Substitutions¶

There are a few special strings which are substituted by uscan to make it easy to write the watch file.

@PACKAGE@

This is substituted with the source package name found in the first line of the debian/changelog file.

@COMPONENT@

This is subsituted with the component name of the component name that uscan is currently handling. Value is empty if used in main paragraph.

@ANY_VERSION@

This is substituted by the legal upstream version regex (capturing).

  [-_]?[Vv]?(\d[\-+\.:\~\da-zA-Z]*)
    

@SEMANTIC_VERSION@

This is substituted by the regex given by <https://semver.org> (capturing).

  [-_]?[Vv]?((?:0|[1-9]\d*)\.(?:0|[1-9]\d*)\.(?:0|[1-9]\d*)(?:-(?:(?:0|[1-9]\d*|\d*[a-zA-Z-][0-9a-zA-Z-]*)(?:\.(?:0|[1-9]\d*|\d*[a-zA-Z-][0-9a-zA-Z-]*))*))?(?:\+(?:[0-9a-zA-Z-]+(?:\.[0-9a-zA-Z-]+)*))?)
    

This permits to accept "semantic versions" (ie ""((MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH)(-PRERELEASE)?(+BUILD)?)""). For example:

@STABLE_VERSION@

Stable versions according to the rules of semantic versioning (see <https://semver.org>): this is substituted by pure digit upstream version regex with exactly 3 numbers: "MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH" (capturing).

  [-_]?[Vv]?((?:[1-9]\d*)(?:\.\d+){2}))
    

@ARCHIVE_EXT@

This is substituted by the typical archive file extension regex (non-capturing).

  (?i)(?:\.(?:tar\.xz|tar\.bz2|tar\.gz|tar\.zstd?|zip|tgz|tbz|txz))
    

@SIGNATURE_EXT@

This is substituted by the typical signature file extension regex (non-capturing).

  (?i)(?:\.(?:tar\.xz|tar\.bz2|tar\.gz|tar\.zstd?|zip|tgz|tbz|txz))'(?:\.(?:asc|pgp|gpg|sig|sign))'
    

@DEB_EXT@

This is substituted by the typical Debian extension regexp (capturing).

  [\+~](debian|dfsg|ds|deb)(\.)?(\d+)?$
    

Some file extensions are not included in the above intentionally to avoid false positives. You can still set such file extension patterns manually.

Common options¶

• Template

  Templates simplify the write of debian/watch files. See uscan-templates(5).

• Source <url>

  URL where uscan will look at candidate upstream tarballs (required)

• Matching-Pattern: <regex>

  It specifies the full string matching pattern for hrefs in the web page. uscan provides also templates that fill this field automatically (see below):

• Version-Schema <schema>

  The following values are accepted:

•

Version-Separator <separator>: string used to assemble component versions when Version-Schema is set to "group" or "checksum". The default value is "+~". This parameter must be in the first paragraph (just after "Version"), else it will be ignored.

Component options¶

Component: <component>

Set the name of the secondary source tarball as "<spkg>_<oversion>.orig-<component>.tar.gz" for a MUT package (multiple upstream tarballs package).

Ctype: <component-type>

Set the type of component (only "nodejs" and "perl" are available for now). This will help uscan to find current version if component version is ignored.

When using Ctype: nodejs, uscan tries to find a version in "package.json", when using Ctype: perl, uscan tries to find a version in "META.json". If a version is found, it is used as current version for this component, regardless version found in Debian version string. This permits a better change detection when using ignore or checksum as Debian version.

Version-Constraint: <type>

Add a constraint when downloading the component. Only one value is accepted for now:

Repack options¶

Compression: <method>

Set the compression method when the tarball is repacked (persistent).

Available method values are what mk-origtargz supports, so xz, gzip (alias gz), bzip2 (alias bz2), lzma, default. The default method is currently xz. When uscan is launched in a debian source repository which format is "1.0" or undefined, the method switches to gzip.

Please note the repacking of the upstream tarballs by mk-origtargz happens only if one of the following conditions is satisfied:

Repack

When set to yes, force repacking of the upstream tarball using the compression method.

