LTNU(1)

📦
version 2.26.11ubuntu1 · 15 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

💖 LTNU(1) — the manual page, bestie edition 💖

okay so you opened the man page for ltnu and honestly? iconic behavior. it's a Debian Utilities joint, it's called LTNU, and we're gonna walk through it together like it's a group chat at 2am. no gatekeeping here. 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

ltnu — lists packages of a maintainer ordered by last upload

like, it's giving "long time no upload" energy, which is literally what the name stands for (more on that in a sec, iykyk). 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

env DEBEMAIL=maintainer ltnu [-m]

ltnu [-m] maintainer

ltnu --help

three whole ways to run her. pick your fighter. 🎀

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so ltnu stands for Long Time No Upload 🌈 and what she does is query the public mirror of the Ultimate Debian Database at udd-mirror.debian.net. she pulls up all the uploads of packages by the uploader or maintainer you give her, and shows them ordered by the last upload of that package to Debian Unstable, with the oldest uploads first. no cap. 👑

her whole main character purpose? checking which of your own packages — or your team's packages — haven't been uploaded in forever and probably need a packaging revamp. like, bestie, that package is dusty. 🧹✨

heads up tho: she's less suitable for MIA team purposes, because she doesn't make a difference with regards to who actually uploaded a package. so don't come for her about that. 💀

✨ OPTIONS ✨

  • -m — only search in the Maintainer field and ignore the Uploaders field. that's it. that's the whole option list. one legend. 🙈

✨ PARAMETERS ✨

the maintainer/uploader you wanna query can be given either by setting $DEBEMAIL as an environment variable, or as a single commandline parameter. your choice, babe. 🦋

and here's the cute part: if a commandline parameter does not contain an "@", then "@debian.org" gets appended. so for example, "ltnu abe" queries for "abe@debian.org". the magic is automatic. ✨

but wait — there are exceptions! some shortcuts for common, long e-mail addresses, because typing those out is a crime honestly. so far implemented shortcuts:

  • pkg-gnustep → pkg-gnustep-maintainers@lists.alioth.debian.org
  • pkg-perl → pkg-perl-maintainers@lists.alioth.debian.org
  • pkg-zsh → pkg-zsh-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org
  • qa → packages@qa.debian.org

slay, we love a shortcut. 🎀

✨ ENVIRONMENT ✨

the following environment variables are honoured:

  • DEBEMAIL — used for querying if no parameter is given. the "i forgot the argument" fallback queen. 👑
  • PAGER — used by psql as pager. it's literally passing the vibe along to psql. 🫶

✨ EXAMPLE ✨

look at her go:

    $ ltnu pkg-zsh
             source          |     ver      |        uploaded
    -------------------------+--------------+------------------------
     zgen                    | 0~20150919-3 | 2016-08-24 04:55:31+00
     zplug                   | 2.4.1-1      | 2017-01-13 09:51:26+00
     zsh-syntax-highlighting | 0.6.0-1      | 2017-08-30 09:06:26+00
     zsh                     | 5.4.2-2      | 2017-11-02 20:56:55+00
    (4 rows)

four rows, one gorgeous table, oldest first. the way that zgen scroll is from 2016? 😭 bestie that package has been in bed for years. go check on her. 💜

✨ DEPENDENCIES ✨

ltnu uses the PostgreSQL client command psql, and hence needs Debian's postgresql-client package to be installed. so if she's not working, check that first. no guessing, just install the thing. 🍓

Copyright 2017 Axel Beckert <abe@debian.org>. Licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or later. 💖

(respect to Axel. license reciepts kept exactly, as they should be.) 📜

✨ SEE ALSO ✨

go read them, they're the lore. 🌈

and that's the whole page bestie, we ate and left no crumbs. 👑✨ this beauty is from Debian Utilities, dated 2026-09-21. now go run ltnu, check on your dusty packages, and give them the revamp they deserve. periodt. 💅🌸

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