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 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).

1.21.1                            2024-02-23                    deb-changes(5)