---
name: "debconf"
section: "7cdebconf"
platform: "linux"
package: "cdebconf"
version: "0.280"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/debconf/7cdebconf"
---

# debconf(7cdebconf)

run a debconf-using program

## NAME

debconf - run a debconf-using program

## SYNOPSIS

```
 debconf [options] command [args]
```

## DESCRIPTION

Debconf is a configuration system for Debian packages. For a debconf overview and documentation for sysadmins, see [**debconf**(7)](/debconf/7.md).

The **debconf** program runs a program under debconf's control, setting it up to talk with debconf on stdio. The program's output is expected to be debconf protocol commands, and it is expected to read result codes on stdin. See [**debconf-devel**(7)](/debconf-devel/7.md) for details about the debconf protocol.

## OPTIONS

- **-o***package*, **--owner=***package*

  Tell debconf what package the command it is running is a part of. This is necessary to get ownership of registered questions right, and to support unregister and purge commands properly.

- **-f***type*, **--frontend=***type*

  Select the frontend to use.

- **-p***value*, **--priority=***value*

  Specify the minimum priority of question that will be displayed.

- **-s**, **--showold**

  Redisplay old, already seen questions.

## EXAMPLES

To debug a shell script that uses debconf, you might use:

```
 DEBCONF_DEBUG=developer debconf my-shell-prog
```

Or, you might use this:

```
 debconf --frontend=readline sh -x my-shell-prog
```

## SEE ALSO

[**debconf-devel**(7)](/debconf-devel/7.md), [**debconf**(7)](/debconf/7.md)

## AUTHOR

Joey Hess \<joeyh@debian.org\>

## HISTORY

This manpage was "borrowed" from debconf.