---
name: "madison-lite"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "madison-lite"
version: "0.28"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/madison-lite"
---

# madison-lite(1)

display versions of Debian packages in an archive

## NAME

**madison-lite** – display versions of Debian packages in an archive

## SYNOPSIS

**madison-lite** \[**-****-config-file** *file*\] \[**-****-mirror** *directory*\] \[**-****-nocache**\] \[**-****-update**\] \[**-S**\] \[**-r**\] \[**-a** *architecture*\[,*...*\]\] \[**-c** *component*\[,*...*\]\] \[**-s** *suite*\[,*...*\]\] *package* \[*...*\]

## DESCRIPTION

**madison-lite** inspects a local Debian package archive and displays the versions of the given packages found in each *suite* (for example, stable, testing, or unstable) in a brief but easily human-readable form. It aims to be a drop-in replacement for the **madison** utility (since renamed to **dak** **ls**), from the **dak** archive management suite that runs on the central Debian archive systems, but one which can run without access to the archive's SQL database.

The following options are available:

- **-****-config-file** *file*

  Read configuration from *file*, and ignore the system configuration file (see CONFIGURATION below).

- **-****-mirror** *directory*

  Quick configuration: use *directory* as the top level of the Debian mirror.

- **-****-nocache**

  Normally, parts of the *Packages* and *Sources* files in the archive are cached in *~/.madison-lite/cache* for speed. This option disables that behaviour.

- **-****-update**

  Force caches of *Packages* and *Sources* files to be updated.

- **-S**, **-****-source-and-binary**

  Interpret *package* as a source package name, and display versions of any associated binary packages as well as of the source package.

- **-r**, **-****-regex**

  Interpret *package* as a Perl regular expression anchored at the start of the package name rather than as an exact name. Make sure to quote any shell metacharacters such as ‘\*’ or ‘?’ if necessary.

- **-a**, **-****-architecture** *architecture*\[,*...*\]

  Display only entries for packages built for these architectures. Separate multiple architectures with commas or spaces.

- **-c**, **-****-component** *component*\[,*...*\]

  Display only entries in the given components. Separate multiple components with commas or spaces.

- **-s**, **-****-suite** *suite*\[,*...*\]

  Display only entries in the given suites. Separate multiple suites with commas or spaces.

## CONFIGURATION

**madison-lite** reads configuration information from the file named by **-****-config-file**, or, if that is not supplied, from the first of *~/.madison-lite/config* and */etc/madison-lite/config* that exists.

The following configuration directives are recognized:

- mirror *directory*

  Set the top-level directory of the local Debian mirror. Relative directories in the suite directive are interpreted relative to this directory. Defaults to the current directory.

- suite *name* *directory* \[*component* \[*...*\]\]

  Defines the suite *name* based at *directory*, containing the specified components (defaulting to all subdirectories of *directory*). Output is displayed following the order of suite directives in the configuration file. If no suite directives are present, then every subdirectory of the *dists* directory under *mirror* is treated as a suite, with all of their subdirectories as components.

  The Debian archive is structured such that the subdirectories of each suite directory identify components (such as *main*). Each of those in turn has subdirectories for each architecture (*binary-i386*, and so on), each of which contains any or all of *Packages*, *Packages.gz*, *Packages.bz2*, and *Packages.xz* files listing binary packages; it also has a subdirectory called *source* which contains any or all of *Sources*, *Sources.gz*, *Sources.bz2*, and *Sources.xz* files listing source packages.

The configuration file may contain comment lines, which start with a ‘#’ character.

## EXAMPLES

Show versions of the coreutils package:

```
$ madison-lite coreutils
```

Show versions of all binary packages on powerpc produced by the glibc source package:

```
$ madison-lite -S -a powerpc glibc
```

Show versions of all packages in the unstable suite whose names begin with ‘man’:

```
$ madison-lite -s unstable -r 'man.*'
```

An example configuration file for a simple local mirror:

```
mirror /mirror/debian
suite unstable dists/unstable main
suite unstable-non-US non-US/dists/unstable non-US/main
```

## SEE ALSO

[dpkg-scanpackages(8)](/dpkg-scanpackages/8.md), [dpkg-scansources(8)](/dpkg-scansources/8.md), [apt-ftparchive(1)](/apt-ftparchive/1.md)

## AUTHORS

**madison-lite** was written by Colin Watson ⟨cjwatson@debian.org⟩. The interface mirrors that of **madison** (since renamed to **dak** **ls**), written by James Troup.