---
name: "dcontrol"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "devscripts"
version: "2.19.5+deb10u1"
release: "Debian 10 (Buster)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/dcontrol"
---

# dcontrol(1)

## NAME

dcontrol -- Query package and source control files for all Debian distributions

## SYNOPSIS

- **dcontrol** \[*options*\] *package*\[*modifiers*\] ...

  ## DESCRIPTION

**dcontrol** queries a remote database of Debian binary and source package control files. It can be thought of as an **apt-cache** webservice that also operates for distributions and architectures different from the local machine.

## MODIFIERS

Like **apt-cache**, packages can be suffixed by modifiers:

- **=***version*

  Exact version match

- **@***architecture*

  Query this only architecture. Use **@source** for source packages, **@binary** excludes source packages.

- **/**\[*archive***:**\]\[*suite*\]\[**/***component*\]

  Restrict to *archive* (debian, debian-backports, debian-security, debian-volatile), *suite* (always codenames, with the exception of experimental), and/or *component* (main, updates/main, ...). Use two slashes (**//**) to separate suite and component if the suite name contains slashes. (Component can be left empty.)

By default, all versions, suites, and architectures are queried. Refer to **https://qa.debian.org/cgi-bin/dcontrol** for currently supported values.

## OPTIONS

- **-s**, **--show-suites**

  Add headers showing which distribution the control file is from.

- **-d**, **--debug**

  Print URL queried.

- **--noconf**, **--no-conf**

  Ignore all configuration files (must be the first option).

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

  Show a help message.

- **-V**, **--version**

  Show version information.

## CONFIGURATION VARIABLES

The two configuration files */etc/devscripts.conf* and *~/.devscripts* are sourced by a shell in that order to set configuration variables.  Command line options can be used to override configuration file settings.  Environment variable settings are ignored for this purpose.  The currently recognised variable is:

- DCONTROL\_URL

  URL to query. Default is **https://qa.debian.org/cgi-bin/dcontrol**.

## AUTHOR

This program is Copyright (C) 2009 by Christoph Berg \<myon@debian.org\>.

This program is licensed under the terms of the GPL, either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

## SEE ALSO

**apt-cache**(1)