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plotchangelog(1)

NAME

   plotchangelog - graph Debian changelogs

SYNOPSIS

   plotchangelog [options] changelog ...

DESCRIPTION

   plotchangelog  is  a tool to aid in visualizing a Debian changelog. The
   changelogs are graphed with gnuplot(1) , with the X axis of  the  graph
   denoting  time  of  release  and the Y axis denoting the Debian version
   number of the package.  Each  individual  release  of  the  package  is
   represented  by a point, and the points are color coded to indicate who
   released that version of the package. The upstream  version  number  of
   the package can also be labeled on the graph.

   Alternatively,  the Y axis can be configured to display the size of the
   changelog entry for each new  version.  Or  it  can  be  configured  to
   display approximately how many bugs were fixed for each new version.

   Note  that  if  the  package  is  a Debian-specific package, the entire
   package version will be used for the Y axis. This does not always  work
   perfectly.

READING THE GRAPH

   The  general  outline  of  a  package's  graph is typically a series of
   peaks, starting at 1, going up to n, and then returning abruptly to  1.
   The higher the peaks, the more releases the maintainer made between new
   upstream versions of the package. If a  package  is  Debian-only,  it's
   graph  will  just  grow upwards without ever falling (although a bug in
   this program may cause it to fall sometimes, if the version number goes
   from say, 0.9 to say, 0.10 - this is interpreted wrong...)

   If  the  graph  dips  below  1,  someone  made a NMU of the package and
   upgraded it to a new upstream version, thus setting the Debian  version
   to  0. NMU's in general appear as fractional points like 1.1, 2.1, etc.
   A NMU can also be  easily  detected  by  looking  at  the  points  that
   represent  which maintainer uploaded the package -- a solitary point of
   a different type than the points before and after  it  is  typically  a
   NMU.

   It's  also easy to tell by looking at the points when a package changes
   maintainers.

OPTIONS

   -l, --linecount
          Instead of using the Debian version number as the  Y  axis,  use
          the  number  of  lines  in the changelog entry for each version.
          Cannot be used together with --bugcount.

   -b, --bugcount
          Instead of using the Debian version number as the  Y  axis,  use
          the  number  of  bugs  that were closed by each changelog entry.
          Note that this number is obtained by searching  for  "#dddd"  in
          the  changelog,  and  so  it  may be inaccurate.  Cannot be used
          together with --linecount.

   -c, --cumulative
          When used together with either --bugcount or --linecount, graphs
          the  cumulative  count  rather than the count in each individual
          changelog entry.

   -v, --no-version
          Do not show upstream version labels. Useful if  the  graph  gets
          too crowded.

   -m, --no-maint
          Do  not  differentiate  between  different  maintainers  of  the
          package.

   -s file, --save=file
          Save  the  graph  to  file  in  PostScript  format  instead   of
          immediately displaying it.

   -u, --urgency
          Use   larger   points  when  displaying  higher-urgency  package
          uploads.

   --verbose
          Output  the  gnuplot  script  that  is  fed  into  gnuplot  (for
          debugging purposes).

   -gcommands, --gnuplot=commands
          This  allows  you to insert gnuplot(1) commands into the gnuplot
          script that is used to generate  the  graph.  The  commands  are
          placed  after  all  initialization  but  before  the  final plot
          command. This can be used to override the default look  provided
          by  this program in arbitrary ways. You can also use things like
          "set terminal png color" to change the output file  type,  which
          is useful in conjunction with the -s option.

   --help Show a usage summary.

   --version
          Display version, author and copyright information.

   --noconf, --no-conf
          Do not read any configuration files (see below).

   changelog ...
          The  changelog  files  to graph. If multiple files are specified
          they will all be displayed on the same graph. The files  may  be
          compressed  with  gzip.  Any  text in them that is not in Debian
          changelog format will be ignored.

CONFIGURATION VARIABLES

   The two configuration files /etc/devscripts.conf and ~/.devscripts  are
   sourced  by  a shell in that order to set configuration variables.  The
   --no-conf  option  can  be  used  to  prevent  reading   these   files.
   Environment  variable  settings  are  ignored  when these configuration
   files are read.  The currently recognised variables are:

   PLOTCHANGELOG_OPTIONS
          This is a space-separated list of options  to  always  use,  for
          example  -l  -b.  Do not include -g or --gnuplot among this list
          as it may be ignored; see the next variable instead.

   PLOTCHANGELOG_GNUPLOT
          These are gnuplot commands which will be prepended to  any  such
          commands given on the command line.

AUTHOR

   Joey Hess <joey@kitenet.net>

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