.\" -*- mode: troff; coding: utf-8 -*- .\" Automatically generated by Pod::Man 5.01 (Pod::Simple 3.43) .\" .\" Standard preamble: .\" ======================================================================== .de Sp \" Vertical space (when we can't use .PP) .if t .sp .5v .if n .sp .. .de Vb \" Begin verbatim text .ft CW .nf .ne \\$1 .. .de Ve \" End verbatim text .ft R .fi .. .\" \*(C` and \*(C' are quotes in nroff, nothing in troff, for use with C<>. .ie n \{\ . ds C` "" . ds C' "" 'br\} .el\{\ . ds C` . ds C' 'br\} .\" .\" Escape single quotes in literal strings from groff's Unicode transform. .ie \n(.g .ds Aq \(aq .el .ds Aq ' .\" .\" If the F register is >0, we'll generate index entries on stderr for .\" titles (.TH), headers (.SH), subsections (.SS), items (.Ip), and index .\" entries marked with X<> in POD. Of course, you'll have to process the .\" output yourself in some meaningful fashion. .\" .\" Avoid warning from groff about undefined register 'F'. .de IX .. .nr rF 0 .if \n(.g .if rF .nr rF 1 .if (\n(rF:(\n(.g==0)) \{\ . if \nF \{\ . de IX . tm Index:\\$1\t\\n%\t"\\$2" .. . if !\nF==2 \{\ . nr % 0 . nr F 2 . \} . \} .\} .rr rF .\" ======================================================================== .\" .IX Title "deb-changelog 5" .TH deb-changelog 5 2024-08-01 1.22.11 "dpkg suite" .\" For nroff, turn off justification. Always turn off hyphenation; it makes .\" way too many mistakes in technical documents. .if n .ad l .nh .SH NAME deb\-changelog \- dpkg source packages' changelog file format .SH SYNOPSIS .IX Header "SYNOPSIS" \&\fBdebian/changelog\fR .SH DESCRIPTION .IX Header "DESCRIPTION" Changes in the packaged version of a project are explained in the changelog file \fIdebian/changelog\fR. This includes modifications made in the source package compared to the upstream one as well as other changes and updates to the package. .PP The format of the \fIdebian/changelog\fR allows the package building tools to discover which version of the package is being built and find out other release-specific information. .PP That format is a series of entries like this: .PP \fIpackage\fR (\fIversion\fR) \fIdistributions\fR; \fImetadata\fR [optional blank line(s), stripped] * \fIchange-details\fR \fImore-change-details\fR [blank line(s), included in \fBdpkg\-parsechangelog\fR\|(1) output] * \fIeven-more-change-details\fR [optional blank line(s), stripped] \-\- \fImaintainer-name\fR <\fIemail-address\fR> \fIdate\fR .PP \&\fIpackage\fR and \fIversion\fR are the source package name and version number. \&\fIversion\fR is delimited by parenthesis U+00028 \(oq\fB(\fR\(cq and U+0029 \(oq\fB)\fR\(cq. .PP \&\fIdistributions\fR lists one or more space-separated distributions where this version should be installed when it is uploaded; it is copied to the \&\fBDistribution\fR field in the \fI.changes\fR file. \&\fIdistributions\fR must be terminated by a semicolon (U+003B \(oq\fB;\fR\(cq). .PP \&\fImetadata\fR lists zero or more comma-separated \fIkeyword\fR=\fIvalue\fR items. Each keyword can contain only minus and case insensitive alphanumeric characters, as they need to be mapped to \fBdeb822\fR\|(5) field names. The only \fIkeyword\fRs currently supported by \fBdpkg\fR are: .IP \fBurgency\fR 4 .IX Item "urgency" Its value is used for the \fBUrgency\fR field in the \&\fI.changes\fR file for the upload. .IP \fBbinary-only\fR 4 .IX Item "binary-only" With a \fByes\fR value, it is used to denote that this changelog entry is for a binary-only non-maintainer upload (an automatic binary rebuild with the only change being the changelog entry). .PP The change details may in fact be any series of lines starting with at least two spaces (U+0020 \fBSPACE\fR), but conventionally each change starts with an asterisk and a separating space and continuation lines are indented so as to bring them in line with the start of the text above. Blank lines may be used here to separate groups of changes, if desired. .PP If this upload resolves bugs recorded in the distribution bug tracking system, they may be automatically closed on the inclusion of this package into the distribution archive by including the string: .Sp .RS 4 \&\fBCloses: #\fR\fInnnnn\fR .RE .PP in the change details, where \fB#\fR\fInnnnn\fR is the bug number. The exact Perl regular expression is: .Sp .RS 4 \&\fB/closes:\es*(?:bug)?