debian-lsp

July 17, 2026 · View on GitHub

Language Server Protocol implementation for Debian packaging files.

Supported Files

Most files under debian/ are supported, including control, copyright, changelog, watch, rules, source/format, source/options, source/local-options, tests/control, upstream/metadata, patches/series, conffiles, lintian-overrides, and their per-package variants.

Features

The server implements the standard LSP surface across these files:

Completions for field names, package names (from the system package cache and debian/control), and enumerated values (sections, distributions, architectures, licenses, dpkg-source options, autopkgtest restrictions, lintian tags, etc.)
Diagnostics for parse errors, field casing, and file-specific problems (invalid paths and flags in conffiles, duplicate entries, and similar)
Code actions including fix field casing, wrap-and-sort, add changelog entry, mark for upload, and fixes for conffiles issues
Hover with field descriptions, lintian tag explanations (via lintian-explain-tags), and context for architectures and package types
Go to definition from test names, package references, and directory paths to their targets in the source tree
Inlay hints for archive versions, virtual package providers, substitution variables, and distribution-to-suite mappings
Code lenses on Standards-Version, debhelper-compat, and Vcs-Git in debian/control
Document symbols for paragraphs and changelog entries
Folding ranges for deb822 paragraphs and changelog entries
Document formatting (wrap-and-sort) for deb822 files
Semantic highlighting with Debian-specific token types
On-type formatting for deb822 files (space after :, continuation-line indentation on Enter)

On-type formatting requires the editor to have format-on-type enabled:

VS Code: enabled by default via the extension
coc.nvim: set "coc.preferences.formatOnType": true
Native Neovim LSP: pass on_type_formatting = true in client capabilities
ALE: not supported

Installation

Building the LSP server

cargo build --release

The binary will be available at target/release/debian-lsp.

Using with VS Code

A dedicated VS Code extension is available in the vscode-debian directory. See vscode-debian/README.md for installation and configuration instructions.

Using with Vim/Neovim

coc.nvim

A coc.nvim extension is available in the coc-debian directory. See coc-debian/README.md for installation and configuration instructions.

ALE

Source the provided configuration file in your .vimrc or init.vim:

source /path/to/debian-lsp/ale-debian-lsp.vim

By default, the configuration will look for the debian-lsp executable in the same directory as the vim file. To use a custom path, set g:debian_lsp_executable before sourcing:

let g:debian_lsp_executable = '/custom/path/to/debian-lsp'
source /path/to/debian-lsp/ale-debian-lsp.vim

You can trigger code actions in ALE with :ALECodeAction when your cursor is on a diagnostic.

vim-lsp

Add the following configuration to your .vimrc or init.vim:

" Configure vim-lsp for debian-lsp
function! s:config_debian_lsp()
  if executable('debian-lsp')
    augroup debian_lsp
      autocmd!
      autocmd User lsp_setup call lsp#register_server({
        \ 'name': 'debian-lsp',
        \ 'cmd': {server_info -> ['debian-lsp']},
        \ 'allowlist': ['debcontrol', 'debcopyright', 'debchangelog', 'debsources', 'debsourceoptions', 'debwatch', 'debupstream', 'autopkgtest', 'debrules', 'debpatches', 'debconffiles'],
        \ 'blocklist': [],
        \ 'enabled': 1,
        \ })
    augroup END
  endif
endfunction

call s:config_debian_lsp()

" Set filetypes for Debian packaging files (if not already set by ftdetect)
augroup debian_filetypes
  autocmd!
  autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead */debian/control setfiletype debcontrol
  autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead */debian/copyright setfiletype debcopyright
  autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead */debian/changelog setfiletype debchangelog
  autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead */debian/changelog.dch setfiletype debchangelog
  autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead */debian/source/format setfiletype debsources
  autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead */debian/source/options setfiletype debsourceoptions
  autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead */debian/source/local-options setfiletype debsourceoptions
  autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead */debian/watch setfiletype debwatch
  autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead */debian/upstream/metadata setfiletype debupstream
  autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead */debian/rules setfiletype debrules
  autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead */debian/patches/series setfiletype debpatches
  autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead */debian/conffiles setfiletype debconffiles
  autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead */debian/*.conffiles setfiletype debconffiles
augroup END

Replace debian-lsp with the full path to the executable if it's not on your PATH.

You can then use vim-lsp commands like:

:LspDocumentDiagnostics - Show diagnostics
:LspCodeAction - Show code actions
:LspDefinition - Go to definition
:LspHover - Show hover information

Neovim 0.11+ with bundled config

A bundled LSP config is provided in the nvim-lspconfig/ directory. Copy it to your Neovim config:

mkdir -p ~/.config/nvim/lsp
cp nvim-lspconfig/lsp/debian_lsp.lua ~/.config/nvim/lsp/

Then enable it in your init.lua:

vim.lsp.enable('debian_lsp')

To use a custom path to the debian-lsp binary:

vim.lsp.config('debian_lsp', {
  cmd = { '/path/to/debian-lsp' },
})
vim.lsp.enable('debian_lsp')

Native Neovim LSP (without nvim-lspconfig)

If you don't use nvim-lspconfig, add the following to your init.lua:

vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd({'BufEnter', 'BufWinEnter'}, {
  pattern = {
    '*/debian/control',
    '*/debian/copyright',
    '*/debian/changelog',
    '*/debian/changelog.dch',
    '*/debian/source/format',
    '*/debian/source/options',
    '*/debian/source/local-options',
    '*/debian/watch',
    '*/debian/tests/control',
    '*/debian/upstream/metadata',
    '*/debian/rules',
    '*/debian/patches/series',
    '*/debian/conffiles',
    '*/debian/*.conffiles',
  },
  callback = function()
    vim.lsp.start({
      name = 'debian-lsp',
      cmd = {'debian-lsp'},
      root_dir = vim.fn.getcwd(),
    })
  end,
})

cargo run

To watch and rebuild the coc plugin:

cd coc-debian
npm run watch