Repacksuffix: <suffix>

Add suffix to the Debian package upstream version only when the source tarball is repackaged. This rule should be used only for a single upstream tarball package. "+dfsg" or "+ds" or "+repack" are the common values used here (sometime followed by a digit).

Download options¶

Mode: <mode>

Set the archive download mode.

Git options

Pretty: <rule>

Set the upstream version string to an arbitrary format as an optional opts argument when the matching-pattern is HEAD or heads/branch for git mode. For the exact syntax, see the git-log manpage under tformat. The default is pretty=0.0~git%cd.%h. No Uversion-Mangle rules is applicable for this case.

When pretty=describe is used, the upstream version string is the output of the "git describe --tags | sed s/-/./g" command instead. For example, if the commit is the 5-th after the last tag v2.17.12 and its short hash is ged992511, then the string is v2.17.12.5.ged992511 . For this case, it is good idea to add Uversion-Mangle=s/^/0.0~/ or Uversion-Mangle=s/^v// to make the upstream version string compatible with Debian. Please note that in order for pretty=describe to function well, upstream need to avoid tagging with random alphabetic tags.

The pretty=describe forces to set Git-Mode=full to make a full local clone of the repository automatically.

Date: <rule>

Set the date string used by the pretty option to an arbitrary format as an optional opts argument when the matching-pattern is HEAD or heads/branch for git mode. For the exact syntax, see the strftime manpage. The default is date=%Y%m%d.

Git-Export: <mode>

Set the git archive export operation mode. The default is Git-Export: default. Set this to Git-Export: all to include all files in the .orig.tar archive, ignoring any export-ignore git attributes defined by the upstream. This option also applies to submodules, if Git-Modules is specified.

This option is valid only in git mode.

Git-Mode: <mode>

Set the git clone operation mode. The default is Git-Mode=shallow. For some dumb git server, you may need to manually set Git-Mode=full to force full clone operation.

If the current directory is a git repository and the searched repository is listed among the registered "remotes", then uscan will use it instead of cloning separately.

Git-Modules: <modules>

Clone one or more submodules after cloning the main git repository. By default, uscan will clone none of the linked submodules to the git repository.

To clone all submodules, set Git-Modules: all.

To clone selected submodules, use a semicolon-separated list. For example: Git-Modules: m4;doc/common.

Bare

When set to yes, disable all site specific special case code such as URL redirector uses and page content alterations. (persistent)

GPG/PGP options

Pgp-Mode: <mode>

Set the OpenPGP signature verification mode.

Decompress

When set to yes, decompress compressed archive before the OpenPGP signature verification.

Parsing options

Search-Mode: <mode>

Set the parsing search mode:

HTTP options

User-Agent: <user-agent-string>

Set the user-agent string used to contact the HTTP(S) server as user-agent-string. (persistent)

Filename and version manipulations¶

Dversion-Mangle: <rules>

Normalize the last upstream version string found in debian/changelog to compare it to the available upstream tarball version. Removal of the Debian specific suffix such as s/@DEB_EXT@// is usually done here.

You can also use "Dversion-Mangle: auto", this is exactly the same than "Dversion-Mangle: s/@DEB_EXT@//"

Dirversion-Mangle: <rules>

Normalize the directory path string matching the regex in a set of parentheses of http://URL as the sortable version index string. This is used as the directory path sorting index only.

Substitution such as s/PRE/~pre/; s/RC/~rc/ may help.

Page-Mangle: <rules>

Normalize the downloaded web page string. (Don't use this unless this is absolutely needed. Generally, g flag is required for these rules.)

This is handy if you wish to access Amazon AWS or Subversion repositories in which <a href="..."> is not used.

Uversion-Mangle: <rules>

Normalize the candidate upstream version strings extracted from hrefs in the source of the web page. This is used as the version sorting index when selecting the latest upstream version.

Substitution such as s/PRE/~pre/; s/RC/~rc/ may help.

You can also use "Uversion-Mangle: auto", this is exactly the same than "Uversion-Mangle: s/(\d)[_\.\-\+]?((?:RC|rc|pre|dev|beta|alpha)\d*)$/$1~$2/"

Version-Mangle: <rules>

Syntactic shorthand for:

  Uversion-Mangle: <rules>
  Dversion-Mangle: <rules>
    

hrefdecode=percent-encoding

When set to yes, convert the selected upstream tarball href string from the percent-encoded hexadecimal string to the decoded normal URL string for obfuscated web sites. Only percent-encoding is available and it is decoded with s/%([A-Fa-f\d]{2})/chr hex $1/eg.

