# man > deb-changes(5)

---
type: CommandReference
command: deb-changes
mode: man
section: 5
source: man-pages
---

## Quick Reference
- `Format: 1.8` — Format version of the .changes file
- `Source: source-name (source-version)` — Name of source package
- `Binary: binary-package-list` — Space-separated list of binary packages
- `Architecture: arch-list` — Architectures of files being uploaded
- `Version: version-string` — Package version number
- `Distribution: distributions` — Target distributions for upload
- `Urgency: urgency` — Urgency of upload (low, medium, high, critical, emergency)
- `Changes: changelog-entries` — Concatenated changelog entries

## Name
deb-changes - Debian changes file format

## Synopsis
`_filename_.changes`

The control data may be enclosed in an OpenPGP ASCII Armored signature, as specified in RFC4880.

## Fields
- `Format: format-version` (required) — Format version of the file. Current version is **1.8**.
- `Date: release-date` (required) — Date package was built or last edited. Same format as deb-changelog entry.
- `Source: source-name (source-version)` (required) — Name of source package. If source version differs from binary, source-version in parentheses.
- `Binary: binary-package-list` (required in context) — Space-separated list of binary packages. Omitted if source-only (since dpkg 1.19.3).
- `Architecture: arch-list` — Architectures of files being uploaded. Common: amd64, armel, i386, all. "source" present if source also uploaded. No wildcards.
- `Version: version-string` (required) — Original package version number, possibly with Debian revision. Format and sorting as per deb-version(7).
- `Distribution: distributions` (required) — Space-separated distributions where version should be installed.
- `Urgency: urgency` (recommended) — Urgency: low, medium, high, critical, emergency.
- `Maintainer: fullname-email` (required) — Person who created the package, format "Joe Bloggs <jbloggs@example.org>".
- `Changed-By: fullname-email` — Person who prepared the package changes for this release.
- `Description: binary-package-name - binary-package-summary` (recommended) — Multiline: list of binary package names with truncated descriptions. Omitted if source-only (since dpkg 1.19.3).
- `Closes: bug-number-list` — Space-separated list of bug numbers resolved with this upload.
- `Binary-Only: yes` — Denotes binary-only non-maintainer build.
- `Built-For-Profiles: profile-list` — Whitespace-separated list of build profiles used.
- `Changes: changelog-entries` (required) — Multiline: concatenated text of all changelog entries. Empty lines replaced with single full stop, lines indented by one space.
- `Files: md5sum size section priority filename` (required) — Multiline: list of files with md5sum, size, section, priority. First line empty.
- `Checksums-Sha1: checksum size filename` (required) — Multiline: list with SHA-1 checksum.
- `Checksums-Sha256: checksum size filename` (required) — Multiline: list with SHA-256 checksum.

## 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)](http://localhost/phpMan.php/man/deb822/5/markdown)
- [deb-src-control(5)](http://localhost/phpMan.php/man/deb-src-control/5/markdown)
- [deb-version(7)](http://localhost/phpMan.php/man/deb-version/7/markdown)