gbp-pq(1)

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version 0.9.43 · 6 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

💅 gbp-pq — the gbp-pq(1) girlie's guide ✨

okay SO. we're in the git-buildpackage Manual bestie, and this page is all about gbp pq. buckle up 🎀

🌸 NAME 🌸

gbp-pq — manage debian/patches in Git without any need for GNU Quilt 🦋

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

gbp pq [--version] [--help] [--verbose] [--color=[auto|on|off]]
       [--color-scheme= COLOR_SCHEME] [--[no-]patch-numbers]
       [--patch-num-format= format] [--[no-]renumber]
       [--[no-]find-copies] [--topic= topic] [--time-machine= num]
       [--[no-]drop] [--abbrev= num] [--force] [--commit]
       [--meta-closes=bug-close-tags]
       [--meta-closes-bugnum=bug-number-format] [--pq-from=
       [DEBIAN|TAG]] [--upstream-tag= tag-format] [--[no-]ignore-new]
       drop | export | import | rebase | switch

🫶 DESCRIPTION 🫶

so gbp pq helps u manage quilt patches in Debian packages that are maintained with gbp. it's especially useful with packages using the 3.0 (quilt) source format. the way that this works is: with gbp pq, you can maintain the quilt patches that should be applied to a package on a separate branch called a patch-queue branch. so if your Debian package lives on master, the associated patch-queue branch will be called patch-queue/master. bestie that's literally so clean 💖

see ⟨https://honk.sigxcpu.org/projects/git-buildpackage/manual-html/gbp.patches.html⟩ for example workflows 👑

🌈 ACTIONS 🌈

  • import — create a patch queue branch from quilt patches in debian/patches/ that are listed in debian/patches/series. the patches must apply without fuzz, no cap. fr fr.
  • export — export the patches on the patch-queue branch associated to the current branch into a quilt patch series in debian/patches/ and update the series file. slay.
  • rebase — switch to the patch-queue branch associated to the current branch and rebase it against the current branch.
  • drop — drop (delete) the patch queue associated to the current branch. so if you're on branch foo, this would drop branch patch-queue/foo. 💀
  • apply — add a single patch to the patch-queue similar to using git-am. use --topic if you want the patch to appear in a separate subdir when exporting the patch queue using export. this can be used to separate upstream patches from Debian specific patches 🧚
  • switch — switch to the patch-queue branch if on the base branch, and switch to base branch if on patch-queue branch. it's giving teleport ✨

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • --version — print version of the program, i.e. version of the git-buildpackage suite.
  • -v, --verbose — verbose execution 🗣️
  • -h, --help — print help and exit.
  • --color=[auto|on|off] — whether to use colored output. (as u should tbh 🌈)
  • --color-scheme=COLOR_SCHEME — colors to use in output (when color is enabled). the format for COLOR_SCHEME is '<debug>:<info>:<warning>:<error>'. numerical values and color names are accepted, empty fields imply the default color. for example, --git-color-scheme='cyan:34::' would show debug messages in cyan, info messages in blue and other messages in default (i.e. warning and error messages in red).
  • --[no-]patch-numbers — whether or not the patch files should be prefixed with a number. the default is to export patches with patch numbers. note, however, that this normally affects patches whose names are automatically generated, and has no effect on exporting patches which have a Gbp-Pq: Name tag, since the name specified is preserved unless the --renumber option is used. iykyk 🔥
  • --patch-num-format=format — the format specifier for patch number prefixes. the default format is '%04d-'.
  • --[no-]renumber — whether or not to renumber patches exported from the patch queue, instead of preserving numbers specified in Gbp-Pq: Name tags. the default is not to renumber patches. useful when patches need to be renamed for the sake of uniformity. for example, using --renumber with --no-patch-num will strip all numeric prefixes from exported patches. obsessed 😌
  • --[no-]find-copies — whether to use copy detection when generating patches.
  • --topic=topic — topic to use when importing a single patch.
  • --time-machine=NUM — when importing a patch queue fails, go back commit-by-commit on the current branch to check if the patch-queue applies there. do this at most NUM times. this can be useful if the patch-queue doesn't apply to the current branch HEAD anymore, e.g. after importing a new upstream version. ⏳ (yes bestie, actual time machine energy)
  • --[no-]drop — whether to automatically drop (delete) the patch queue branch after a successful export.
  • --abbrev=NUM — when exporting a patch queue, abbreviate commit, instead of showing the full 40-byte hexadecimal object name in header lines, show only a partial prefix of length NUM. this is useful when existing patches were not generated by gbp pq.
  • --force — in case of import, import even if the patch-queue branch already exists and overwrite its content with debian/patches. 🫣
  • --commit — in case of export, commit debian/patches the changes to Git after exporting the patches.
  • --meta-closes=bug-close-tags — what meta tags to look for to generate a commit message when using export --commit. the default is 'Closes|LP' to support Debian and Launchpad.
  • --meta-closes-bugnum=bug-number-format — what regular expression should be used to parse out the bug number when using export --commit. the default is '(?:bug|issue)?\#?\s?\d+'. see gbp-dch(1) for details.
  • --pq-from=[DEBIAN|TAG] — how to find the starting point for the patch queue base. the options are DEBIAN, that will use the Debian branch as the base for the patch queue branch, and TAG, that will use the corresponding upstream tag as a base for the patch queue branch.

this is only needed if your upstream branch is not merged in the Debian branch. the default is DEBIAN.

  • --upstream-tag=TAG-FORMAT — use this tag format when looking for tags of upstream versions, default is upstream/%(version)s.
  • --[no-]ignore-new — don't abort if there are uncommitted changes in the source tree or the current branch doesn't match the DEBIAN-BRANCH.

🎀 TAGS 🎀

when exporting patches from a patch-queue branch, gbp pq will look at the patch header for special tags it recognizes. all tags need to start at the first column and require at least one whitespace after the colon — no sneaky indented tags, bestie, it will not see them 🙈

  • Gbp-Pq: Ignore — ignores the commit, no patch is generated out of it.
  • Gbp-Pq: Name name — the name to use for the patch when running
gbp pq export

if unset, it will be formatted like git am would format it.

  • Gbp-Pq: Topic topic — moves the patch into a subdir called topic when running
gbp pq export

this allows for some structure below debian/patches. cute AND organized 💖

⭐ EXAMPLES ⭐

create a temporary branches-applied branch from files currently in debian/patches/*, and switch to it so that one can easily modify the files directly and manage the metadata as git commits, modify the files with git commands (thus avoiding quilt) and manage the metadata as git commits:

gbp pq switch --force

re-create the contents of debian/patches/* using the commits on the patches-applied branch, commit it on the actual Debian packaging branch, and delete the temporary patches-applied branch::

gbp pq export --drop --commit

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

gbp-buildpackage(1), dpkg-source(1), quilt(1), gbp.conf(5)

💜 AUTHOR 💜

Guido Günther <agx@sigxcpu.org>

and that's the whole page bestie, no notes 💅

this was gbp-pq(1) from the git-buildpackage Manual, dated 26 May 2026 — periodt ✨ go forth and manage ur patch queue, main character 🦋

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