Provided by: dose-distcheck_7.0.0-4build3_amd64 
NAME
distcheck - check installability of packages according to metadata
SYNOPSIS
distcheck [option] ... uri
debcheck [option] ... [file]
rpmcheck [option] ... [file]
eclipsecheck [option] ... [file]
DESCRIPTION
distcheck determines, for a set of package control stanzas, called the repository, whether packages of
the repository can be installed relative to the repository according to the inter-package relationsships
expressed in the package control stanzas. The exact set of relevant control fields and their meaning
depends on the type of the repository. The constraint solving algorithm is complete, that is it finds a
solution whenever there exists one, even for multiple disjunctive dependencies and deep package
conflicts. This problem is computationally infeasible in theory (that is, NP-complete), but can be solved
very efficiently for package repositories that actually occur in practice.
Packages are split into foreground and background: only packages in the foreground are checked for
installability, but dependencies may be satisfied by foreground packages and by background packages. By
default, all packages are in the foreground.
Input Specification
Currently supported input types are debian, rpm, and eclipse. The distcheck tool expects its input
specifiations in the form type://pathname where type is one of deb, synthesis, hdlist or eclipse, and
pathname is the pathname of a file containing the input. The package metadata found in that file must
correspond to the type given in the URI.
When invoked as typecheck then the type of input is assumed to be type, and repositories (in positional
arguments or in the values of options --fg and --bg) are simply given in form of a pathname of a file
containing the repository. If no positional argument is given then input is read from standard input.
distcheck also accepts compressed files (.gz , .bz2) as positional arguments. Input read on standard
input cannot be in compressed form.
Input Formats
Debian
The input file has to contain stanzas in the format of deb-control(5), separated by one blank line. For
instance, the Packages files as found on a Debian mirror server, or in the directory /var/lib/apt/lists/
of a Debian system, are suitable as input to debcheck. Installability of packages is analyzed according
to their Depends, Conflicts, and Provides fields with their meaning as of Debian policy version 3.9.0.
Pre-depends are treated like Depends, and Breaks are treated like Conflicts.
If the input contains several packages with the same values of name, version, and architecture than only
the last of these is taken into account, and a warning is issued.
In the case of Debian, it is not possible to install at the same time two packages with the same name but
different versions.
Rpm
The input file can be either a synthesis file or a hdlist file. By default rpmcheck expects a synthesis
file as input. To specify a hdlist file distcheck must be invoked with a file argument of the form
hdlist://
Npm
The input file is a 822 encoding of an npm repository.
Opam
The input file is a 822 encoding of an opam repository.
Pef
The input is a generic 822 file. Versions are compared by default using the debian comparing function, or
if provided the function specified by --compare
Eclipse
The input is a 822 file containing the encoding of OSGi plugins content.xml files.
OPTIONS
MISC OPTIONS
--version
Show program version and exit.
-h, --help
Display this list of options.
-v, --verbose
Enable info / warnings / debug messages. This option may be repeated up to three times in order
to increase verbosity.
--progress
Show progress bars.
--timers
Show timing information.
--quiet Do not print warning messages
DISTCHECK OPTIONS
-e, --explain
Give explanations. If used together with --failures then the explanation consists of dependency
chains leading to a conflict or a dependency on a missing package. If used together with
--successes then the explanation consists of an installation set.
-m, --explain-minimal
For all packages P that are found installable, and when used in conjunction with --successes,
prints a reduced installation set containing only those packages in the dependency cone of P.
When used with Debian repositories, all essential packages and their dependencies that are not in
the cone of P are omitted. When used in conjunction with --failures, and --explain, all
dependencies chains are not printed.
-c, --explain-condense
Compress explanation graph
-f, --failures
List all packages that are found not to be installable.
-s, --successes
List all packages that are found to be installable. May be used together with --failures, in this
case the value of the status field in the output allows one to distinguish installable from non-
installable packages.
--summary
Gives a more detailed summary of the findings.
--coinst package [,package] ...
Takes a comma-separated list of package names, each of them possibly with a version constraint,
as argument. If this list consists of n expressions, then co-installability will be checked
independently for each set of n packages where the i-th element of the set matches the i-th
expression. The initial distinction between foreground and background is ignored. This option
must not be combined with --checkonly.
