1deb-changes(5) dpkg suite deb-changes(5)
2
6 deb-changes - Debian changes file format
7
9 filename.changes
10
12 Each Debian upload is composed of a .changes control file, which
13 contains a number of fields. Each field begins with a tag, such as
14 Source or Binary (case insensitive), followed by a colon, and the body
15 of the field. Fields are delimited only by field tags. In other
16 words, field text may be multiple lines in length, but the installation
17 tools will generally join lines when processing the body of the field
18 (except in case of the multiline fields Description, Changes, Files,
19 Checksums-Sha1 and Checksums-Sha256, see below).
20 The control data might be enclosed in an OpenPGP ASCII Armored
22 signature, as specified in RFC4880.
23
25 Format: format-version (required)
26 The value of this field declares the format version of the file.
27 The syntax of the field value is a version number with a major
28 and minor component. Backward incompatible changes to the
29 format will bump the major version, and backward compatible
30 changes (such as field additions) will bump the minor version.
31 The current format version is 1.8.
32 Date: release-date (required)
34 The date the package was built or last edited. It must be in
35 the same format as the date in a deb-changelog(5) entry.
36 The value of this field is usually extracted from the
38 debian/changelog file.
39 Source: source-name [(source-version)] (required)
41 The name of the source package. If the source version differs
42 from the binary version, then the source-name will be followed
43 by a source-version in parenthesis. This can happen when the
44 upload is a binary-only non-maintainer upload.
45 Binary: binary-package-list (required in context)
47 This folded field is a space-separated list of binary packages
48 to upload. If the upload is source-only, then the field is
49 omitted (since dpkg 1.19.3).
50 Architecture: arch-list
52 Lists the architectures of the files currently being uploaded.
53 Common architectures are amd64, armel, i386, etc. Note that the
54 all value is meant for packages that are architecture
55 independent. If the source for the package is also being
56 uploaded, the special entry source is also present.
57 Architecture wildcards must never be present in the list.
58 Version: version-string (required)
60 Typically, this is the original package's version number in
61 whatever form the program's author uses. It may also include a
62 Debian revision number (for non-native packages). The exact
63 format and sorting algorithm are described in deb-version(7).
64 Distribution: distributions (required)
66 Lists one or more space-separated distributions where this
67 version should be installed when it is uploaded to the archive.
68 Urgency: urgency (recommended)
70 The urgency of the upload. The currently known values, in
71 increasing order of urgency, are: low, medium, high, critical
72 and emergency.
73 Maintainer: fullname-email (required)
75 Should be in the format “Joe Bloggs <jbloggs@example.org>”, and
76 is typically the person who created the package, as opposed to
77 the author of the software that was packaged.
78 Changed-By: fullname-email
80 Should be in the format “Joe Bloggs <jbloggs@example.org>”, and
81 is typically the person who prepared the package changes for
82 this release.
83 Description: (recommended)
85 binary-package-name - binary-package-summary
86 This multiline field contains a list of binary package names
87 followed by a space, a dash (‘-’) and their possibly truncated
88 short descriptions. If the upload is source-only, then the
89 field is omitted (since dpkg 1.19.3).
90 Closes: bug-number-list
92 A space-separated list of bug report numbers that have been
93 resolved with this upload. The distribution archive software
94 might use this field to automatically close the referred bug
95 numbers in the distribution bug tracking system.
96 Binary-Only: yes
98 This field denotes that the upload is a binary-only non-
99 maintainer build. It originates from the binary-only=yes
100 key/value from the changelog metadata entry.
101 Built-For-Profiles: profile-list
103 This field specifies a whitespace separated list of build
104 profiles that this upload was built with.
105 Changes: (required)
107 changelog-entries
108 This multiline field contains the concatenated text of all
109 changelog entries that are part of the upload. To make this a
110 valid multiline field empty lines are replaced with a single
111 full stop (‘.’) and all lines are indented by one space
112 character. The exact content depends on the changelog format.
113 Files: (required)
115 md5sum size section priority filename
116 This multiline field contains a list of files with an md5sum,
117 size, section and priority for each one.
118 The first line of the field value (the part on the same line as
120 the field name followed by a colon) is always empty. The
121 content of the field is expressed as continuation lines, one
122 line per file. Each line consists of space-separated entries
123 describing the file: the md5sum, the file size, the file
124 section, the file priority, and the file name.
125 This field lists all files that make up the upload. The list of
127 files in this field must match the list of files in the other
128 related Checksums fields.
129 Checksums-Sha1: (required)
131 Checksums-Sha256: (required)
132 checksum size filename
133 These multiline fields contain a list of files with a checksum
134 and size for each one. These fields have the same syntax and
135 differ only in the checksum algorithm used: SHA-1 for
136 Checksums-Sha1 and SHA-256 for Checksums-Sha256.
137 The first line of the field value (the part on the same line as
139 the field name followed by a colon) is always empty. The
140 content of the field is expressed as continuation lines, one
141 line per file. Each line consists of space-separated entries
142 describing the file: the checksum, the file size, and the file
143 name.
144 These fields list all files that make up the upload. The list
146 of files in these fields must match the list of files in the
147 Files field and the other related Checksums fields.
148
150 The Files field is inconsistent with the other Checksums fields. The
151 Changed-By and Maintainer fields have confusing names. The
152 Distribution field contains information about what is commonly referred
153 to as a suite.
154
156 deb-src-control(5), deb-version(7).
1571.19.7 2019-06-03 deb-changes(5)