ratt (“Rebuild All The Things!”) operates on a Debian .changes file of a just-built package, identifies all reverse-build-dependencies and rebuilds them with the .debs from the .changes file.

The intended use-case is, for example, to package a new snapshot of a Go library and verify that the new version does not break any other Go libraries/binaries.

Please install ratt from Debian. In case you want to hack on ratt, you can use the following commands to install Go, download ratt from git and compile/install it:

sudo apt-get install golang-go
git clone https://github.com/Debian/ratt
cd ratt
go install

Start the resulting binary in ~/go/bin/ratt:

~/go/bin/ratt -help

After making changes to the code, to recompile and install it again, use:

go install

Let’s assume you build a new version of a Go library, like so:

debcheckout golang-github-jacobsa-gcloud-dev
cd golang-github-jacobsa-gcloud-dev
dch -i -m 'dummy new version'
git commit -a -m 'dummy new version'
gbp buildpackage --git-pbuilder  

Now you can use ratt to identify and rebuild all reverse-build-dependencies:

$ ratt golang-github-jacobsa-gcloud_0.0\~git20150709-2_amd64.changes         
2015/08/16 11:48:41 Loading changes file "golang-github-jacobsa-gcloud_0.0~git20150709-2_amd64.changes"
2015/08/16 11:48:41  - 1 binary packages: golang-github-jacobsa-gcloud-dev
2015/08/16 11:48:41  - corresponding .debs (will be injected when building):
2015/08/16 11:48:41     golang-github-jacobsa-gcloud-dev_0.0~git20150709-2_all.deb
2015/08/16 11:48:41 Loading sources index "/var/lib/apt/lists/ftp.ch.debian.org_debian_dists_sid_contrib_source_Sources"
2015/08/16 11:48:41 Loading sources index "/var/lib/apt/lists/ftp.ch.debian.org_debian_dists_sid_main_source_Sources"
2015/08/16 11:48:43 Loading sources index "/var/lib/apt/lists/ftp.ch.debian.org_debian_dists_sid_non-free_source_Sources"
2015/08/16 11:48:43 Building golang-github-jacobsa-ratelimit_0.0~git20150723.0.2ca5e0c-1 (commandline: [sbuild --arch-all --dist=sid --nolog golang-github-jacobsa-ratelimit_0.0~git20150723.0.2ca5e0c-1 --extra-package=golang-github-jacobsa-gcloud-dev_0.0~git20150709-2_all.deb])
2015/08/16 11:49:19 Build results:
2015/08/16 11:49:19 PASSED: golang-github-jacobsa-ratelimit_0.0~git20150723.0.2ca5e0c-1

ratt uses sbuild(1) to build packages, see https://wiki.debian.org/sbuild for instructions on how to set up sbuild. Be sure to add --components=main,contrib,non-free to the sbuild-createchroot line in case you want to deal with packages outside of main as well.

By default, ratt resolves and rebuilds reverse build-dependencies from unstable, even when the input .changes targets experimental, and injects the locally built .debs referenced by that .changes via sbuild --extra-package.

To mimic the buildd setup for experimental (experimental overlay + aspcud buildd criteria), run:

ratt -sbuild-experimental-aspcud yourpackage_*.changes

Imagine you’re running Debian stable on your machine, but you’re working on a package for Debian unstable (“sid”). Unless you already have configured a corresponding sources.list entry for sid, you will encounter an error message like this:

$ ratt golang-google-grpc_1.11.0-1_amd64.changes
2019/01/19 10:44:34 Loading changes file "golang-google-grpc_1.11.0-1_amd64.changes"
2019/01/19 10:44:34  - 1 binary packages: golang-google-grpc-dev
2019/01/19 10:44:34 Corresponding .debs (will be injected when building):
2019/01/19 10:44:34     golang-google-grpc-dev_1.11.0-1_all.deb
2019/01/19 10:44:34 Setting -dist=sid (from .changes file)
2019/01/19 10:44:34 Could not find InRelease file for sid . Are you missing sid in your /etc/apt/sources.list?