\e#?\es?\ed+(?:,\es*(?:bug)?\e#?\es?\ed+)*/i\fR .RE .PP That is, the string should consist of the word \fBcloses:\fR followed by a comma-separated list of bug numbers. Bug numbers may be preceded by the word \fBbug\fR and/or a \fB#\fR sign, as in \f(CW\*(C`Closes: 42, bug#43, #44, bug 45\*(C'\fR. The words \fBcloses:\fR and \fBbug\fR are not case sensitive. The list of bug numbers may span multiple lines. .PP This information is conveyed via the \fBCloses\fR field in the \fI.changes\fR file. Where, depending on the archive maintenance software, all the bug numbers listed might get automatically closed. .PP The maintainer name and email address used in the changelog should be the details of the person who prepared this release of the package. They are \fBnot\fR necessarily those of the uploader or usual package maintainer. The information here will be copied to the \fBChanged-By\fR field in the \&\fI.changes\fR file, and then later might be used to send an acknowledgment when the upload has been installed in the distribution archive. .PP The \fIdate\fR has the following format (compatible and with the same semantics of RFC2822 and RFC5322, or what \(Fodate \-R\(Fc generates): .Sp .RS 4 \&\fIday-of-week\fR\fB,\fR \fIdd\fR \fImonth\fR \fIyyyy\fR \fIhh\fR\fB:\fR\fImm\fR\fB:\fR\fIss\fR \fB+\fR\fIzzzz\fR .RE .PP where: .IP \fIday-of-week\fR 4 .IX Item "day-of-week" Is one of: \&\fBMon\fR, \fBTue\fR, \fBWed\fR, \fBThu\fR, \fBFri\fR, \fBSat\fR, \fBSun\fR. .IP \fIdd\fR 4 .IX Item "dd" Is a one\- or two-digit day of the month (\fB01\fR\-\fB31\fR), where the leading zero is optional, but conventionally does not get omitted. .IP \fImonth\fR 4 .IX Item "month" Is one of: \&\fBJan\fR, \fBFeb\fR, \fBMar\fR, \fBApr\fR, \fBMay\fR, \fBJun\fR, \fBJul\fR, \fBAug\fR, \&\fBSep\fR, \fBOct\fR, \fBNov\fR, \fBDec\fR. .IP \fIyyyy\fR 4 .IX Item "yyyy" Is the four-digit year (e.g. 2010). .IP \fIhh\fR 4 .IX Item "hh" Is the two-digit hour (\fB00\fR\-\fB23\fR). .IP \fImm\fR 4 .IX Item "mm" Is the two-digit minutes (\fB00\fR\-\fB59\fR). .IP \fIss\fR 4 .IX Item "ss" Is the two-digit seconds (\fB00\fR\-\fB60\fR). .IP [\fB+\-\fR]\fIzzzz\fR 4 .IX Item "[+-]zzzz" Is the time zone offset from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). \(oq\fB+\fR\(cq indicates that the time is ahead of (i.e., east of) UTC and \(oq\fB\-\fR\(cq indicates that the time is behind (i.e., west of) UTC. The first two digits indicate the hour difference from UTC and the last two digits indicate the number of additional minutes difference from UTC. The last two digits must be in the range \fB00\fR\-\fB59\fR. .PP The first \(lqtitle\(rq line with the package name must start at the left hand margin. The \(lqtrailer\(rq line with the maintainer and date details must be preceded by exactly one space (U+0020 \fBSPACE\fR). The maintainer details and the date must be separated by exactly two spaces (U+0020 \fBSPACE\fR). Each part of the \fIdate\fR can be separated by one or more spaces (U+0020 \fBSPACE\fR), except after the comma where it can be separated by zero or more spaces (U+0020 \fBSPACE\fR). .PP Any line that consists entirely (i.e., no leading whitespace) of \fB#\fR or \fB/* */\fR style comments or RCS keywords. .PP Vim modelines or Emacs local variables, and ancient changelog entries with other formats at the end of the file should be accepted and preserved on output, but their contents might be otherwise ignored and parsing stopped at that point. .PP The entire changelog must be encoded in UTF\-8. .SH FILES .IX Header "FILES" .IP \fIdebian/changelog\fR 4 .IX Item "debian/changelog" .SH EXAMPLES .IX Header "EXAMPLES" .Vb 1 \& dpkg (1.17.18) unstable; urgency=low \& \& [ Guillem Jover ] \& * Handle empty minimum versions when initializing dependency versions, \& as the code is mapping the minimum version 0 to \*(Aq\*(Aq to avoid outputting \& useless versions. Regression introduced in dpkg 1.17.17. Closes: #764929 \& \& [ Updated programs translations ] \& * Catalan (Guillem Jover). \& \& [ Updated dselect translations ] \& * Catalan (Guillem Jover). \& * German (Sven Joachim). \& \& \-\- Guillem Jover Sun, 12 Oct 2014 15:47:44 +0200 .Ve .SH "SEE ALSO" .IX Header "SEE ALSO" \&\fBdeb822\fR\|(5), \&\fBdeb\-changes\fR\|(5), \&\fBdeb\-version\fR\|(7), \&\fBdpkg\-parsechangelog\fR\|(1).