Download-Url-Mangle: <rules>

Convert the selected upstream tarball href string into the accessible URL for obfuscated web sites. This is run after hrefdecode.

Filename-Mangle: <rules>

Generate the upstream tarball filename from the selected href string if matching-pattern can extract the latest upstream version <uversion> from the selected href string. Otherwise, generate the upstream tarball filename from its full URL string and set the missing <uversion> from the generated upstream tarball filename.

Without this option, the default upstream tarball filename is generated by taking the last component of the URL and removing everything after any '?' or '#'.

You can use here "Filename-Mangle: auto", this is exactly the same than "Filename-Mangle: s/.*?(@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@)/@PACKAGE@-$1/" for main source or "Filename-Mangle: s/.*?(@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@)/@PACKAGE@-<componentname>-$1/" for components.

Pgp-Sig-Url-Mangle: <rules>

Generate the candidate upstream signature file URL string from the upstream tarball URL.

Oversion-Mangle: <rules>

Generate the version string <oversion> of the source tarball <spkg>_<oversion>.orig.tar.gz from <uversion>. This should be used to add a suffix such as +dfsg to a MUT package.

Here, the mangling rules apply the rules to the pertinent string. Multiple rules can be specified in a mangling rule string by making a concatenated string of each mangling rule separated by ; (semicolon).

Each mangling rule cannot contain ; (semicolon), , (comma), or " (double quote).

Each mangling rule behaves as if a Perl command "$string =~ rule" is executed. There are some notable details.

•

rule may only use the s, tr, and y operations.

HTTP site (basic)¶

Here is an example for the basic single upstream tarball.

  Version: 5
  Source: http://example.com/~user/release/@PACKAGE@.html
  Matching-Pattern: files/@PACKAGE@@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@

Or without using the substitution strings (not recommended):

  Version: 5
  Source: http://example.com/~user/release/foo.html
  Matching-Pattern: files/foo-([\d\.]+)\.tar\.gz

For the upstream source package foo-2.0.tar.gz, this watch file downloads and creates the Debian orig.tar file foo_2.0.orig.tar.gz.

HTTP site (Pgp-Sig-Url-Mangle)¶

Here is an example for the basic single upstream tarball with the matching signature file in the same file path.

  Version: 5
  Source: http://example.com/release/@PACKAGE@.html
  Matching-Pattern: files/@PACKAGE@@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@
  Pgp-Sig-Url-Mangle: s%$%.asc%

For the upstream source package foo-2.0.tar.gz and the upstream signature file foo-2.0.tar.gz.asc, this watch file downloads these files, verifies the authenticity using the keyring debian/upstream/signing-key.asc and creates the Debian orig.tar file foo_2.0.orig.tar.gz.

Here is another example for the basic single upstream tarball with the matching signature file on decompressed tarball in the same file path.

  Version: 5
  Source: http://example.com/release/@PACKAGE@.html
  Matching-Pattern: files/@PACKAGE@@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@
  Pgp-Sig-Url-Mangle: s%@ARCHIVE_EXT@$%.asc%
  Decompress: yes

For the upstream source package foo-2.0.tar.gz and the upstream signature file foo-2.0.tar.asc, this watch file downloads these files, verifies the authenticity using the keyring debian/upstream/signing-key.asc and creates the Debian orig.tar file foo_2.0.orig.tar.gz.

HTTP site (Pgp-Mode: next/previous)¶

Here is an example for the basic single upstream tarball with the matching signature file in the unrelated file path.

  Version: 5
  Source: http://example.com/release/@PACKAGE@.html
  Matching-Pattern: files/(?:\d+)/@PACKAGE@@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@
  Pgp-Mode: next
  Source: http://example.com/release/@PACKAGE@.html
  Matching-Pattern: .*?files/(?:\d+)/@PACKAGE@@ANY_VERSION@@SIGNATURE_EXT@
  Pgp-Mode: previous
  Version-Schema: previous

(?:\d+) part can be any random value. The tarball file can have 53, while the signature file can have 33.

