HELPDEV(1)

NAME
helpdev - report information about the Python environment

SYNOPSIS
helpdev [OPTION]...

DESCRIPTION
helpdev collects information about the machine, the operating system and the Python environment, and prints it in a form suitable for pasting into a bug report. It can report hardware, operating system, threading, Python and Conda distributions, installed packages, Qt bindings and abstractions, numeric representation, and network reachability.

Run with no options, helpdev reports hardware, operating system, threads, the Python and Conda distributions, and Qt bindings and abstractions.

Because some information depends on which Python environment helpdev runs in, upstream marks each option with how far its results generalise:

PEI Python environment independent — the result does not depend on which Python is running.

PED Python environment dependent — the result describes the Python environment helpdev was invoked from.

PEAD
    Python environment and application dependent — the result also depends on the application currently running.

To describe the environment of a running application, import helpdev into that application rather than invoking this command, so that it observes the same interpreter and process.

OPTIONS

  System

--hardware
    CPU, memory and architecture. (PEI)

--os
    Operating system. (PEI)

--thread
    Thread specification of the system. (PEI)

  Distributions

--distributions
    All distribution options below. (PED)

--python
    Python distribution. (PED)

--conda
    Conda/Anaconda Python distribution. (PED)

  Packages

--packages[PACKAGES]
    All package options below except locally installed ones. PACKAGES optionally filters which packages are shown; it accepts regular expressions separated by commas. (PED)

--packages-pip
    Packages installed by pip, plus the result of pip check. (PED)

--packages-pip-e
    Packages installed by pip in editable mode, plus pip check. (PED)

--packages-conda
    Packages installed by Conda. (PED)

--packages-conda-e
    Packages installed by Conda in editable mode. (PED)

  Qt

--qt
    All Qt options below. (PEAD)

--qt-bindings
    Available Qt bindings, such as PyQt and PySide. (PEAD)

--qt-abstractions
    Available Qt abstraction layers, such as QtPy, Qt.py and PyQtGraph. (PEAD)

  Numbers

--numbers
    All numeric options below. (PEI)

--float
    Floating point representation of the system. (PEI)

--int
    Integer representation of the system. (PEI)

  Network

--network[TIMEOUT]
    Network information, DNS resolution and load times for a number of well known sites. TIMEOUT is in seconds and defaults to 5; a value of 0 disables the check. (PEI)

  Personal

These options can reveal local paths and other identifying details. See PRIVACY below.

--personal
    All personal options below. (PEAD)

--path
    Current Python search path, that is sys.path. (PEAD)

--scope
    Current Python scope, that is dir(). (PEAD)

  Aggregate

--all
    All options above except the personal ones. (PEAD)

--all-for-sure
    All options above, including the personal ones. (PEAD)

--report REPORT
    Apply a custom filter provided by the package REPORT, via its REPORT.custom_helpdev(version).

  Generic

--help, -h
    Show a help message and exit.

--version, -v
    Show the program version and exit.

PRIVACY
--all deliberately omits the personal options, but upstream still advises reading the output before sharing it.

--all-for-sure adds --path and --scope, which can expose home directory paths, usernames and details of the software you are running. Review the output before pasting it into a public bug report.

EXIT STATUS
helpdev exits 0 on success.

EXAMPLES
Report the default set of information:

    helpdev

Everything except personal information, which is what a bug report normally wants:

    helpdev --all

Only the Python distribution and the installed packages matching a pattern:

    helpdev --python --packages 'qt.*,numpy'

Check network reachability with a two second timeout:

    helpdev --network 2

SEE ALSO
pip(1), reportbug(1)

Full documentation at https://helpdev.readthedocs.io/.

AUTHOR
helpdev was written by Daniel Cosmo Pizetta.

This manual page was written for the Debian project, and may be used by others.