RC-ALERT(1)

💖 RC-ALERT(1) 💖

ok so like. bestie. this is a General Commands Manual page for the command rc-alert. it's giving "let me tell you which of your installed packages are in trouble" and honestly? iconic. let's get into it 🦋

✨ NAME ✨

rc-alert — check for installed packages with release-critical bugs 🔥

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

rc-alert [inclusion options] [--debtags [tag[,tag ...]]] [--popcon]
[package ...]
rc-alert --help|--version

like, you can hand it a bunch of inclusion options, you can do the whole --debtags thing with a comma list of tags, you can --popcon it, and you can also just name packages directly at the end. OR you can do the short lil --help / --version run. choose your fighter 💅

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

rc-alert goes and downloads the list of release-critical bugs off the Debian BTS webpages, and then spits out a list of packages that are installed on your system — or the ones you named on the command line — which show up in that list. so it's basically a vibe check for your packages, but the vibe is "are you broken" 😭

and here's the tea on caching: if the directory $XDG_CACHE_HOME/devscripts/rc-alert already exists, OR you pass the --cache option, then that (sizable, lowkey thicc) downloaded list gets cached. which means the next time you run it, it only re-downloads if the thing actually changed. efficient queen 👑

💅 OPTIONS 💅

• --cache — forces the creation of the $XDG_CACHE_HOME/devscripts/rc-alert cache directory. like, make the folder, bestie, i said what i said.
• --help, -h — shows you a lil summary of the options. the appetizer. the trailer. 🍓
• --version, -v — shows version and copyright info. receipts, basically.

okay so ALSO — plot twist — you can filter which bugs get reported based on the tags and distributions attached to the package. the filtering options are:

• --include-tags, -f — a list of tags the bug must have, in the same format used for output. for example, to include bugs tagged security or help wanted, you'd use "SH". yes it's letters. yes it's cryptic. yes it slays.
• --include-tag-op, -t — if you set this to and, then a bug has to have all of the tags you gave --include-tags. all of them. no skipping. 👑
• --exclude-tags — a list of tags the bug must not have, same format as --include-tags.
• --exclude-tag-op — if you set this to and, then a bug must have none of the tags you gave --exclude-tags. by default though, the bug gets excluded if any tag matches. default is messy-girl energy, ngl.
• --include-dists, -d — a list of distributions the bug must apply to, in the format used for output. for example, to include bugs affecting testing or unstable, use "TU". 💜
• --include-dist-op, -o — if you set this to and, a bug has to apply to all of the distributions you listed before it gets included.
• --exclude-dists — a list of distributions the bug must not apply to, same format as --include-dists.
• --exclude-dist-op — if you set this to and, a bug must apply to all of the listed distributions in order to be excluded. by default the bug gets excluded if it applies to any of the listed distributions.

and THEN, because we weren't done, you can also only list bugs that have specific debtags set. ⚠️ but heads up: you need to have debtags installed, AND it's not mandatory for maintainers to set proper debtags, so the list you get will probably be incomplete. fr fr. don't come for me.

• --debtags — match packages based on the listed tags. each package is matched only if it has all the listed tags. but — plot twist — if there are multiple tags within the same facet, a package is matched if it has any of the listed tags within that facet. multi-tag, multi-facet, multi-drama.
• --debtags-database — use a non-standard debtags database. the default is /var/lib/debtags/packages-tags.

so, popularity-contest collects data about installation and usage of Debian packages. and you can additionally sort the bugs by the popcon rank of the related packages. bougie behavior, love that for you 🌈

• --popcon — sorts bugs by the popcon rank of the package the bug belongs to.
• --pc-vote — by default, packages are sorted by how many people have the package installed. this option instead sorts by how many people are regularly using the package. note: this option has no effect when combined with --pc-local. it simply does not show up to that party. 💀
• --pc-local — instead of requesting remote data, it uses the info from the last popcon run, which lives at /var/log/popularity-contest. locally sourced, artisanal, farm-to-table data 🧚

🌟 EXAMPLES 🌟

• --include-dists OS the bug must apply to at least one of oldstable or stable.
• --include-dists TU --include-dist-op and the bug must apply to both testing and unstable.
• --include-dists O --include-tags S --exclude-tags + the bug must apply to oldstable, be tagged security, but not patch.
• --exclude-dists SOT --include-tags R the bug must apply to only unstable or experimental (or both), and be tagged unreproducible.
• --debtags implemented-in::perl,role::plugin,implemented-in::python the bug must apply to packages matching the specified debtags — i.e. the match will only include packages that have the role::plugin tag and that have either of the tags implemented-in::perl or implemented-in::python.
• --popcon --pc-local reads /var/log/popularity-contest and sorts bugs by your personal popcon ranking (which is basically the atime of your packages' binaries). your atime. your ranking. main character energy 🫶

💀 BUGS 💀

it is not possible to say "does not apply only to unstable".

that's it. that's the bug. the syntax just won't let you say it. the audacity.

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

debtags(1) popbugs(1) popularity-contest(8)

👑 AUTHOR 👑

rc-alert was written by Anthony DeRobertis and modified by Julian Gilbey <jdg@debian.org> and Adam D. Barratt <adam@adam-barratt.org.uk> for the devscripts package. the Debtags and popcon functionality was added by Jan Hauke Rahm <info@jhr-online.de>. absolute legends, every single one 🌸

and that's the whole page bestie 💖 this one ships under DEBIAN, in the Debian Utilities corner of the manual, filed as RC-ALERT(1). now go check your packages, they might be going through something 😭✨