([\d\.]+) part for the signature file has a strict requirement to match that for the upstream tarball specified in the previous line by having previous as version in the watch line.

HTTP site (flexible)¶

Here is an example for the maximum flexibility of upstream tarball and signature file extensions.

  Version: 5
  Source: http://example.com/DL/
  Matching-Pattern: files/(?:\d+)/@PACKAGE@@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@
  Pgp-Mode: next
  Source: http://example.com/DL/
  Matching-Pattern: files/(?:\d+)/@PACKAGE@@ANY_VERSION@@SIGNATURE_EXT@
  Pgp-Mode: previous
  Version-Schema: previous

HTTP site (basic MUT)¶

Here is an example for the basic multiple upstream tarballs.

  Version: 5
  Source: http://example.com/release/foo.html
  Matching-Pattern: files/foo-@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@
  Pgp-Sig-Url-Mangle: s%$%.sig%
  Component: bar
  Source: http://example.com/release/foo.html
  Matching-Pattern: files/foobar-@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@
  Pgp-Sig-Url-Mangle: s%$%.sig%
  Version-Constraint: same
  Component: baz
  Source: http://example.com/release/foo.html
  Matching-Pattern: files/foobaz-@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@
  Pgp-Sig-Url-Mangle: s%$%.sig%
  Version-Constraint: same

For the main upstream source package foo-2.0.tar.gz and the secondary upstream source packages foobar-2.0.tar.gz and foobaz-2.0.tar.gz which install under bar/ and baz/, this watch file downloads and creates the Debian orig.tar file foo_2.0.orig.tar.gz, foo_2.0.orig-bar.tar.gz and foo_2.0.orig-baz.tar.gz. Also, these upstream tarballs are verified by their signature files.

HTTP site (recursive directory scanning)¶

Here is an example with the recursive directory scanning for the upstream tarball and its signature files released in a directory named after their version.

  Version: 5
  Source: http://tmrc.mit.edu/mirror/twisted/Twisted/@ANY_VERSION@/
  Matching-Pattern: Twisted-@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@
  Dirversion-Mangle: s/-PRE/~pre/;s/-RC/~rc/
  Pgp-Sig-Url-Mangle: s%$%.sig%

Here, the web site should be accessible at the following URL:

  http://tmrc.mit.edu/mirror/twisted/Twisted/

Here, Dirversion-Mangle option is used to normalize the sorting order of the directory names.

HTTP site (alternative shorthand)¶

For the bare HTTP site where you can directly see archive filenames, the normal watch file:

  Version: 5
  Source: http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Text/
  Matching-Pattern: Text-CSV_XS-@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@
  Pgp-Sig-Url-Mangle: s%$%.sig%

can be rewritten in an alternative shorthand form only with a single string covering URL and filename:

  Version: 5
  Source: http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Text/
  Matching-Pattern: Text-CSV_XS-@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@
  Pgp-Sig-Url-Mangle: s%$%.sig%

HTTP site (funny version)¶

For a site which has funny version numbers, the parenthesized groups will be joined with . (period) to make a sanitized version number.

  Version: 5
  Source: http://www.site.com/pub/foobar/
  Matching-Pattern: foobar_v(\d+)_(\d+)@ARCHIVE_EXT@

HTTP site (DFSG)¶

The upstream part of the Debian version number can be mangled to indicate the source package was repackaged to clean up non-DFSG files:

  Version: 5
  Source: http://some.site.org/some/path/
  Matching-Pattern: foobar-@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@
  Dversion-Mangle: s/\+dfsg\d*$//
  Repacksuffix: +dfsg

See "COPYRIGHT FILE EXAMPLES" in uscan(1).

HTTP site (Filename-Mangle)¶

The upstream tarball filename is found by taking the last component of the URL and removing everything after any '?' or '#'.

