BEN(1)

📦
version 1.22ubuntu1 · 7 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

✨ NAME ✨

ben — your transition tracker manager, bestie 💖

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

ben FRONTEND [OPTIONS]

ben [-h|-help|--help]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so ben(1) is a whole set of utilities, and they're written in OCaml (yes, OCaml, we love a niche icon 💅). It gives you a full featured transition tracker so you can follow the evolution of a set of packages inside Debian's archive. And the tea? All frontends share a common list of options, which is literally right down below. no cap 🌈

✨ OPTIONS ✨

  • --dry-run — dry run, babes. it does the thing without doing the thing 🙈
  • --quiet|-q — quiet mode 🤫
  • --verbose — verbose mode, aka it tells you EVERYTHING 🗣️
  • --mirror uri — the package mirror to use
  • --mirror-binaries uri — the package mirror to use for binaries
  • --mirror-sources uri — the package mirror to use for sources
  • --components c,… — which components to consider (comma separated, bestie, don't forget the commas)
  • --archs a,… — which architectures to consider (also comma separated)
  • --suite a — the suite
  • --cache-dir d — path to the cache dir
  • --cache-file|-C f — specify the name of the cache file
  • --use-cache — use the cache whenever possible ♻️
  • --config|-c c — the config file
  • --more-binary-keys l — comma separated list of further relevant binary keys
  • --more-source-keys l — comma separated list of further relevant source keys
  • --preferred-compression-format f — preferred compression format (Default: Gzip) 🎀

👑 FRONTENDS 👑

  • download — has no command-line options of its own, only the shared ones up there. What it does: it downloads all the Sources.gz files AND all the Packages.gz files, for whichever architectures and components you picked. icon behaviour fr fr 🌟
  • query — this one is pretty much like grep-dctrl(1). Give it a list of Packages or Sources files and it runs a query and outputs the result. simple, clean, slay 💅
  • monitor — the monitor frontend builds a monitor page for a transition described by a few criteria: the list of affected packages, a description of a good package, and the description of a broken package. the way that it just ✨builds✨
  • tracker — this frontend uses the monitor to generate a summary page about all known transitions. An example of such a summary lives at https://release.debian.org/transitions/ — go peek, it's giving main character energy 🦋
  • rebuild — this frontend rebuilds all packages matching a criterion, respecting the order of build-dependencies. patient AND correct 😌
  • migrate — this frontend simulates a migration of some packages from unstable to testing, and outputs an easy hint for Britney. go off, Britney 💜

For more information about ben's frontends, please refer to the reference manual. 📖

🫶 AUTHOR 🫶

Ben was originally written by Stéphane Glondu. 🎀

🌈 RESOURCES 🌈

Main web site: https://debian.pages.debian.net/ben/ — literally bookmark it bestie ⭐

💖 AUTHOR 💖

Mehdi Dogguy and Stéphane Glondu 💜

okay that's the whole page, you ATE that reading, periodt 👑 this was BEN(1) from the BEN(1) manual, dated 2026-09-28 — thanks for vibing with me, bestie, ily 🎀✨🌸

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