SYNOPSIS

duck [ OPTION ]... [-f file] [-u file] [-c file]

DESCRIPTION

duck extracts links, email address domains and VCS-* entries from the following files:

  • debian/control

  • debian/upstream, debian/upstream-metadata.yaml and debian/upstream/metadata

  • debian/copyright

  • DEP-3 patch files in every directory a series file is found

  • systemd.unit files (*.socket, *.device, *.mount, *.automount, *.swap, *.target, *.path, *.time, *.snapshot, *.slice, *.scope)

  • Appstream files (*.appdata)

It tries to access those VCS-* entries and URLs using the approriate tool to find out whether the given URLs or entries are broken or working. If errors are detected, the filename, fieldname and URL/email of the broken entry are displayed.

duck will search for the default files (see above) and skip them silently, if they cannot be found. If specific filenames for options -c, -f or -u are given, and one of those files cannot be found, duck exits with exit code 2.

Email address domains are checked for existing MX records, A records, or AAAA records, in this order. If none of these 3 are found for a given domain, it is considered broken.

Checks results are displayed with 3 different error levels

O:

(OK) Indicates that the given check did not result in an error. Only shown if -n is used.

I:

(Information) Indicates informational warnings, suchs as missing helper tools as well as failing checks based on searches in unstructured text files, which sometimes lead to false positives.

E:

(Error) Indicates failing checks based on data from well-defined fields (e.g. Homepage: entry in debian/control).

and 3 different certainty-levels

certain

Data taken from well defined fields. As the format of this field is specified (e.g. Debian Policy, etc.), it can be checked by the appropriate tools. If this check then fails, the data in the field is certainly erroneous.

possible

Data extracted using regular expressions (e.g. email addresses, URLs). This might lead to false positives, so the check result is possibly a false positive.

wild-guess

Data extracted from websites, by using regular expressions. This is still experimental and probably buggy, hence the "wild-guess".

OPTIONS

-v

verbose mode. This shows all URLs found and the checks run.

-q

quiet mode. Suppress all output.

-n

dry run. Don't run any checks, just show entries to be checked.

--modules-dir=DIRECTORY

specify modules directory. Mostly useful for developing new checks.

--no-color

do not colorize output. See also the DUCK_NOCOLOR environment variable.

--no-https

do not try to find matching https URLs to http URLs. See also the DUCK_NOHTTPS environment variable.

--missing-helpers

display list of missing external helper tools and exits.

--version

display copyright and version information

-f

specify path to control file. This overrides the default debian/control.

-F

skip processing of the control file.

-u

specify path to upstream metadata file. This overrides the default files debian/upstream, debian/upstream-metadata.yaml and debian/upstream/metadata.

-U

skip processing of the upstream metadata file.

-c

specify path to copyright file. This overrides the default debian/copyright.

-C

skip processing of copyright file.

-P

skip processing of patch files.

-A

skip processing of appstream metadata files.

-S

skip processing of systemd.unit files.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

DUCK_NOCOLOR

If this variable is set, do not colorize output.

DUCK_NOHTTPS

If this variable is set, do not try to find matching https URLs to http URLs.

CHECK MODULES

EXAMPLE

To run duck, change your working directory to an extracted debian source package and run: duck

EXIT STATUS

0

Success, no errors

1

Error(s) detected

2

User-specified file not found

RELATED TO duck…

Please see http://duck.debian.net/ for additional information as well as an overview of duck checks run on all source packages in Debian/unstable.