If this does not fit to you, use Filename-Mangle. For example, <A href="http://foo.bar.org/dl/?path=&dl=foo-0.1.1.tar.gz"> could be handled as:

  Version: 5
  Source: http://foo.bar.org/dl/
  Matching-Pattern: \?path=&dl=foo-@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@
  Filename-Mangle: s/.*=(.*)/$1/

<A href="http://foo.bar.org/dl/?path=&dl_version=0.1.1"> could be handled as:

  Version: 5
  Source: http://foo.bar.org/dl/
  Matching-Pattern: \?path=&dl_version=@ANY_VERSION@
  Filename-Mangle: s/.*=(.*)/foo-$1\.tar\.gz/

If the href string has no version using <I>matching-pattern>, the version can be obtained from the full URL using Filename-Mangle.

  Version: 5
  Source: http://foo.bar.org/dl/@ANY_VERSION@/
  Matching-Pattern: foo.tar.gz
  Filename-Mangle: s|.*/dl/(.*)/foo\.tar\.gz|foo-$1\.tar\.gz|

HTTP site (Download-Url-Mangle)¶

The option Download-Url-Mangle can be used to mangle the URL of the file to download. This can only be used with http:// URLs. This may be necessary if the link given on the web page needs to be transformed in some way into one which will work automatically, for example:

  Version: 5
  Source: http://developer.berlios.de/project/showfiles.php?group_id=2051
  Matching-Pattern: http://prdownload.berlios.de/softdevice/vdr-softdevice-@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@
  Download-Url-Mangle: s/prdownload/download/

HTTP site (Oversion-Mangle, MUT)¶

The option Oversion-Mangle can be used to mangle the version of the source tarball (.orig.tar.gz and .orig-bar.tar.gz). For example, +dfsg can be added to the upstream version as:

  Version: 5
  Source: http://example.com/~user/release/foo.html
  Matching-Pattern: files/foo-@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@
  Oversion-Mangle: s/(.*)/$1+dfsg/
  Component: bar
  Source: http://example.com/~user/release/foo.html
  Matching-Pattern: files/bar-@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@
  Version-Constraint: same

See "COPYRIGHT FILE EXAMPLES" in uscan(1).

HTTP site (Page-Mangle)¶

The option Page-Mangle can be used to mangle the downloaded web page before applying other rules. The non-standard web page without proper <a href=" << ... >> "> entries can be converted. For example, if foo.html uses <a bogus=" ... ">, this can be converted to the standard page format with:

  Version: 5
  Source: href=/g"
  Matching-Pattern: http://example.com/release/foo.html
  Page-Mangle: "s/<a\s+bogus=/<a
  Version-Constraint: files/@PACKAGE@@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@

Please note the use of g here to replace all occurrences.

If foo.html uses <Key> ... </Key>, this can be converted to the standard page format with:

  Version: 5
  Source: http://example.com/release/foo.html
  Matching-Pattern: (?:.*)/@PACKAGE@@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@
  Page-Mangle: s%<Key>([^<]*)</Key>%<Key><a href="$1">$1</a></Key>%g

FTP site (basic):¶

  Version: 5
  Source: ftp://ftp.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/web/c_cpp/cweb/
  Matching-Pattern: cweb-@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@

FTP site (regex special characters):¶

  Version: 5
  Source: ftp://ftp.worldforge.org/pub/worldforge/libs/Atlas-C++/transitional/
  Matching-Pattern: Atlas-C\+\+-@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@

Please note that this URL is connected to be ... libs/Atlas-C++/ ... . For ++, the first one in the directory path is verbatim while the one in the filename is escaped by \.

FTP site (funny version)¶

This is another way of handling site with funny version numbers, this time using mangling. (Note that multiple groups will be concatenated before mangling is performed, and that mangling will only be performed on the basename version number, not any path version numbers.)

  Version: 5
  Source: ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/ALPHA/wine/development/
  Matching-Pattern: Wine-@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@
  Uversion-Mangle: s/^/0.0./

sf.net¶

For SourceForge based projects, qa.debian.org runs a redirector which allows a simpler form of URL. The format below will automatically be rewritten to use the redirector with the watch file:

  Version: 5
  Source: https://sf.net/<project>/
  Matching-Pattern: <tar-name>-@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@

For audacity, set the watch file as:

  Version: 5
  Source: https://sf.net/audacity/
  Matching-Pattern: audacity-minsrc-@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@

Please note, you can still use normal functionalities of uscan to set up a watch file for this site without using the redirector.

