sconsign - Man Page

print SCons signature file information

Synopsis

sconsign [options...] [file...]

Description

Displays the contents of one or more sconsign files, the signature/dependency database used by the SCons build tool​. The database contains all Nodes that are known to the build, either by declaration in the build configuration, produced as side effects, or detected by inspection​.

By default, sconsign dumps the entire contents of the sconsign file(s)​. Without options, individual dependency entries are printed in the following format:

depfile: content-signature timestamp length
        implicit-dependency-1: content-signature timestamp size
        implicit-dependency-2: content-signature timestamp size
        ​.​.​.
        build-signature [action-string]

content-signature (displayed as csig in verbose mode) is the hash of the file's contents​. build-signature is the hash of the command line or other build action used to build a target​. If provided, action-string is the unexpanded string action or the function called​. None is printed in place of any missing timestamp or signature​. If the entry has no implicit dependencies, or no build action, the corresponding lines are omitted​.

An indicator line is printed for each directory, as directories do not have signatures in the database and so would not otherwise be shown​.

By default, sconsign assumes that any file arguments that end with a ​.dblite suffix contains signature entries for more than one directory (that is, was specified by the SConsignFile SCons function)​. Any file argument that has no suffix is assumed to be an old-style (deprecated) sconsign file containing the signature entries for a single directory​. If neither of those is true, sconsign attempts to guess the format​. If that does not work, an explicit format may be specified using the -f or --format= options​.

If there are no file arguments, the name ​.sconsign​.dblite is assumed by default​.

Deprecated since version 4​.11​.0: The old-style signature-file-per-directory mode is deprecated​.

Options

Various options control what information is printed and the format:

-a,  --act,  --action

Prints only the build action information for all entries or the specified entries​.

-c,  --csig

Prints only the content signature (csig) information for all entries or the specified entries​.

-d DIRECTORY, --dir=DIRECTORY

When the signatures are being read from a ​.dblite file, or the -f dblite or --format=dblite options are used, prints information about only the signatures for entries in the specified DIRECTORY​.

-e ENTRY, --entry=ENTRY

Prints information about only the specified ENTRY​. Multiple -e options may be used, in which case information about each ENTRY is printed in the order in which the options are specified on the command line​.

-f FORMAT, --format=FORMAT

The file(s) to be printed are in the specified FORMAT​. Legal values are dblite (the SCons​.dblite format used by default, as well as when the SConsignFile function is called, except when a filename argument of None is given) and sconsign (the format used for an individual ​.sconsign file in each directory)​.

-h,  --help

Prints a help message and exits​.

-i,  --implicit

Prints the list of cached implicit dependencies for all entries or for the specified entries​.

--raw

Prints a pretty-printed representation of the raw Python dictionary that holds build information about individual entries (both the entry itself and its implicit dependencies)​. An entry's build action is still printed in its usual format​.

-r,  --readable

Prints timestamps in a human-readable string, enclosed in single quotes​.

-t,  --timestamp

Prints the timestamp information for all entries or the specified entries​.

-v,  --verbose

Prints labels identifying each field being printed​.

Environment

SCONS_LIB_DIR

Specifies the directory that contains the SCons Python module directory (e​.g​. /home/aroach/scons-src/SCons)​.

See Also

The SCons reference (manpage) at https://scons.org/doc/production/HTML/scons-man.html, the SCons User Guide at https://scons.org/doc/production/HTML/scons-user.html, the SCons source code on GitHub​[1]​.

Authors

Originally: Steven Knight knight@baldmt​.com and Anthony Roach aroach@electriceyeball​.com​.

Since 2010: The SCons Development Team scons-dev@python​.org​.

Notes

1.

on GitHub
https://github.com/SCons/scons

Info

08/10/2026 SCons 4.11.0