---
name: "dbs-edit-patch"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "dbs"
version: "0.47"
release: "Debian 7 (Wheezy)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/dbs-edit-patch"
---

# dbs-edit-patch(1)

Edit a DBS patch

## NAME

dbs-edit-patch - Edit a DBS patch

## SYNOPSIS

**dbs-edit-patch** \[*options*\] *patch*\
 **dbs-edit-patch** **-h**\|**--help**

## DESCRIPTION

**dbs-edit-patch** is script to generate or modify patches for Debian source-packages in **DBS** format.

## WARNING

**dbs** is deprecated, please switch to the \`3.0 (quilt)' Debian source package format instead. See  *http://wiki.debian.org/Projects/DebSrc3.0#FAQ* for a short guide how to do it.

## OPTIONS

- **-h**, **--help**

  Show summary of options.

- **-t** *dir*, **--tmpdir=***dir*

  Directory for the temporary files, default is /tmp or if set $TMP.

- **-s** *dir*, **--sourcedir=***dir*

  Top level directory of the debian-package source-tree, default is the present working directory.

- **-P** *dir*, **--sourcepatchdir=***dir*

  Directory containing upstream patches.

- **-T** *dir*, **--sourcetardir=***dir*

  Directory containing the upstream tarball.

- **-p** *level*, **--strip=***level*

  Striplevel -p of patch (Option -p of [**diff**(1)](/diff/1.md)), accepted values are 0 and 1, default is 0.

## ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

- *TMP*

  Sets the directory for the temporary files, can be overridden with **-t** *dir*.

## debian/vars

**dbs-edit-patch** will automatically use variables defined in the optional *debian/vars* file.

When a file *debian/vars.in* exists and *debian/vars* either does not exist or is older than any of the following files: debian/vars.in, debian/changelog, debian/rules or debian/control, then **dbs-edit-patch** will try updating the vars file by running the following command

```
make -f debian/rules -W debian/vars.in debian/vars
```

## EXAMPLES

Edit the 021\_debian patch of Heimdal:

```
~/heimdal-0.3d> dbs-edit-patch -t/tmp 021_debian
Extracting source heimdal-0.3d.tar.gz ... successful.
Applying patch 001_replay ... successful.
etc.
Copying heimdal-0.3d to heimdal-0.3d-old ... successful.
Applying patch 021_debian ... successful.
```

Edit files under */tmp/021\_debian/heimdal-0.3d* as required, then put a short description into */tmp/021\_debian/patch-description* if desired, and finally execute */tmp/021\_debian/dbs-update-patch* to save the results.

**Technical note:** **dbs-edit-patch** extracts all patches before *021\_debian* into */tmp/021\_debian/heimdal-0.3d*, copies the result to */tmp/021\_debian/heimdal-0.3d-old*, and applies the last patch *021\_debian* (if it exists). Also, it creates a shell script which will create the diff between the old and new directories:

```
~/heimdal-0.3d> ls -la /tmp/021_debian
total 12
-rwxr-xr-x    1 bam      users         112 Jan 31 13:31 dbs-update-patch*
-rw-r--r--    1 bam      users           0 Jan 31 13:31 patch-description
drwxr-xr-x   14 bam      users        4096 Jan 31 13:31 heimdal-0.3d/
drwxr-xr-x   14 bam      users        4096 Jan 31 13:31 heimdal-0.3d-old/
drwxr-xr-x    5 bam      users        4096 Jan 31 13:31 .stampdir/
~/heimdal-0.3d> cat /tmp/021_debian/dbs-update-patch
#!/bin/sh -e
cd "/tmp/021_debian"
HOOK_DIR="/usr/src/heimdal/debian/dbs-hooks"
test -d "$HOOK_DIR" && run-parts "$HOOK_DIR" --arg update-patch-prediff
find -name "*.bak" -print0 | xargs -0 --no-run-if-empty rm
find -name "*~" -print0 | xargs -0 --no-run-if-empty rm
: > new_patch
test ! -e patch-description || cp patch-description new_patch
diff -ruN heimdal\-0.3d\-old heimdal\-0.3d >> new_patch || test $? -eq 1
mv new_patch  /usr/src/heimdal/debian/patches/021_debian
test -d "$HOOK_DIR" && run-parts "$HOOK_DIR" --arg update-patch-postdiff
```

## SEE ALSO

[**diff**(1)](/diff/1.md), [**dbs**(7)](/dbs/7.md), **/usr/share/doc/dbs/**

## AUTHOR

DBS was written by Adam Heath, modified by Ben Collins, modified and packaged for Debian by Brian May. This manpage was generated by Andreas Metzler and modified by Robert Luberda.