  Version: 5
  Source: http://sourceforge.net/projects/audacity/files/audacity/@ANY_VERSION@/
  Matching-Pattern: (?:.*)audacity-minsrc-@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@/download
  Filename-Mangle: s%(?:.*)audacity-minsrc-(.+)\.tar\.xz/download%audacity-$1.tar.xz%
  Uversion-Mangle: s/-pre/~pre/

Here, % is used as the separator instead of the standard /.

github.com¶

For GitHub based projects, you can use the releases or tags API page. If upstream releases properly named tarballs on their releases page, you can search for the browser download URL (API key browser_download_url):

  Version: 5
  Source: https://api.github.com/repos/<user>/<project>/git/matching-refs/tags/
  Matching-Pattern: https://api.github.com/repos/[^/]+/[^/]+/git/refs/tags/@ANY_VERSION@
  Download-Url-Mangle: s%(api.github.com/repos/[^/]+/[^/]+)/git/refs/%$1/tarball/refs/%g
  Filename-Mangle: s%.*/@ANY_VERSION@%@PACKAGE@-$1.tar.gz%
  Searchmode: plain

It is also possible to filter tags by prefix. For example to get only tags starting by "v1":

  Version: 5
  Source: https://api.github.com/repos/<user>/<project>/git/matching-refs/tags/v1
  Matching-Pattern: https://api.github.com/repos/[^/]+/[^/]+/git/refs/tags/@ANY_VERSION@
  Download-Url-Mangle: s%(api.github.com/repos/[^/]+/[^/]+)/git/refs/%$1/tarball/refs/%g
  Filename-Mangle: s%.*/@ANY_VERSION@%@PACKAGE@-$1.tar.gz%
  Searchmode: plain

Alternatives with releases only (if upstream does not delete tag after release):

  Version: 5
  Source: https://api.github.com/repos/<user>/<project>/git/matching-refs/tags/
  Matching-Pattern: https://api.github.com/repos/[^/]+/[^/]+/git/refs/tags/@ANY_VERSION@
  Download-Url-Mangle: s%api.github.com/repos/([^/]+/[^/]+)/git/refs/tags/@ANY_VERSION@%github.com/$1/archive/refs/tags/$2.tar.gz%g
  Filename-Mangle: s%.*/@ANY_VERSION@%@PACKAGE@-$1.tar.gz%
  Searchmode: plain

In case of release that does not use tags or deleted tags:

  Version: 5
  Source: https://api.github.com/repos/<user>/<project>/releases?per_page=100
  Matching-Pattern: https://api.github.com/repos/<user>/<project>/tarball/@ANY_VERSION@
  Filename-Mangle: s%.*/@ANY_VERSION@%@PACKAGE@-$1.tar.gz%
  Searchmode: plain

If upstream releases alpha/beta tarballs, you will need to make use of the Uversion-Mangle option: Uversion-Mangle=s/(a|alpha|b|beta|c|dev|pre|rc)/~$1/

If upstream forget to tag a release for instance here the 1.2.3 version corresponding to commit "0123456789abcdf01234567890abcef012345678", you could download it, using the following combination of Oversion-Mangle, Filename-Mangle, Download-Url-Mangle options:

  Version: 5
  Source: https://api.github.com/repos/ImageMagick/ImageMagick/git/matching-refs/tags/
  Matching-Pattern: https://api.github.com/repos/[^/]+/[^/]+/git/refs/tags/@ANY_VERSION@
  Download-Url-Mangle: s%(api.github.com/repos/[^/]+/[^/]+)/git/refs/.*%$1/tarball/0123456789abcdf01234567890abcef012345678%g
  Filename-Mangle: s%.*%1.2.3~git.tar.gz%
  Oversion-Mangle: s/.*/1.2.3~git/g
  Searchmode: plain

Remember, in this case, after gbp import-orig --uscan to revert the debian/watch file.

