Man page - debsbom-delta(1)

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Manual

DEBSBOM-DELTA(1) debsbom DEBSBOM-DELTA(1)

debsbom-delta - debsbom delta command

debsbom delta [-h] [-o OUT] [--distro-name DISTRO_NAME]


              [--distro-supplier DISTRO_SUPPLIER]


              [--distro-version DISTRO_VERSION]


              [--base-distro-vendor {debian,ubuntu}]


              [--cdx-standard {default,standard-bom}]


              [--spdx-namespace SPDX_NAMESPACE]


              [--cdx-serialnumber CDX_SERIALNUMBER] [--timestamp TIMESTAMP]


              [--add-meta-data key=value] [--validate] [-t {cdx,spdx}]


              base_sbom target_sbom


List components changed in target sbom

Compute the delta between base and target SBOMs, producing a new SBOM containing only additional components from the target.

The delta command compares two SBOMs and produces a new SBOM containing only the components that are present in the target SBOM but not in the base (reference) SBOM.

The most common use-case is identifying new or added components between two builds, images, or distribution states (for example, comparing a previous release SBOM against a newer one), including filtering out already license-cleared components to generate an SBOM containing only components pending license clearance.

The comparison is directional:

  • Base SBOM – treated as the reference
  • Target SBOM – treated as the new or updated SBOM

Given the following structure:

Base SBOM

base-root
|- binary-dep1
|  |- source-dep1
|- binary-dep2


Target SBOM

target-root
|- binary-dep1
|  |- source-dep1
|- binary-dep2
|- binary-dep3
|  |- source-dep3


Running delta would produce:

delta-doc-root
|- binary-dep3
|  |- source-dep3


Components are considered the same if they share the same PURL (Package URL). Only components that are new in the target SBOM, along with their nested dependencies, are included in the resulting SBOM.

Positional Arguments

sbom file(s) to process for 'base_sbom'. Use '-' to read from stdin
sbom file(s) to process for 'target_sbom'. Use '-' to read from stdin

Named Arguments

filename for output (default: 'extras'). Use '-' to write to stdout
distro name (default: 'Debian')
supplier for the root component
version for the root component
vendor of debian distribution (debian or ubuntu)

Possible choices: debian, ubuntu

generate SBOM according to this spec (only for CDX)

Possible choices: default, standard-bom

document namespace, must be a valid URI (only for SPDX)
document serial number, must be a UUID in 8-4-4-4-12 format (only for CDX)
document timestamp in ISO 8601 format
add arbitrary metadata properties to the SBOM
validate generated SBOM (only for SPDX)
SBOM type to process (default: auto-detect), required when reading from stdin

Possible choices: cdx, spdx


debsbom-generate(1)

Part of the debsbom(1) suite.

Christoph Steiger, Felix Moessbauer

2025, Siemens

March 24, 2026