DESCRIPTION

usage: debtags [-h] [--version] [--verbose] [--debug]

{tag,cat,grep,check,diff,mkpatch,search,dumpavail,show,submit,tagcat,tagshow,tagsearch,update,vocfilter} ...

Command line interface to access and manipulate Debian Package Tags

optional arguments:

-h, --help

show this help message and exit

--version

show program's version number and exit

--verbose, -v

enable verbose output

--debug

enable debugging output (including verbose output)

subcommands:

valid subcommands

{tag,cat,grep,check,diff,mkpatch,search,dumpavail,show,submit,tagcat,tagshow,tagsearch,update,vocfilter}

additional help

tag

(not implemented anymore)

cat (grep)

output the lines of the full package tag database that match the given tag expression. A tag expression (given as a single argument) is an arbitrarily complex binary expression of tag names. For example: role::program && ((use::editing || use::viewing) && !works-with::text)

check

Check that all the tags in the given tagged collection are present in the tag vocabulary. Checks the main database if no file is specified

diff (mkpatch)

Create a tag patch between the current tag database and the tag collection [filename]. Standard input is used if filename is not specified

search (dumpavail)

Output the packages matching the given tag expression

show

(deprecated) mostly the same as apt-cache show <pkgnames>

submit

(no longer supported) see https://debtags.debian.org/api/patch for patch submit.

tagcat

Output the tag vocabulary

tagshow

Show the vocabulary information about a tag

tagsearch

Show a summary of all tags whose data contains the given strings

update

Updates the package tag database (requires root) Collect package tag data from apt cache, regenerate the debtags tag database and main index. It needs to be run as root

vocfilter

Filter out the tags that are not found in the given vocabulary file debtags manages package tag data in a debian system and performs basic queries on it.

debtags can be used to perform basic queries on the Debtags system: the vocabulary can be queried with the tagshow and tagsearch commands; a package tag database can be checked against the vocabulary with the check command; the whole collection can be copied to standard output to be processed with tagcoll or other tools by the cat command; packages can be searched by tags using the grep command. Finally, tags can be listed with tag ls, edited with the tag add and tag rm, and submitted to the Debtags database with submit.

The update command can be used to download extra tags as listed in /etc/debtags/sources.list: see the contents of that file for more information.

FILES

/var/lib/debtags/vocabulary

The normative tag vocabulary

/var/lib/debtags/package-tags

The system package tags database, only kept as an easily parsable reference. In the same directory there is a the binary index with the same content, used by applications for fast access.

/etc/debtags/sources.list

The list of sources to build the package tags database from

EXAMPLES

Here are some example invocations of debtags:

  # Update the package tag database
  debtags update
  # Show apt-cache information about the mutt package,
  # adding tag information
  debtags show mutt
  # Search the tag vocabulary for mail-related tags
  debtags tagsearch mail
  # Output a list of all packages which can edit raster images, excluding
  # shared libraries and dummy packages
  debtags search "use::editing && works-with::image:raster && \
                ! (role::shared-lib || role::dummy)"
  # Show all mail clients
  debtags search 'works-with::mail && network::client'
  # Output the collection of all mail clients, ready to be reprocessed via
  # tagcoll
  debtags grep 'works-with::mail && network::client'
  # Produce an easily navigable hierarchy with the collection data
  debtags cat | tagcoll hierarchy
  # Produce a local tag patch
  debtags cat > work-tags
  ...edit work-tags...
  debtags diff work-tags > my-tagpatch
  # Submit the patch
  debtags submit my-tagpatch
  # Edit the tags of a package (the patch will be stored in ~/.debtags/patch)
  # then send your changes
  debtags tag add debtags implemented-in::c++ interface::commandline
  debtags tag rm debtags devel::buildtools
  debtags submit