Forgejo (Codeberg)¶

Releases with manually-attached tarballs (assets[...].browser_download_url):

  Version: 5
  Source: https://codeberg.org/api/v1/repos/<user>/<project>/releases
  Matching-Pattern: https://codeberg.org/<user>/<project>/releases/download/[^/-_v]*@ANY_VERSION@/[^"]*@ARCHIVE_EXT@
  Search-Mode: plain

Releases with automatically-generated tarballs (tarball_url):

  Version: 5
  Source: https://codeberg.org/api/v1/repos/<user>/<project>/releases
  Matching-Pattern: https://codeberg.org/<user>/<project>/archive/[^"-_v]*@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@
  Search-Mode: plain
  Filename-Mangle: s%.*/[^"-_v]*@ANY_VERSION@%@PACKAGE@-$1%

Tags with automatically-generated tarballs (tarball_url):

  Version: 5
  Source: https://codeberg.org/api/v1/repos/<user>/<project>/tags
  Matching-Pattern: https://codeberg.org/<user>/<project>/archive/[^"-_v]*@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@
  Search-Mode: plain
  Filename-Mangle: s%.*/[^"-_v]*@ANY_VERSION@%@PACKAGE@-$1%

Replace codeberg.org with the Forgejo instance in question.

PyPI¶

For PyPI based projects, pypi.debian.net runs a redirector which allows a simpler form of URL. The format below will automatically be rewritten to use the redirector with the watch file:

  Version: 5
  Source: https://pypi.python.org/packages/source/<initial>/<project>/
  Matching-Pattern: <tar-name>-@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@

For cfn-sphere, set the watch file as:

  Version: 5
  Source: https://pypi.python.org/packages/source/c/cfn-sphere/
  Matching-Pattern: cfn-sphere-@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@

Please note, you can still use normal functionalities of uscan to set up a watch file for this site without using the redirector.

  Version: 5
  Source: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/cfn-sphere/
  Matching-Pattern: https://pypi.python.org/packages/.*/.*/.*/cfn-sphere-@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@#.*

code.google.com¶

Sites which used to be hosted on the Google Code service should have migrated to elsewhere (github?). Please look for the newer upstream site if available.

npmjs.org (node modules)¶

npmjs.org modules are published in JSON files. Here is a way to read them:

  Version: 5
  Source: https://registry.npmjs.org/aes-js
  Matching-Pattern: https://registry.npmjs.org/aes-js/-/aes-js-@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@
  Searchmode: plain

Grouped package¶

Some node modules are split into multiple little upstream package. Here is a way to group them:

  Version: 5
  Version-Schema: group
  Source: https://registry.npmjs.org/mongodb
  Matching-Pattern: https://registry.npmjs.org/mongodb/-/mongodb-@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@
  Searchmode: plain
  Component: bson
  Source: https://registry.npmjs.org/bson
  Matching-Pattern: https://registry.npmjs.org/bson/-/bson-@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@
  Searchmode: plain
  Component: mongodb-core
  Source: https://registry.npmjs.org/mongodb-core
  Matching-Pattern: https://registry.npmjs.org/mongodb-core/-/mongodb-core-@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@
  Searchmode: plain
  Component: requireoptional
  Source: https://registry.npmjs.org/require_optional
  Matching-Pattern: https://registry.npmjs.org/require_optional/-/require_optional-@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@
  Searchmode: plain

Package version is then the concatenation of upstream versions separated by "+~".

To avoid having a too long version, the "checksum" method can be used. In this case, the main source is automatically declared as "group":

  Version: 5
  Version-Schema: checksum
  Source: https://registry.npmjs.org/mongodb
  Matching-Pattern: https://registry.npmjs.org/mongodb/-/mongodb-@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@
  Searchmode: plain
  Component: bson
  Source: https://registry.npmjs.org/bson
  Matching-Pattern: https://registry.npmjs.org/bson/-/bson-@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@
  Searchmode: plain
  Component: mongodb-core
  Source: https://registry.npmjs.org/mongodb-core
  Matching-Pattern: https://registry.npmjs.org/mongodb-core/-/mongodb-core-@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@
  Searchmode: plain
  Component: requireoptional
  Source: https://registry.npmjs.org/require_optional
  Matching-Pattern: https://registry.npmjs.org/require_optional/-/require_optional-@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@
  Searchmode: plain

The "checksum" is made up of the separate sum of each number composing the component versions and prefixed with ~cs (short for checksum). Following is an example with 3 components whose versions are "1.2.4", "2.0.1" and "10.0", with the main tarball having version "2.0.6":

