Config...l::Dpkg(3pm)

📦
version 3.026 · 6 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

🌸 Config::Model::Dpkg 🌸

okay bestie, so this is a page from the User Contributed Perl Documentation, and it's about a Perl module called Config::Model::Dpkg — the 3pm girlie of the Config::Model family 💅. Think of it as a whole toolkit for poking at Debian source package files, but make it glamorous. Let's get into it 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

Config::Model::Dpkg — Edit and validate Dpkg source files 💖

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

💻 invoke editor

okay so, hear me out: this command has to be run inside a package source directory. When you run it, cme is gonna load basically most of the files from the debian directory and then pop open a graphical editor for you. iconic behaviour honestly 👑

cme edit dpkg

Or, if you're feeling selective, you can choose to edit only debian/control or debian/copyright:

cme edit dpkg-control
cme edit dpkg-copyright

Or — and this is the multitasking queen move — edit debian patches headers, all at once:

cme edit dpkg-patches # note patches with 'es'

Or one single patch at a time, main character energy:

cme edit dpkg-patch debian/patches/foo

You can also specify a patch by just using the patch name, no path needed:

cme edit dpkg-patch foo

🧐 Just check dpkg files

You can also use cme to run sanity checks on the source files, no editing, just vibes and judgement:

cme check dpkg

🔧 Fix warnings

When it runs, cme may issue several warnings regarding the content of your file. Not to worry bestie 💅 you can choose to fix (most of) these warnings with the command:

cme fix dpkg

🌈 check and arbitrary file

You can specify another file to check too:

  cme check dpkg-copyright foobar
⚠️ just so you know: this applies only to dpkg-control, dpkg-copyright or dpkg-patch. No sneaking it in anywhere else, okay?

🧚 programmatic

This code snippet will change the maintainer address in control file — yes, programmatically, we're that girl:

use Config::Model ;
use Log::Log4perl qw(:easy) ;
my $model = Config::Model -> new ( ) ;
my $inst = $model->instance (root_class_name => 'Dpkg');
$inst -> config_root ->load("control source Maintainer=foo@bedian.arg") ;
$inst->write_back() ;

💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

This module provides a configuration editor (and models) for the files of a Debian source package. (i.e. most of the files contained in the debian directory of a source package). It's giving "I know every file in here personally" 🎀

This module can also be used to modify safely the content of these files from a Perl programs. yep, safely. no cap.

🖥️ user interfaces

As mentioned in cme, several user interfaces are available:

  • A graphical interface is proposed by default if Config::Model::TkUI is installed. ✨ default slay
  • A Fuse virtual file system with option cme fusefs dpkg -fuse_dir <mountpoint> if Fuse is installed (Linux only). lowkey niche but we love her

📦 package dependency checks

Package dependencies are checked on several points:

  • Whether the package is available in Debian (from sid to old-stable)
  • If the package is a known virtual package. Known means listed in Debian packaging manual or known by the author. Feel free to log a bug against libconfig-model-dpkg-perl if a virtual package is missing. But please don't log a bug if the virtual package is used only during a transition. 🙈 (we're being nice about it okay)
  • If a package older that the required version are available in Debian (from sid to old-stable). If not, cme will offer you the possibility to clean up the versioned dependency with cme fix dpkg command.
  • The syntax of the dependency (including version requirement and arch specification). grammar check but for deps 💅
  • Consistency of alternate dependency for Perl libraries
heads up bestie: These checks only generate warnings. Most of these checks can be fixed with cme fix dpkg command.

🌟 Examples 🌟

🦋 Migrate old package file

Most of old syntax can be automatically migrated to newer parameters with:

  cme migrate dpkg

This migration can be limited to control or copyright files:

  cme migrate dpkg-control
  cme migrate dpkg-copyright

Restore GPL summary to default value (factory reset but make it legal):

  cme modify dpkg-copyright ~~ 'License:GPL text~'

Dump copyright file content in a format usable with cme modify:

$ cme dump dpkg-copyright
Comment="Native package. This package is a spin-off from
libconfig-model-perl. Upstream (who is also the debian packager)
decided to create a Debian native package for the Debian specific
parts of Config::Model"
Files:"*"
  Copyright="2005-2013, Dominique Dumont <dod@debian.org>"
  License
    short_name=LGPL-2.1+ - -
License:LGPL-2.1+
  text="   This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
   it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as
   published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the
   License, or (at your option) any later version.
   On Debian GNU/Linux systems, the complete text of version 2.1 of the GNU
   Lesser General Public License can be found in `/usr/share/common-licenses/LGPL-2.1'" - -

✏️ modify a value with the command line:

 cme modify dpkg-copyright ~~ 'Comment="Modified with cme"'

Or apply more systematic changes. This example updates copyright years for all Files entries in debian/copyright:

 cme modify dpkg-copyright ~~ 'Files:~/./ Copyright=~"s/2013/2014/"'

💀 remove an uploader from control files

 cme modify dpkg control source Uploaders:-~/johndoe/

or

 cme modify dpkg-control ~~ source Uploaders:-~/dod/

If you want to remove a guy named Ian, you'll have to be a little more specific to avoid removing all debian developers. (yes really, the regex will sweep everyone, be careful bestie 🫣)

 cme modify dpkg-control ~~ source Uploaders:-="Ian Smith<iansmith@debian.org>"

🫶 add a new uploader

The quotes are required otherwise bash will complain. (bash is dramatic like that 😭) These 2 commands give the same results:

 cme modify dpkg-control ~~ 'source Uploaders:<"John Doe<johndoe@foo.com>"'
 cme modify dpkg-control ~~ 'source Uploaders:.push("John Doe<johndoe@foo.com>")'

Add an uploader to a sorted list of Uploaders (yes, insort, with a 'o', not insert with a 'e' — I know, I know, but that's literally the name 💅):

 cme modify dpkg-control ~~ 'source Uploaders:.insort("John Doe<johndoe@foo.com>")'

The above command make sense only if the list is sorted. Let's sort the list of uploaders:

 cme modify dpkg-control ~~ 'source Uploaders:@'
 cme modify dpkg-control ~~ 'source Uploaders:.sort'

The 2 commands can be combined:

 cme modify dpkg-control ~~ 'source Uploaders:.sort Uploaders:.insort("John Doe<johndoe@foo.com>")'

The modify command of cme uses the syntax defined by Config::Model::Loader. See "load string syntax" in Config::Model::Loader 🧚

🐛 BUGS 🐛

Config::Model design does not really cope well with some details of Debian patch header specification http://dep.debian.net/deps/dep3/ (aka DEP-3). not me exposing the messy parts of the design 😭

Description and subject are both authorized, but only one of them is required and using the 2 is forbidden. So, both fields are accepted, but subject is stored as description in the configuration tree. cme fix or cme edit will write back a description field. periodt.

👑 CONTRIBUTORS 👑

In alphabetical order:

 Andrej Shadura
 Axel Beckert
 Bas Couwenberg
 Cyrille Bollu
 Gregor Herrmann
 Guillem Jover
 Josh Triplett
 Paul Wise
 Ross Vandegrift
 Salvatore Bonaccorso
 Victor Westerhuis
 Walter Lozano
 Xavier Guimard

Many thanks to all. absolute legends, every single one 🌈

💖 AUTHOR 💖

Dominique Dumont, (dod at debian dot org)

🔗 SEE ALSO 🔗

and that's the whole page bestie 💅 this lil doc is perl v5.42.3, dated 2026-08-30, and it lives under Config...l::Dpkg(3pm) in the User Contributed Perl Documentation. go forth and validate your dpkg files, you've got this 🎀✨🦋

📦 where this page comes from