas - compute deltas between Debian packages

NAME

       debdeltas - compute deltas between Debian packages

SYNOPSIS

       debdeltas [OPTION]... ARGS ...

DESCRIPTION

       debdeltas computes deltas between the old and new versions of Debian packages.

       The explanation of what a delta is is in debdelta(1).

COMMAND ARGUMENTS

In all of the following, ARGS can be, a Debian binary file (usually, a file ending in .deb), or a
directory containing such files, or a Packages file (that is, an index file such as those found in
Debian mirrors - even the zipped ones - see apt-ftparchive(1) ). We will call cmdline all such args that
are not related to an option.

As a first step, debdeltas builds an internal list of Debian packages. To this end, it parses all ARGS
of the options --alt , --old , and those ARGS given as non-option arguments (the aforementioned cmdline
args). If the argument is a Debian package, debdeltas adds it to the list; if the argument is a
directory, debdeltas scans it for Debian packages to be added to the list; if the argument is Packages
files, debdeltas parses it and adds all Debian packages to the list.

Then debdeltas groups all found Debian packages by name and architecture.

For each group, the newest cmdline version is isolated, and then deltas are computed from all --old
versions to that version.

These deltas are stored in many delta files with appropriate names of the form
name_oldversion_newversion_architecture.debdelta ; the location of the delta files is specified by the
"--dir" option.

Note that the location of files in a Packages index is specified relative to the base of the mirror, e.g.
Filename: pool/main/x/xxx/xxx_3_i386.deb For this reason, any Packages argument must presented with a
long path (that contains at least the dists directory).

Note also that the same directory or index can be provided many times, as --old, as --alt, and as cmdline
argument.

Note also that debdeltas will skip all packages that are smaller than 10KB.

MAIN OPTIONS

       --dir DIR
              force saving of deltas in this DIR (otherwise they go in the dir of the newer deb_file).

       --alt ARGS
              this  is  parsed as the non-option command line, but the found packages are never considered for a
              delta.  They are considered though when --clean-deltas is used, to decide if to  delete  a  delta;
              and  are useful to find debs that are deleted from indexes and moved elsewhere. Multiple --alt can
              be specified.

       --old ARGS
              this is parsed as the non-option command line, and the found packages are considered as the  older
              versions.   Multiple  --old can be specified.  Moreover, when scanning a Packages index, it is not
              an error if files do not exist, as long as they have been moved in a --alt directory.  Note  that,
              if no --old is specified, then no deltas will be generated.

       --forensicdir DIR
              write   hashes   files;  these  are  to  be  compared  with  those  produced  by  debdelta-upgrade
              --forensic=...  when a delta fails

The double slash

       If a directory path is provided as argument to --dir, and it ends in // , then this triggers  a  specific
       behaviour related to files found in Packages indexes (as presented in the commandline). If a package in a
       index  is  stored in pool/main/x/xxx/xxx_3_i386.deb , and --dir is /tmp/foobar// , then the delta will be
       saved in /tmp/foobar/pool/main/x/xxx/xxx_2_3_i386.debdelta.  The same is true for --alt (and is useful to
       find old versions of a package).

OTHER OPTIONS

--signing-key KEY
key used to sign the deltas (using GnuPG)

-n N how many deltas to produce at maximum for each unique package/arch (default unlimited)

--clean-deltas
delete deltas that upgrade to packages versions that are not found in the cmdline ARGS, and are at
least two days old (according to mtime).

--no-md5
do not include MD5 info in debdelta.

--needsold
create a patch that can only be used if the old .deb is available.

--delta-algo ALGO
use a specific backend for computing binary diffs; possible values are: xdelta xdelta-bzip xdelta3
bsdiff

-M Mb maximum memory to use (for 'bsdiff' or 'xdelta').

--test check that the patch does apply.

-v verbose (can be added multiple times).

-d print traceback on errors; save useful info in temporary files in case that a backend crashes.

(If '-d' is added multiple times, it also adds to the patches other extra debugging checks: only
for advanced bug tracking).

-k keep temporary files (use for debugging).

--gpg-home
specify a different home for GnuPG, default for root is /etc/debdelta/gnupg while for other users
is unset. See --homedir in gpg(1) for details.

--disable-feature FEATURE
disable an internal feature. See the documentation in README.features.

--no-act
Just list the deltas that would be created.

SECURITY

       See debdelta(1)

EXIT STATUS

       See debdelta(1)

EXAMPLES

       debdeltas --dir /tmp/ --old ~/mydebs ~/mydebs will generate all deltas to upgrade from the  old  versions
       in ~/mydebs to the newest version in ~/mydebs , and store the deltas in /tmp/

       debdeltas       --dir      /tmp//      --old      /mirror/debian/dists/lenny/main/binary-i386/Packages.gz
       /mirror/debian/dists/squeeze/main/binary-i386/Packages.gz will generate all deltas to  upgrade  main/i386
       from lenny to squeeze, and store the deltas in a pool structure under /tmp/

       See      also      the      example      scripts     /usr/share/debdelta/debmirror-delta-security     and
       /usr/share/debdelta/debmirror-deltas

REPORTING BUGS

       Report bugs to <mennucc1@debian.org>.

AUTHORS

       Debdelta was written and is copyright © 2006-09 Andrea Mennucci.
       This man page was written by Jegou Pierre-yves  <pierreyves.jeg@voila.fr>.

COPYING

       This is free software.  You may redistribute copies of it under the terms  of  the  GNU  Library  General
       Public  License  <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-2.0.html>.   There  is  NO  WARRANTY,  to  the  extent
       permitted by law.