Example: --coinst "a (>1), b"
If we have package a in versions 1, 2 and 3, and package b in versions 11 and 12, then this will
check 4 pairs of packages for co-installability, namely (a=2,b=11), (a=2,b=12), (a=3,b=11) and
(a=3,b=12).
--fields=strlst
Print additional fields if available
--lowmem
Serialise multiple distcheck runs to save memory. This might take more time.
INPUT OPTIONS
-t input-spec
Select the input type. Possible values are:
. cudf for cudf files
. csw
. opam
. deb for Debian binary package files, also known as Packages files. Possibly compressed with
gzip(1), bzip2(1) or xz(1), depending on compile-time options for dose3.
. debsrc for Debian source package files, also knows as Sources files. Possibly compressed with
gzip(1), bzip2(1) or xz(1), depending on compile-time options for dose3.
. edsp for apt-get External Dependency Solver Protocol
. eclipse for Eclipse (p2) package files
. hdlist for RPM hdlists
. synthesis for urpmi synthesis hdlists
. pef
--checkonly package [,package] ...
Takes a comma-separated list of package names, each of them possibly with a version constraint,
as argument. The foreground is constituted of all packages that match any of the expressions, all
other packages are pushed into the background. The initial distinction between foreground and
background is ignored. This option must not be combined with --coinst.
Example: --checkonly "libc6 , 2ping (= 1.2.3-1)"
--latest n
Consider only the latest -n most recent versions of each package, older versions of packages are
ignored.
--fg=file
Add packages in file to the foreground.
--bg=file
Add packages in file to the background.
--compare
When specified with a pef file, select the comparison function used by the pef -> cudf encoding.
Possible values are deb
(<https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-controlfields.html#s-f-Version>) , semver
(<http://semver.org/>) , npm (<https://docs.npmjs.com/misc/semver>)
OUTPUT OPTIONS
-o, --outfile= file
Send output to file.
-d, --outdir= directory
Set the output directory (default current directory).
--dot Save the explanation graph (one for each package) in dot format.
DEBIAN SPECIFIC OPTIONS
Multi-arch annotations are correctly considered by distcheck. Packages whose's architecture is neither
the native architecture nor in the list of foreign architectures (see below) are ignored.
--deb-native-arch=name
Specify the native architecture. The default behavior is to deduce the native architecture from
the first package stanza in the input that has an architecture different from all.
--deb-foreign-archs=name [,name] ...
Specify a comma-separated list of foreign architectures. The default is an empty list of foreign
architectures.
--deb-ignore-essential
Do not consider essential packages as part of the installation problem. By default all essential
package are considered as part of the installation problem for all packages, that is a package is
installable if and only if it is co-installable with all essential packages. This option allows
the user to test the installability with no essential packages installed.
--deb-builds-from
Add builds-from relationship of binary packages on source packages as dependency. This allows one
to create graphs for bootstrapping purposes.
EXIT CODES
Exit codes 0-63 indicate a normal termination of the program, codes 64-127 indicate abnormal termination
of the program (such as parse errors, I/O errors).
In case of normal program termination:
- exit code 0 indicates that all foreground packages are found installable;
- exit code 1 indicates that at least one foreground package is found uninstallable.
EXAMPLE
Check which packages in a particular distribution are not installable and why:
dose-distcheck -v -f -e \
--bg deb:///var/lib/apt/lists/ftp.fr.debian.org_debian_dists_sid_main_binary-amd64_Packages\
--bg deb:///var/lib/apt/lists/ftp.fr.debian.org_debian_dists_sid_non-free_binary-amd64_Packages\
--fg deb:///var/lib/apt/lists/ftp.fr.debian.org_debian_dists_sid_contrib_binary-amd64_Packages
where Packages is the file pertaining to that distribution, as for instance found in the directory
/var/lib/apt/lists.
Check which packages in contrib are not installable when dependencies may be satisfied from main:
debcheck --failures --bg=main_Packages contrib_Packages
NOTE
Distcheck is a complete reimplementation of edos-debcheck, written for the EDOS project.
AUTHOR
The first version of debcheck was written by Jerome Vouillon for the EDOS project. The current version
has been rewritten on the basis of the dose3 library by Pietro Abate.
SEE ALSO
deb-control(5)
<http://www.edos-project.org> is the home page of the EDOS project.
<http://www.mancoosi.org> is the home page of the Mancoosi project.
2024-04-10 DOSE-DISTCHECK(1)