1deb-changelog(5)                  dpkg suite                  deb-changelog(5)
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NAME

6       deb-changelog - dpkg source packages' changelog file format
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SYNOPSIS

9       changelog
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DESCRIPTION

12       Changes  in  the  packaged  version  of  a project are explained in the
13       changelog file debian/changelog.  This includes modifications  made  in
14       the  source  package  compared  to  the  upstream  one as well as other
15       changes and updates to the package.
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17       The format of the debian/changelog allows the package building tools to
18       discover which version of the package is being built and find out other
19       release-specific information.
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21       That format is a series of entries like this:
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23       package (version) distributions; metadata
24                 [optional blank line(s), stripped]
25         * change-details
26           more-change-details
27                 [blank line(s), included in output of dpkg-parsechangelog(1)]
28         * even-more-change-details
29                 [optional blank line(s), stripped]
30        -- maintainer-name <email-address>  date
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32
33       package and version are the source package name and version number.
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35       distributions lists one or  more  space-separated  distributions  where
36       this  version  should be installed when it is uploaded; it is copied to
37       the Distribution field in the .changes file.
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39       metadata is a comma-separated list of keyword=value  items.   The  only
40       keywords  currently  supported  by  dpkg  are  urgency and binary-only.
41       urgency's value is used for the Urgency field in the .changes file  for
42       the  upload.  binary-only with a yes value, is used to denote that this
43       changelog  entry  is  for  a  binary-only  non-maintainer  upload   (an
44       automatic  binary  rebuild  with  the  only  change being the changelog
45       entry).
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47       The change details may in fact be any series of lines starting with  at
48       least  two  spaces,  but  conventionally  each  change  starts  with an
49       asterisk and a separating space and continuation lines are indented  so
50       as to bring them in line with the start of the text above.  Blank lines
51       may be used here to separate groups of changes, if desired.
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53       If this upload resolves bugs recorded in the distribution bug  tracking
54       system,  they  may  be  automatically  closed  on the inclusion of this
55       package into the distribution archive by including the string:
56         Closes: Bug#nnnnn
57       in  the  change  details  (the  exact  Perl   regular   expression   is
58       /closes:\s*(?:bug)?\#?\s?\d+(?:,\s*(?:bug)?\#?\s?\d+)*/i).         This
59       information is conveyed via the Closes field in the .changes file.
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61       The maintainer name and email address used in the changelog  should  be
62       the  details  of  the  person who prepared this release of the package.
63       They are not  necessarily  those  of  the  uploader  or  usual  package
64       maintainer.   The  information  here  will  be copied to the Changed-By
65       field in the .changes file, and then later might be  used  to  send  an
66       acknowledgement  when the upload has been installed in the distribution
67       archive.
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69       The date has  the  following  format  (compatible  and  with  the  same
70       semantics of RFC2822 and RFC5322, or what «date -R» generates):
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72              day-of-week, dd month yyyy hh:mm:ss +zzzz
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74       where:
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76       day-of-week
77              Is one of: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun.
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79       dd     Is a one- or two-digit day of the month (01-31).
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81       month  Is  one  of:  Jan,  Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct,
82              Nov, Dec.
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84       yyyy   Is the four-digit year (e.g. 2010).
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86       hh     Is the two-digit hour (00-23).
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88       mm     Is the two-digit minutes (00-59).
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90       ss     Is the two-digit seconds (00-60).
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92       [+-]zzzz
93              Is the time zone offset from Coordinated Universal  Time  (UTC).
94+’  indicates that the time is ahead of (i.e., east of) UTC and
95-’ indicates that the time is behind (i.e., west of) UTC.   The
96              first  two  digits indicate the hour difference from UTC and the
97              last two  digits  indicate  the  number  of  additional  minutes
98              difference  from  UTC.  The last two digits must be in the range
99              00-59.
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101       The first “title” line with the package name must  start  at  the  left
102       hand  margin.   The “trailer” line with the maintainer and date details
103       must be preceded by exactly one space.  The maintainer details and  the
104       date must be separated by exactly two spaces.
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106       The entire changelog must be encoded in UTF-8.
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FILES

109       debian/changelog
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EXAMPLES

112       dpkg (1.17.18) unstable; urgency=low
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114         [ Guillem Jover ]
115         * Handle empty minimum versions when initializing dependency versions,
116           as the code is mapping the minimum version 0 to '' to avoid outputting
117           useless versions. Regression introduced in dpkg 1.17.17. Closes: #764929
118
119         [ Updated programs translations ]
120         * Catalan (Guillem Jover).
121
122         [ Updated dselect translations ]
123         * Catalan (Guillem Jover).
124         * German (Sven Joachim).
125
126        -- Guillem Jover <guillem@debian.org>  Sun, 12 Oct 2014 15:47:44 +0200
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SEE ALSO

129       deb-version(5), deb-changes(5), dpkg-parsechangelog(1).
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1331.18.25                           2018-06-26                  deb-changelog(5)
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