tbl-dctrl

tbl-dctrl(1)             Debian administrator's manual            tbl-dctrl(1)

NAME
       tbl-dctrl - generate tabular representations of data in dctrl format

SYNOPSIS
       tbl-dctrl [ options ] [ -c column-specification ...  ] [ filename ] ...

       tbl-dctrl --version

       tbl-dctrl --help

DESCRIPTION
       tbl-dctrl creates tabular representations of data given to it in Debian
       control file format.

       By default, tbl-dctrl reads the whole database, looking for the longest
       entry  in  each requested column; it then outputs a table, with borders
       and column titles, where each column is just wide  enough  to  fit  the
       longest  entry.   Most of this behaviour can be customized as described
       below.

       A column is requested by specifying the -c  (--column)  switch  with  a
       column specification.  The simplest kind of a column specification con-
       sists solely of the name of a field.  In such a  case,  tbl-dctrl  will
       include in the output a column whose title is the literal column speci-
       fication and whose data is drawn from fields with that name.  If no  -c
       options  are  given,  tbl-dctrl will use all fields in the input in the
       order in which they first appear.

       There are two optional additions one can make to  a  column  specifica-
       tion.   Prefixing the field name with some text followed by an equality
       sign (for example, -c 'Package name=Package') modifies  the  column  in
       such a way that the text before the equality sign is used as the column
       title, while the text after the equality sign is used as  the  name  of
       the  field  from which data is drawn.  One can also append a colon fol-
       lowed by a positive whole number to the field name.  In  such  a  case,
       the  number  after  the colon specifies the width of the column.  These
       two additions can be used separately or together.  If  there  are  more
       than  one  colon,  the last one is significant.  If there are more than
       one equals sign, the first one is significant.  Other colons and equals
       signs  are  used simply as data.  Note that the whole column specifica-
       tion must be given to tbl-dctrl as one argument, so if it contains spa-
       ces, it must be quoted for the shell.

       If all requested columns have a specified width, tbl-dctrl will produce
       output immediately, not waiting for the whole input to be read in.

OPTIONS
       -d delimiter, --delimiter=delimiter
              Instead of drawing nice borders to the table, use the  specified
              delimiter string to delimit columns in a row.

       -H, --no-heading
              Do not print a table heading (column titles).

       -l level, --errorlevel=level
              Set  log  level to level.  level is one of fatal, important, in-
              formational and debug, but the last may not  be  available,  de-
              pending on the compile-time options.  These categories are given
              here in order; every message that is emitted when  fatal  is  in
              effect, will be emitted in the important error level, and so on.
              The default is important.

       -V, --version
              Print out version information.

       -C, --copying
              Print out the copyright license.  This produces much output;  be
              sure  to  redirect  or pipe it somewhere (such as your favourite
              pager).

       -h, --help
              Print out a help summary.

OPERANDS
       tbl-dctrl will read its input from the files named on the command line,
       in the specified order.  A file called - represents the program's stan-
       dard input stream.  If no files are named, the program behaves as if  -
       alone  had  been  named, that is, input is read from the standard input
       stream.

STDIN
       The standard input stream may be used as input as  specified  above  in
       the OPERANDS section.

INPUT FILES
       All input to tbl-dctrl is in the format of a Debian control file.

       A Debian control (dctrl) file is a semistructured single-table database
       stored in a machine-parseable text file.  Such a database consists of a
       set of records; each record is a mapping from field names to field con-
       tent.  Textually, records are separated  by  empty  lines,  while  each
       field  is  encoded  as  one  or more nonempty lines inside a record.  A
       field starts with its name, followed by a colon, followed by the  field
       content.  The colon must reside on the first line of the field, and the
       first line must start with no whitespace.  Subsequent  lines,  in  con-
       trast,  always  start  with linear whitespace (one or more space or tab
       characters).

       When input is read from multiple files, a record separator is  implicit
       between two adjacent files.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       The  standard  locale  environment, specifically its character set set-
       ting, affects the interpretation  of  input  and  output  as  character
       streams.

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
       Standard UNIX signals have their usual meaning.

STDOUT
       All output is sent to the standard output stream.  The output is a tab-
       ular representation of the input database restricted to  the  specified
       fields.   Logically, the output is a table; when the -d option is used,
       this table is represented simply by separating columns in each  row  by
       the  specified delimiter; when the option is not used, a frame is drawn
       around the table.  The order of the columns is the same as the order of
       the column specifications on the command line.

OUTPUT FILES
       There are no output files.

EXIT STATUS
       This utility exits with 0 when successful.  It uses a nonzero exit code
       inconsistently when an error is noticed (this is a bug).

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
       In case of errors in the input, the output will be  partially  or  com-
       pletely  garbage.   In  case  of errors in invocation, the program will
       refuse to function.

EXAMPLES
       The following command line pipe outputs a table of all  packages,  with
       their maintainer data, sorted by the maintainer data, that have no con-
       tent:
       % grep-available -FInstalled-Size --eq 0 | sort-dctrl -kMaintainer - \
         | tbl-dctrl -cPackage -cMaintainer

AUTHOR
       The tbl-dctrl program and this manual page were written by Antti-Juhani
       Kaijanaho.

SEE ALSO
       apt-cache(1),   ara(1),   dpkg-awk(1),   dpkg-query(1),  grep-dctrl(1),
       sort-dctrl(1), dpkg(8)

Debian Project                    2006-04-02                      tbl-dctrl(1)