---
name: "ruari-diff"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "ruari-diff"
version: "0.15"
release: "Debian 2.1 (Slink)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/ruari-diff"
---

# ruari-diff(1)

compare status and Packages file

## NAME

ruari-diff - compare status and Packages file

## SYNOPSIS

**ruari-diff** \[-hV\] \[--help\] \[--version\] \[--warn-missing\] \[--warn-duplicates\] \[--warn-older\] PACKAGES\_FILE STATUS\_FILE

## VERSION

This man page documents Ruari Diff version 0.15.

## DESCRIPTION

Ruari Diff compares dpkg's status file (usually /var/lib/dpkg/status) and a Packages file to see what packages on the system could be updated.

There are a couple of example wrapper scripts for Ruari Diff in /usr/doc/ruari-diff/examples/.  ruari1.sh for down loading and merging Packages files, ruari2.sh for running Ruari Diff on the Packages file and beautifying the output.

When merging Packages files from the ftp site be careful with project/experimental's.  project/experimental does not have architecture specific Packages files, therefore if you use, for example Debian/m68k, you could be told there is a newer version of a package, when there is in fact, not.

### OPTIONS

- *--warn-missing*

  Warn when an expected line (e.g. "Section:", "Priority:") is not found in a Packages or status file.  Due to the structure of the non-US ftp site (it has no sections), this option may disappear in the future.

- *--warn-duplicates*

  Warn when a package is listed twice in a Packages or status file.  (When merging some packages files (e.g. main and experimental's) it's natural to get duplicates)

- *--warn-older*

  Warn when a package is older in the Packages file than in the status.  This could happen when running a locally compiled version of the package and thus is off by default.

- *--help*

  Print a usage message and exit successfully.

- *--version*

  Print version information and then exit successfully.

## ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

None.

## FILES

Ruari Diff uses dpkg's status file (usually /var/lib/dpkg/status) and a Packages file.

## DIAGNOSTICS

None.

## BUGS

Probably lots.

Email bug reports to **jjtroup@comp.brad.ac.uk**. Be sure to include the word \`\`ruari-diff'' somewhere in the \`\`Subject:'' field.

## AUTHOR

```
James Troup
jjtroup@comp.brad.ac.uk
```

## ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author would like to thank Dave Cook, Mark Baker and Stefan Berndtsson for their extensive help in testing and implementation.  Many great suggestions were given.  This is a much better product due to his involvement.