Man page 1 : querybts

querybts - view outstanding bug reports on a debbugs server

querybts "[options] <package | number [number2]...>"

querybts is designed to provide a convenient and easy-to-use interface to the Debbugs bug tracking system, as used by Debian and several other projects. You can specify a package name or one or more report numbers.

The program follows the usual GNU command line syntax, with long options starting with two dashes (`--'). A summary of options are included below.

-h, --help

    Show summary of options.

--version

    Show the version of querybts and exit.

-A, --archive

    Browse archived bugs instead of current reports. Debbugs servers clear out closed reports after 28 days and place them in a separate archive; this option allows those older, resolved reports to be viewed (at least for servers that maintain an archive).

-B SYSTEM, --bts=SYSTEM

    Instead of the Debian bug server, use the server specified by SYSTEM. Valid options are default and debian but check --help for an updated list.

-b, --buglist

    Display a bugs list for the given package.

-m, --mbox

    Retrieve the given bug number(s) or package name(s) as a mailbox file, instead of viewing it. It will be dumped to standard output.

--proxy=PROXY, --http_proxy=PROXY

    Specify the WWW proxy server to use to handle the queries to the bug tracking system. You should only need this parameter if you are behind a firewall.

-s, --source

    Query on source packages, rather than binary packages.

--timeout=SECONDS

    Specify the network timeout, the number of seconds to wait for a resource to respond. If nothing is specified, a default timeout of 1 minute is selected. In case of a network error, there are chances it's due to a too low timeout: try passing the --timeout option with a higher value than default.

-u INTERFACE, --ui=INTERFACE, --interface=INTERFACE

    Specify the user interface to use. Valid options are text, urwid, gtk2; default is taken from the reportbug configuration files.

-w, --web

    Launch a web browser to view bug reports, instead of using the internal interface. This will also allow you to see the whole discussion about a particular bug at once, instead of one message at a time as querybts would do. (Only the first bug number on the command line will be opened.)

querybts supports a simple run control file syntax. Commands are read from /etc/reportbug.conf and $HOME/.reportbugrc with commands in the latter overriding those in the former. Commands are not case sensitive, and currently take 0 or 1 argument; arguments containing whitespace must be enclosed in quotes. Any line starting with # is taken to be a comment and will be ignored. Generally, options corresponding to the long options for querybts are supported, without leading -- sequences. See the default /etc/reportbug.conf for all acceptable options and reportbug.conf(5) for all acceptable options and detailed information. Options only supported by reportbug will be silently ignored.

BROWSER

    Colon-separated list of web browsers to try; they will be tried in order, until one succeeds. You can use %s to substitute the URL to be used, and %% to insert a literal percent sign. If no %s is specified, the URL will be supplied as a normal argument.

• Provides the address of a proxy server to handle the BTS query. This
      should be a valid http URL for a proxy server, including any required port number (simply specifying a hostname, or omitting a port other than 80, WILL NOT WORK).

reportbug(1), reportbug.conf(5)

Chris Lawrence <>, Sandro Tosi <>.