---
name: "debit"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "devscripts"
version: "2.7.0"
release: "Debian 3.0 (Woody)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/debi"
---

# debit(1)

install (and test) current version of generated Debian package

Part of [debi(1)](/debi/1.md).

## NAME

debi, debit - install (and test) current version of generated Debian package

## SYNOPSIS

**debi** \[*options*\] \[*changes file*\]\
 **debit** \[*options*\] \[*changes file*\]

## DESCRIPTION

**debi** figures out the current version of a package and installs it.  Unless a *.changes* file is specified on the command line, it has to be called from within the source code directory tree.  In this case, it will look for the *.changes* file corresponding to the current package version (by determining the name and version number from the changelog, and the architecture in the same way as [**dpkg-buildpackage**(1)](/dpkg-buildpackage/1.md) does).  It then runs **debpkg -i** on every *.deb* archive listed in the *.changes* file to install them, assuming that all of the *.deb* archives live in the same directory as the *.changes* file.  Note that you probably don't want to run this program on a *.changes* file relating to a different architecture after cross-compiling the package!

**debit** does all of the above, and then uses **debian-test** to run the test scripts, if any, for each binary.

Since installing a package requires root privileges, **debi** and **debit** call **debpkg** rather than **dpkg** directly.  Thus **debi** and **debit** will only be useful if they are either being run as root or **debpkg** can be run as root.  See [**debpkg**(1)](/debpkg/1.md) for more details.

## OPTIONS

- **-a***debian-architecture*, **-t***GNU-system-type*

  See [**dpkg-architecture**(1)](/dpkg-architecture/1.md) for a description of these options. They affect the search for the *.changes* file.

- **--help**, **--version**

  Show help message and version information respectively.

## AUTHOR

**debi** was originally written by Christoph Lameter \<clameter@debian.org\>.  **debit** was originally written by James R. Van Zandt \<jrv@vanzandt.mv.com\>.  They have been moulded into one script together with [**debc**(1)](/debc/1.md) and parts extensively modified by Julian Gilbey \<jdg@debian.org\>.