The most direct solution is to add sid to your /etc/apt/sources.list file, then set Default-Release to stable, so that apt prefers the same packages as before your addition:

# echo 'deb http://deb.debian.org/debian sid main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list
# echo 'deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian sid main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list
# echo 'APT::Default-Release "stable";' >> /etc/apt/apt.conf
# apt update
$ ratt ...

An alternative solution is to use chdist(1), a tool that allows to create and maintain different apt trees for different suites. Assuming that you have a sid distribution ready in your ~/.chdist, you can then use it by setting the environment variable APT_CONFIG:

APT_CONFIG=~/.chdist/sid/etc/apt/apt.conf ratt ...

In some cases there are many build dependencies; to focus on a smaller set of packages, invoke ratt with the -include / -exclude options.

To only build selected packages, use:

ratt -recheck -include '^(hwloc|fltk1.3|wcslib|ccfits|qevercloud|libstxxl|caffe|frobby|starpu)$' ../doxygen_1.8.17-1_amd64.changes

To exclude certain packages (for example those with longer build times):

ratt -recheck -exclude '^(gcc-9|gcc-8|llvm-toolchain-10|libreoffice|trilinos|llvm-toolchain-9|llvm-toolchain-8|llvm-toolchain-7|gcc-snapshot|gcc-10|deal.ii|kodi|vg|qgis|openms|siconos|ball|gtg-trace|libsbml|dcmtk|gromacs|gudhi|kicad|libpwiz)$' ../doxygen_1.8.17-1_amd64.changes

Note: you need to escape the + sign in package names as in dbus-c\+\+ to avoid messing up the regexp expression.

For library transitions, using all binary packages from the .changes file as reverse build-dependency roots can be too broad. The -transition_affected option instead scans the selected Packages indexes, finds binary packages whose parsed Depends package names match the supplied regex, maps those binaries back to source packages, and rebuilds those source packages with the .debs from the .changes file still injected via sbuild --extra-package. The argument is only a regex matched against parsed dependency package names, it is not a full Ben expression such as .depends ~ /.../, and it is not matched against the raw Depends field text. In practice, use anchored package name regexes such as ^(libfoo2|libfoo1)$.

For instance:

ratt -transition_affected '^(libpoppler\-cpp3|libpoppler156|libpoppler\-cpp2|libpoppler147)$' ../poppler_*.changes

If a Ben transition tracker exists, start from its Affected expression. For instance, convert Affected: .depends ~ /\b(libfoo2|libfoo1)\b/ to -transition_affected '^(libfoo2|libfoo1)$'.

If there is no tracker yet, build the regex from the old and new runtime library package names for the transition. Include both, since some packages may still depend on the old package while others already depend on the new one. Do not copy every binary from the .changes file into the regex. Leave out unrelated packages such as -dev, -doc, dbgsym, or utilities, unless they are actually part of the transition.

⚠️ -direct-rdeps and -rdeps-depth are ignored in this mode because selection is based on binary package Depends, not on dose-ceve reverse dependency traversal.

If a matching binary maps to a source package that is not present in the selected Sources indexes, ratt logs a warning and cannot schedule that source for rebuild. When comparing with Ben transition pages, make sure your local archive metadata includes the same relevant components, for example contrib when transition consumers live there.

Instead of modifying your system-wide /etc/apt/sources.list, you can use chdist to simulate isolated APT environments per suite.

1. Create a named distribution profile:

   chdist create <DIST> <URL> <RELEASE> <SECTIONS>
   

   A common example:

   chdist create bookworm http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main
   

   This creates a chdist environment named unstable.

2. Update the APT metadata

   After creating the distribution, update it:

   chdist bookworm apt-get update
   

   This step is mandatory, it downloads the package index files (*_Sources, *_Packages, etc.) that ratt will later use

3. Run ratt with the -chdist option

   Once the chdist environment is set up and updated, you can run ratt with the -chdist flag pointing to the name of the distribution:

   ratt -chdist bookworm yourpackage_*.changes
   

   This will use the index files from the chdist environment located at ~/.chdist/bookworm, instead of the host system's APT config.

   Note: The name passed to -chdist refers to the profile created via chdist create