A Free Software tool used by 64 Studio Ltd. to backport bleeding edge packages for stable GNU/Linux distributions.

Backporter is a job scheduler for "rebuildd": http://julien.danjou.info/projects/rebuildd It monitors a configurable set of APT source URIs, typically referring to bleeding edge suites like Debian sid, and checks for newer versions of the packages one wants to backport. If newer versions are found it tries to built them against other suites (typically released ones, like Debian squeeze).

You can browse the source code at https://github.com/64studio/backporter

Documentation

backporter help topic

List available commands, where topic is one of:

list

add

remove

set

source

status

update

schedule

backporter list [-d dist]

Show current backports for distribution dist

backporter add [-d dist] pkg

Add a backport of package pkg for distribution dist

backporter remove [-d dist] pkg

Remove a backport of package pkg from distribution dist

backporter set [-d dist] pkg policy Never|Once|Always|Smart

Set backport policy options on package pkg for distribution dist

backporter set [-d dist] pkg origin 64studio|sid|karmic|medibuntu

Set backport upstream origin (from known parent distros) on package pkg for distribution dist

backporter source -d dist pkg=version [-- apt-get options]

Download and repack a source package pkg for distribution dist

backporter status [-d dist]

Show backport job status

backporter update

Update package versions from APT sources in /etc/backporter.conf

backporter schedule

Schedule new backport jobs