Syncing software from a parent series

Syncing software from a parent series will take the package that's currently published in it, and upload it to the derived series without you having to use command line tools such as dput or ftp.

Important: Syncing a package from the parent series will supersede any changes made in the derived version. If there are local changes you don't wish to lose, you will need to manually merge the changes into the upstream package and upload that to the derived series.

Checking the differences

Each row in the table shows a package that has different versions in the derived series and the parent(s). Clicking the package name will expand the row to show more details about the package and allow you to take some actions:

• Add a comment about this package.
• Request debdiffs
• Ignoring this difference, or all differences for this package

Adding comments

Click the green "Add comment" button and enter the comment inline. All previous comments are shown here also.

Requesting debdiffs

Click the "Compute differences from last common version". A request is sent to the server to initiate the debdiff calculation. While you wait for the calculation the icon will flash. The page will update automatically when the debdiff becomes available, giving you a link to download the debdiff file.

Ignoring differences

If you don't care about this package you have the option of setting it to ignored, which means that it will no longer appear in the list. You can choose to ignore just "These versions", which means if a new version is uploaded it will re-appear, or "All Versions" which means you won't see it again unless you search explicitly for ignored packages in the search criteria at the top of the page.

Requesting a sync

There are two methods of syncing:

A mass-sync:

This grabs all packages in all parents that have a higher version and uploads them to the derived series by clicking the mass-sync button at the bottom of the page. To do this you need to have archive administrator permissions.

A selective sync:

You can check the box next to each package and then click the sync button at the bottom of the page. To do this you need to have permissions to upload each package.

After you request a sync the operation will complete in the background and the package(s) will flow into the distribution just like a normal upload, including being held in the upload queue as appropriate.