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iucode-tool
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========
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iucode-tool is a system administration tool to manipulate Intel® X86 and X86-64 processor microcode update collections. It is tailored to help Linux distros do Intel microcode update release management.
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iucode-tool cannot change either the microcode itself (the *opaque data* that is sent unmodified to the system processor to perform the microcode update) or the microcode update container (a documented wrapper with metadata about the microcode update). It lets one create new collections of microcode update containers, by selecting which microcode update containers should be copied *unmodified* from the microcode data files published by Intel.
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It can also display the contents of microcode update collections, in order to help the Linux distro maintainer keep track of the microcode updates available for each Intel processor, for release management purposes.
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This release management is necessary to avoid microcode patch level regressions when updating the stable or long-term-service releases of a Linux distro. Intel removes microcode updates for very old end-of-line processors from the public distribution. When a Linux distro blindly propagates such updates to their stable branches, they potentially regress the microcode for some of their users.
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iucode-tool was initially written for internal use by the Debian GNU/Linux distro, however, it is maintained with clear separation between upstream code and Debian-specific details and packaging, so it is appropriate for use by any Linux distro.
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Debian uses iucode-tool for:
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* [Microcode release management](Microcode_Release_Management_Example)
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* [Size reduction of the initramfs](Custom_Initramfs_Example)
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* [Microcode distribution changelog tracking](Ucode_Changelog_Example)
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Downloading the source
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-----------------------------------
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Release tarballs are available at the [iucode-tool/releases git repository](https://gitorious.org/iucode-tool/releases). You can download them through the gitorious web interface, or you can use git directly:
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`git clone --depth 1 git://gitorious.org/iucode-tool/releases.git iucode-tool-releases`
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The main source tree is available at the [iucode-tool/iucode-tool git repository](https://gitorious.org/iucode-tool/iucode-tool).
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The project page is available at [gitorious iucode-tool project](https://gitorious.org/iucode-tool).
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Use by other Linux distributions
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----------------------------------------------
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Downstream maintainers of Linux distributions that decide to use iucode-tool are asked to send an e-mail to the iucode-tool maintainer, introducing themselves, as there is no specific iucode-tool mailinglist at this time.
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Bug tracking
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------------------
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Please use the Debian bug tracking system for upstream *iucode-tool* bugs and feature requests. Please tag such bug reports with the **upstream** tag. Distro-specific bugs should be tracked on the distro's bug tracking system.
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The Debian bug tracking system (BTS) uses an e-mail based interface to submit and manipulate bug reports. Instructions are available at: [Debian BTS](http://bugs.debian.org).
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[![Coverity Scan Build Status for iucode-tool](https://scan.coverity.com/projects/3151/badge.svg)](https://scan.coverity.com/projects/3151) [Coverity Scan Static Analysis](https://scan.coverity.com/projects/3151) |