  Main: 2.0.6
  Comp1:         1 .     2 .     4
  Comp2:         2 .     0 .     1
  Comp3:        10 .     0
  ================================
  Result  : 1+2+10 . 2+0+0 .   4+1
  Checksum:     13 .     2 .     5
  ================================
  Final Version:   2.0.6+~cs13.2.5

uscan will also display the original version string before being encoded into the checksum, which can for example be used in a debian/changelog entry to easily follow the changes:

  2.0.6+~1.2.4+~2.0.1+~10.0

Note: This feature currently accepts only versions composed of digits and full stops (`.`).

direct access to the git repository (tags)¶

If the upstream only publishes its code via the git repository and its code has no web interface to obtain the release tarball, you can use uscan with the tags of the git repository to track and package the new upstream release.

  Version: 5
  Source: http://git.ao2.it/tweeper.git
  Matching-Pattern: refs/tags/v@ANY_VERSION@
  Git-Mode: full
  Mode: git

Please note "git ls-remote" is used to obtain references for tags.

If a tag v20.5 is the newest tag, the above example downloads spkg-20.5.tar.xz after making a full clone of the git repository which is needed for dumb git server.

If tags are signed, set Pgp-Mode: gittag to verify them.

direct access to the git repository (HEAD)¶

If the upstream only publishes its code via the git repository and its code has no web interface nor the tags to obtain the released tarball, you can use uscan with the HEAD of the git repository to track and package the new upstream release with an automatically generated version string.

  Version: 5
  Source: https://github.com/Debian/dh-make-golang
  Matching-Pattern: HEAD
  Mode: git

Please note that a local shallow copy of the git repository is made with "git clone --bare --depth=1 ..." normally in the target directory. uscan generates the new upstream version with "git log --date=format:%Y%m%d --pretty=0.0~git%cd.%h" on this local copy of repository as its default behavior.

The generation of the upstream version string may the adjusted to your taste by adding pretty and date options to the opts arguments.

direct access to the git repository (with submodules)¶

If the upstream only publishes its code via a git repository and the repository includes submodules, you can use uscan with the tags or HEAD of the git repository to track and package the new upstream release.

Use Git-Modules to clone all submodules:

  Version: 5
  Source: https://github.com/namespace/project
  Matching-Pattern: [refs/tags/v@ANY_VERSION@|HEAD]
  Git-Mode: shallow
  Git-Modules: all
  Mode: git

To clone selected submodules (and exclude others), use Git-Modules with a semicolon-separated list:

  Version: 5
  Source: https://github.com/namespace/project
  Matching-Pattern: [refs/tags/v@ANY_VERSION@|HEAD]
  Git-Mode: shallow
  Git-Modules: m4;doc/common
  Mode: git

direct access to the Subversion repository (tags)¶

If the upstream only publishes its code via the Subversion repository and its code has no web interface to obtain the release tarball, you can use uscan with the tags of the Subversion repository to track and package the new upstream release.

  Version: 5
  Source: svn://svn.code.sf.net/p/jmol/code/tags/
  Matching-Pattern: @ANY_VERSION@\/
  Mode: svn

direct access to the Subversion repository (HEAD)¶

If the upstream only publishes its code via the Subversion repository and its code has no web interface to obtain the release tarball, you can use uscan to get the most recent source of a subtree in the repository with an automatically generated version string.

  Source: svn://svn.code.sf.net/p/jmol/code/trunk/
  Matching-Pattern: HEAD
  Mode: svn

By default, uscan generates the new upstream version by appending the revision number to "0.0~svn". This can later be changed using Uversion-Mangle.

Fossil¶

For Fossil based projects, the tarball URL can be deduced from the taglist page.

  Version: 5
  Source: http://grammalecte.net:8080/taglist
  Matching-Pattern: /timeline\?t=@ANY_VERSION@
  Download-Url-Mangle: s#/timeline\?t=(@ANY_VERSION@)#/tarball/Grammalecte.tar.gz?r=$1#
  Filename-Mangle: s/timeline\?t=(@ANY_VERSION@)/@PACKAGE@-$1.tar.gz/
  Searchmode: plain