debian-inspector
Utilities to parse Debian package, copyright and control files.
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes, if you need to parse Debian package metadata in a permissively licensed codebase. The library is stable (Production/Stable classifier), has no known vulnerabilities, and low install friction. The aging maintenance status (no release in 316 days) is a minor concern for long-term support, but the unarchived repository and recent commits suggest it is not abandoned. Install it if Debian package inspection is core to your tool; skip it if you only need basic dpkg integration.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Requires Python 3.9 or later.
- Low friction: pure Python wheel with only chardet and attrs as runtime dependencies.
- Maintenance status is aging—last commit was 2025-10-02 and no release in 316 days—but the repository remains active and unarchived.
License · maintenance · safety
permissive license (permissive) — Multi-licensed under Apache-2.0, BSD-3-Clause, and MIT—all permissive. Safe to use in commercial and permissive-licensed projects; no GPL contamination.
last release 2025-10-02 (316 days) · last repo commit 2025-10-02 · 17 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 158,129 downloads/mo, #10,735 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install debian-inspector
from debian_inspector.parser import parse_deb822_file
with open('control') as f:
fields = parse_deb822_file(f)- Whether the library can handle real-world malformed Debian files beyond the description's examples.
- Performance characteristics when parsing large or deeply nested dependency graphs.
- API stability and backward-compatibility guarantees across minor versions.
What it is and what it does
debian-inspector is a Python library for parsing Debian package manifests and metadata files in the Debian 822 format (an RFC822-like text format). It extracts and interprets control files, copyright declarations, dependency relationships, and version information from Debian packages and source archives. The library prioritizes flexible parsing over strict spec compliance—it can recover and fix copyright files that are close to the specification but not perfectly formatted, making it useful for tooling that must handle real-world, slightly malformed Debian metadata.
The package was built by remixing and refactoring code from several existing Debian utilities (python-deb-pkg-tools, dlt, PGPy, and python-dpkg) into a simpler, permissively licensed alternative to the GPL-licensed python-debian library. It focuses on parsing and inspection rather than generation, keeping the codebase lean. It depends only on chardet for character encoding detection and attrs for data structure management.
Use it for
- Extract and validate package metadata from .deb files or Debian source archives in CI/CD pipelines.
- Parse copyright declarations and license information from Debian packages for compliance auditing.
- Resolve and compare Debian package versions and dependency constraints programmatically.
- Build tools that need to inspect Debian package control files without a GPL dependency.
- Recover and repair slightly malformed Debian 822 files in legacy or edge-case package repositories.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes, if you need to parse Debian package metadata in a permissively licensed codebase.
The library is stable (Production/Stable classifier), has no known vulnerabilities, and low install friction. The aging maintenance status (no release in 316 days) is a minor concern for long-term support, but the unarchived repository and recent commits suggest it is not abandoned. Install it if Debian package inspection is core to your tool; skip it if you only need basic dpkg integration.
Install
debian-inspector on PyPI
Before you install
Low friction: pure Python wheel with only chardet and attrs as runtime dependencies. Maintenance status is aging—last commit was 2025-10-02 and no release in 316 days—but the repository remains active and unarchived.
Requires Python 3.9 or later.
License in practice
Multi-licensed under Apache-2.0, BSD-3-Clause, and MIT—all permissive. Safe to use in commercial and permissive-licensed projects; no GPL contamination.
Quickstart
pip install debian-inspector
from debian_inspector.parser import parse_deb822_file
with open('control') as f:
fields = parse_deb822_file(f)Verify before relying
- Whether the library can handle real-world malformed Debian files beyond the description's examples.
- Performance characteristics when parsing large or deeply nested dependency graphs.
- API stability and backward-compatibility guarantees across minor versions.
Package facts
| License | permissive license permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.9 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | 2 packageschardetattrs |
| Maintenance | Aging 316 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 158,129 / month, #10,735 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | Development Status :: 5 - Production/StableIntended Audience :: DevelopersProgramming Language :: Python :: 3Programming Language :: Python :: 3 :: OnlyProgramming Language :: Python :: 3.10Programming Language :: Python :: 3.6Programming Language :: Python :: 3.7Programming Language :: Python :: 3.8Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9Topic :: Software DevelopmentTopic :: Utilities |
Evidence: debian_inspector-31.1.1-py3-none-any.whl
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See also deb-pkg-tools · python-debian · bindep · version-utils · stdeb · pip-requirements-parser · ast-decompiler · humanfriendly · PGPy13 · debsecan-mcp