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 in deb822(5) format.
14 Each field begins with a tag, such as Source or Binary (case
16 insensitive), followed by a colon, and the body of the field (case
17 sensitive unless stated otherwise). Fields are delimited only by field
18 tags. In other words, field text may be multiple lines in length, but
19 the installation tools will generally join lines when processing the
20 body of the field (except in case of the multiline fields Description,
21 Changes, Files, Checksums-Sha1 and Checksums-Sha256, see below).
22 The control data might be enclosed in an OpenPGP ASCII Armored
24 signature, as specified in RFC4880.
25
27 Format: format-version (required)
28 The value of this field declares the format version of the file.
29 The syntax of the field value is a version number with a major and
30 minor component. Backward incompatible changes to the format will
31 bump the major version, and backward compatible changes (such as
32 field additions) will bump the minor version. The current format
33 version is 1.8.
34 Date: release-date (required)
36 The date the package was built or last edited. It must be in the
37 same format as the date in a deb-changelog(5) entry.
38 The value of this field is usually extracted from the
40 debian/changelog file.
41 Source: source-name [(source-version)] (required)
43 The name of the source package. If the source version differs from
44 the binary version, then the source-name will be followed by a
45 source-version in parenthesis. This can happen when the upload is
46 a binary-only non-maintainer upload.
47 Binary: binary-package-list (required in context)
49 This folded field is a space-separated list of binary packages to
50 upload. If the upload is source-only, then the field is omitted
51 (since dpkg 1.19.3).
52 Architecture: arch-list
54 Lists the architectures of the files currently being uploaded.
55 Common architectures are amd64, armel, i386, etc. Note that the
56 all value is meant for packages that are architecture independent.
57 If the source for the package is also being uploaded, the special
58 entry source is also present. Architecture wildcards must never be
59 present in the list.
60 Version: version-string (required)
62 Typically, this is the original package's version number in
63 whatever form the program's author uses. It may also include a
64 Debian revision number (for non-native packages). The exact format
65 and sorting algorithm are described in deb-version(7).
66 Distribution: distributions (required)
68 Lists one or more space-separated distributions where this version
69 should be installed when it is uploaded to the archive.
70 Urgency: urgency (recommended)
72 The urgency of the upload. The currently known values, in
73 increasing order of urgency, are: low, medium, high, critical and
74 emergency.
75 Maintainer: fullname-email (required)
77 Should be in the format “Joe Bloggs <jbloggs@example.org>”, and is
78 typically the person who created the package, as opposed to the
79 author of the software that was packaged.
80 Changed-By: fullname-email
82 Should be in the format “Joe Bloggs <jbloggs@example.org>”, and is
83 typically the person who prepared the package changes for this
84 release.
85 Description: (recommended)
87 binary-package-name - binary-package-summary
88 This multiline field contains a list of binary package names
89 followed by a space, a dash (‘-’) and their possibly truncated
90 short descriptions. If the upload is source-only, then the field
91 is omitted (since dpkg 1.19.3).
92 Closes: bug-number-list
94 A space-separated list of bug report numbers for bug reports that
95 have been resolved with this upload. The distribution archive
96 software might use this field to automatically close the referred
97 bug numbers in the distribution bug tracking system.
98 Binary-Only: yes
100 This field denotes that the upload is a binary-only non-maintainer
101 build. It originates from the binary-only=yes key/value from the
102 changelog metadata entry.
103 Built-For-Profiles: profile-list
105 This field specifies a whitespace separated list of build profiles
106 that this upload was built with.
107 Changes: (required)
109 changelog-entries
110 This multiline field contains the concatenated text of all
111 changelog entries that are part of the upload. To make this a
112 valid multiline field empty lines are replaced with a single full
113 stop (‘.’) and all lines are indented by one space character. The
114 exact content depends on the changelog format.
115 Files: (required)
117 md5sum size section priority filename
118 This multiline field contains a list of files with an md5sum, size,
119 section and priority for each one.
120 The first line of the field value (the part on the same line as the
122 field name followed by a colon) is always empty. The content of
123 the field is expressed as continuation lines, one line per file.
124 Each line consists of space-separated entries describing the file:
125 the md5sum, the file size, the file section, the file priority, and
126 the file name.
127 This field lists all files that make up the upload. The list of
129 files in this field must match the list of files in the other
130 related Checksums fields.
131 Checksums-Sha1: (required)
133 Checksums-Sha256: (required)
134 checksum size filename
135 These multiline fields contain a list of files with a checksum and
136 size for each one. These fields have the same syntax and differ
137 only in the checksum algorithm used: SHA-1 for Checksums-Sha1 and
138 SHA-256 for Checksums-Sha256.
139 The first line of the field value (the part on the same line as the
141 field name followed by a colon) is always empty. The content of
142 the field is expressed as continuation lines, one line per file.
143 Each line consists of space-separated entries describing the file:
144 the checksum, the file size, and the file name.
145 These fields list all files that make up the upload. The list of
147 files in these fields must match the list of files in the Files
148 field and the other related Checksums fields.
149
151 The Files field is inconsistent with the other Checksums fields. The
152 Changed-By and Maintainer fields have confusing names. The
153 Distribution field contains information about what is commonly referred
154 to as a suite.
155
157 deb822(5), deb-src-control(5), deb-version(7).
1581.21.21 2023-02-25 deb-changes(5)