deb-changes(5) dpkg suite deb-changes(5)
NAME
deb-changes - Debian changes file format
SYNOPSIS
filename.changes
DESCRIPTION
Each Debian upload is composed of a .changes control file, which
contains a number of fields in deb822(5) format.
Each field begins with a tag, such as Source or Binary (case
insensitive), followed by a colon, and the body of the field (case
sensitive unless stated otherwise). Fields are delimited only by field
tags. In other words, field text may be multiple lines in length, but
the installation tools will generally join lines when processing the
body of the field (except in case of the multiline fields Description,
Changes, Files, Checksums-Sha1 and Checksums-Sha256, see below).
The control data might be enclosed in an OpenPGP ASCII Armored
signature, as specified in RFC4880.
FIELDS
Format: format-version (required)
The value of this field declares the format version of the file.
The syntax of the field value is a version number with a major and
minor component. Backward incompatible changes to the format will
bump the major version, and backward compatible changes (such as
field additions) will bump the minor version. The current format
version is 1.8.
Date: release-date (required)
The date the package was built or last edited. It must be in the
same format as the date in a deb-changelog(5) entry.
The value of this field is usually extracted from the
debian/changelog file.
Source: source-name [(source-version)] (required)
The name of the source package. If the source version differs from
the binary version, then the source-name will be followed by a
source-version in parenthesis. This can happen when the upload is
a binary-only non-maintainer upload.
Binary: binary-package-list (required in context)
This folded field is a space-separated list of binary packages to
upload. If the upload is source-only, then the field is omitted
(since dpkg 1.19.3).
Architecture: arch-list
Lists the architectures of the files currently being uploaded.
Common architectures are amd64, armel, i386, etc. Note that the
all value is meant for packages that are architecture independent.
If the source for the package is also being uploaded, the special
entry source is also present. Architecture wildcards must never be
present in the list.
Version: version-string (required)
Typically, this is the original package's version number in
whatever form the program's author uses. It may also include a
Debian revision number (for non-native packages). The exact format
and sorting algorithm are described in deb-version(7).
Distribution: distributions (required)
Lists one or more space-separated distributions where this version
should be installed when it is uploaded to the archive.
Urgency: urgency (recommended)
The urgency of the upload. The currently known values, in
increasing order of urgency, are: low, medium, high, critical and
emergency.
Maintainer: fullname-email (required)
Should be in the format “Joe Bloggs <jbloggs@example.org>”, and is
typically the person who created the package, as opposed to the
author of the software that was packaged.
Changed-By: fullname-email
Should be in the format “Joe Bloggs <jbloggs@example.org>”, and is
typically the person who prepared the package changes for this
release.
Description: (recommended)
binary-package-name - binary-package-summary
This multiline field contains a list of binary package names
followed by a space, a dash (‘-’) and their possibly truncated
short descriptions. If the upload is source-only, then the field
is omitted (since dpkg 1.19.3).
Closes: bug-number-list
A space-separated list of bug report numbers for bug reports that
have been resolved with this upload. The distribution archive
software might use this field to automatically close the referred
bug numbers in the distribution bug tracking system.
Binary-Only: yes
This field denotes that the upload is a binary-only non-maintainer
build. It originates from the binary-only=yes key/value from the
changelog metadata entry.
Built-For-Profiles: profile-list
This field specifies a whitespace separated list of build profiles
that this upload was built with.
Changes: (required)
changelog-entries
This multiline field contains the concatenated text of all
changelog entries that are part of the upload. To make this a
valid multiline field empty lines are replaced with a single full
stop (‘.’) and all lines are indented by one space character. The
exact content depends on the changelog format.
Files: (required)
md5sum size section priority filename
This multiline field contains a list of files with an md5sum, size,
section and priority for each one.
The first line of the field value (the part on the same line as the
field name followed by a colon) is always empty. The content of
the field is expressed as continuation lines, one line per file.
Each line consists of space-separated entries describing the file:
the md5sum, the file size, the file section, the file priority, and
the file name.
This field lists all files that make up the upload. The list of
files in this field must match the list of files in the other
related Checksums fields.
Checksums-Sha1: (required)
Checksums-Sha256: (required)
checksum size filename
These multiline fields contain a list of files with a checksum and
size for each one. These fields have the same syntax and differ
only in the checksum algorithm used: SHA-1 for Checksums-Sha1 and
SHA-256 for Checksums-Sha256.
The first line of the field value (the part on the same line as the
field name followed by a colon) is always empty. The content of
the field is expressed as continuation lines, one line per file.
Each line consists of space-separated entries describing the file:
the checksum, the file size, and the file name.
These fields list all files that make up the upload. The list of
files in these fields must match the list of files in the Files
field and the other related Checksums fields.
BUGS
The Files field is inconsistent with the other Checksums fields. The
Changed-By and Maintainer fields have confusing names. The
Distribution field contains information about what is commonly referred
to as a suite.
SEE ALSO
deb822(5), deb-src-control(5), deb-version(7).
1.21.22 2023-05-11 deb-changes(5)
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