deb-changes

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.  Each field begins with  a  tag,  such  as
       Source  or Binary (case insensitive), followed by a colon, and the body
       of the field.  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 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
       deb-src-control(5), deb-version(7).

1.19.7                            2022-05-25                    deb-changes(5)