{ "content": [ { "type": "text", "text": "# deb-changes (man)\n\n## NAME\n\ndeb-changes - Debian upload changes control file format\n\n## SYNOPSIS\n\nfilename.changes\n\n## DESCRIPTION\n\nEach Debian upload is composed of a .changes control file, which contains a number of fields\nin deb822(5) format.\n\n## Sections\n\n- **NAME**\n- **SYNOPSIS**\n- **DESCRIPTION**\n- **FIELDS** (6 subsections)\n- **BUGS**\n- **SEE ALSO**\n\nUse structuredContent.sections for detailed options, examples, and full documentation.\n" } ], "structuredContent": { "command": "deb-changes", "section": "", "mode": "man", "summary": "deb-changes - Debian upload changes control file format", "synopsis": "filename.changes", "tldr_summary": null, "tldr_examples": [], "tldr_source": null, "flags": [], "examples": [], "see_also": [ { "name": "deb822", "section": "5", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/deb822/5/json" }, { "name": "deb-src-control", "section": "5", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/deb-src-control/5/json" }, { "name": "deb-version", "section": "7", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/deb-version/7/json" } ], "section_outline": [ { "name": "NAME", "lines": 2, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "SYNOPSIS", "lines": 2, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "DESCRIPTION", "lines": 13, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "FIELDS", "lines": 49, "subsections": [ { "name": "Description: (recommended)", "lines": 10 }, { "name": "Binary-Only: yes", "lines": 7 }, { "name": "Changes: (required)", "lines": 6 }, { "name": "Files: (required)", "lines": 12 }, { "name": "Checksums-Sha1: (required)", "lines": 1 }, { "name": "Checksums-Sha256: (required)", "lines": 13 } ] }, { "name": "BUGS", "lines": 4, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "SEE ALSO", "lines": 3, "subsections": [] } ], "sections": { "NAME": { "content": "deb-changes - Debian upload changes control file format\n", "subsections": [] }, "SYNOPSIS": { "content": "filename.changes\n", "subsections": [] }, "DESCRIPTION": { "content": "Each Debian upload is composed of a .changes control file, which contains a number of fields\nin deb822(5) format.\n\nEach field begins with a tag, such as Source or Binary (case insensitive), followed by a\ncolon, and the body of the field (case sensitive unless stated otherwise). Fields are\ndelimited only by field tags. In other words, field text may be multiple lines in length,\nbut the installation tools will generally join lines when processing the body of the field\n(except in case of the multiline fields Description, Changes, Files, Checksums-Sha1 and\nChecksums-Sha256, see below).\n\nThe control data might be enclosed in an OpenPGP ASCII Armored signature, as specified in\nRFC4880.\n", "subsections": [] }, "FIELDS": { "content": "Format: format-version (required)\nThe value of this field declares the format version of the file. The syntax of the field\nvalue is a version number with a major and minor component. Backward incompatible\nchanges to the format will bump the major version, and backward compatible changes (such\nas field additions) will bump the minor version. The current format version is 1.8.\n\nDate: release-date (required)\nThe date the package was built or last edited. It must be in the same format as the date\nin a deb-changelog(5) entry.\n\nThe value of this field is usually extracted from the debian/changelog file.\n\nSource: source-name [(source-version)] (required)\nThe name of the source package. If the source version differs from the binary version,\nthen the source-name will be followed by a source-version in parenthesis. This can\nhappen when the upload is a binary-only non-maintainer upload.\n\nBinary: binary-package-list (required in context)\nThis folded field is a space-separated list of binary packages to upload. If the upload\nis source-only, then the field is omitted (since dpkg 1.19.3).\n\nArchitecture: arch-list\nLists the architectures of the files currently being uploaded. Common architectures are\namd64, armel, i386, etc. Note that the all value is meant for packages that are\narchitecture independent. If the source for the package is also being uploaded, the\nspecial entry source is also present. Architecture wildcards must never be present in\nthe list.\n\nVersion: version-string (required)\nTypically, this is the original package's version number in whatever form the program's\nauthor uses. It may also include a Debian revision number (for non-native packages).\nThe exact format and sorting algorithm are described in deb-version(7).\n\nDistribution: distributions (required)\nLists one or more space-separated distributions where this version should be installed\nwhen it is uploaded to the archive.\n\nUrgency: urgency (recommended)\nThe urgency of the upload. The currently known values, in increasing order of urgency,\nare: low, medium, high, critical and emergency.\n\nMaintainer: fullname-email (required)\nShould be in the format “Joe Bloggs ”, and is typically the person\nwho created the package, as opposed to the author of the software that was packaged.\n\nChanged-By: fullname-email\nShould be in the format “Joe Bloggs ”, and is typically the person\nwho prepared the package changes for this release.\n", "subsections": [ { "name": "Description: (recommended)", "content": "binary-package-name - binary-package-summary\nThis multiline field contains a list of binary package names followed by a space, a dash\n(‘-’) and their possibly truncated short descriptions. If the upload is source-only,\nthen the field is omitted (since dpkg 1.19.3).\n\nCloses: bug-number-list\nA space-separated list of bug report numbers for bug reports that have been resolved with\nthis upload. The distribution archive software might use this field to automatically\nclose the referred bug numbers in the distribution bug tracking system.\n" }, { "name": "Binary-Only: yes", "content": "This field denotes that the upload is a binary-only non-maintainer build. It originates\nfrom the binary-only=yes key/value from the changelog metadata entry.\n\nBuilt-For-Profiles: profile-list\nThis field specifies a whitespace separated list of build profiles that this upload was\nbuilt with.\n" }, { "name": "Changes: (required)", "content": "changelog-entries\nThis multiline field contains the concatenated text of all changelog entries that are\npart of the upload. To make this a valid multiline field empty lines are replaced with a\nsingle full stop (‘.’) and all lines are indented by one space character. The exact\ncontent depends on the changelog format.\n" }, { "name": "Files: (required)", "content": "md5sum size section priority filename\nThis multiline field contains a list of files with an md5sum, size, section and priority\nfor each one.\n\nThe first line of the field value (the part on the same line as the field name followed\nby a colon) is always empty. The content of the field is expressed as continuation\nlines, one line per file. Each line consists of space-separated entries describing the\nfile: the md5sum, the file size, the file section, the file priority, and the file name.\n\nThis field lists all files that make up the upload. The list of files in this field must\nmatch the list of files in the other related Checksums fields.\n" }, { "name": "Checksums-Sha1: (required)", "content": "" }, { "name": "Checksums-Sha256: (required)", "content": "checksum size filename\nThese multiline fields contain a list of files with a checksum and size for each one.\nThese fields have the same syntax and differ only in the checksum algorithm used: SHA-1\nfor Checksums-Sha1 and SHA-256 for Checksums-Sha256.\n\nThe first line of the field value (the part on the same line as the field name followed\nby a colon) is always empty. The content of the field is expressed as continuation\nlines, one line per file. Each line consists of space-separated entries describing the\nfile: the checksum, the file size, and the file name.\n\nThese fields list all files that make up the upload. The list of files in these fields\nmust match the list of files in the Files field and the other related Checksums fields.\n" } ] }, "BUGS": { "content": "The Files field is inconsistent with the other Checksums fields. The Changed-By and\nMaintainer fields have confusing names. The Distribution field contains information about\nwhat is commonly referred to as a suite.\n", "subsections": [] }, "SEE ALSO": { "content": "deb822(5), deb-src-control(5), deb-version(7).\n\n1.22.6 2026-05-06 deb-changes(5)", "subsections": [] } } } }