{
    "mode": "man",
    "parameter": "dpkg-parsechangelog",
    "section": "1",
    "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/dpkg-parsechangelog/1/json",
    "generated": "2026-05-30T06:08:33Z",
    "synopsis": "dpkg-parsechangelog [option...]",
    "sections": {
        "NAME": {
            "content": "dpkg-parsechangelog - parse Debian changelog files\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "SYNOPSIS": {
            "content": "dpkg-parsechangelog [option...]\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "DESCRIPTION": {
            "content": "dpkg-parsechangelog reads and parses the changelog of an unpacked Debian source tree and\noutputs the information in it to standard output in a machine-readable form.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "OPTIONS": {
            "content": "",
            "subsections": [
                {
                    "name": "-l --file",
                    "content": "Specifies the changelog file to read information from.  A ‘-’ can be used to specify\nreading from standard input.  The default is debian/changelog.\n",
                    "flag": "-l",
                    "long": "--file"
                },
                {
                    "name": "-F",
                    "content": "Specifies the format of the changelog. By default the format is read from a special line\nnear the bottom of the changelog or failing that defaults to the debian standard format.\nSee also CHANGELOG FORMATS.\n",
                    "flag": "-F"
                },
                {
                    "name": "-L",
                    "content": "Obsolete option without effect (since dpkg 1.18.8).  Setting the perl environment\nvariables PERL5LIB or PERLLIB has a similar effect when looking for the parser perl\nmodules.\n",
                    "flag": "-L"
                },
                {
                    "name": "-S --show-field",
                    "content": "Specifies the name of the field to show (since dpkg 1.17.0).  The field name is not\nprinted, only its value.\n\n-?, --help\nShow the usage message and exit.\n",
                    "flag": "-S",
                    "long": "--show-field"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--version",
                    "content": "Show the version and exit.\n",
                    "long": "--version"
                },
                {
                    "name": "Parser Options",
                    "content": "The following options can be used to influence the output of the changelog parser, e.g. the\nrange of entries or the format of the output.\n\n--format output-format\nSet the output format. Currently supported values are dpkg and rfc822.  dpkg is the\nclassic output format (from before this option existed) and the default. It consists of\none paragraph in Debian control format (see deb-control(5)). If more than one entry is\nrequested, then most fields are taken from the first entry (usually the most recent\nentry), except otherwise stated:\n\nSource: pkg-name\nVersion: version\nDistribution: target-distribution\nUrgency: urgency\nThe highest urgency of all included entries is used, followed by the concatenated\n(space-separated) comments from all the versions requested.\n\nMaintainer: author\nDate: date\nThe date of the entry as a string, as it appears in the changelog.  With a\nstrptime(3) format \"%a, %d %b %Y %T %z\", but where the day of the week might not\nactually correspond to the real day obtained from the rest of the date string.  If\nyou need a more accurate representation of the date, use the Timestamp field, but\ntake into account it might not be possible to map it back to the exact value in this\nfield.\n\nTimestamp: timestamp\nThe date of the entry as a timestamp in seconds since the epoch (since dpkg 1.18.8).\n\nCloses: bug-number\nThe Closes fields of all included entries are merged.\n\nChanges: changelog-entries\nThe text of all changelog entries is concatenated. To make this field a valid Debian\ncontrol format multiline field empty lines are replaced with a single full stop and\nall lines is intended by one space character. The exact content depends on the\nchangelog format.\n\nThe Version, Distribution, Urgency, Maintainer and Changes fields are mandatory.\n\nThere might be additional user-defined fields present.\n\nThe rfc822 format uses the same fields but outputs a separate paragraph for each\nchangelog entry so that all metadata for each entry is preserved.\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--reverse",
                    "content": "Include all changes in reverse order (since dpkg 1.19.1).\n\nNote: For the dpkg format the first entry will be the most ancient entry.\n",
                    "long": "--reverse"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--all",
                    "content": "Include all changes.  Note: Other options have no effect when this is in use.\n",
                    "long": "--all"
                },
                {
                    "name": "-s --since",
                    "content": "",
                    "flag": "-s",
                    "long": "--since"
                },
                {
                    "name": "-v",
                    "content": "Include all changes later than version.\n",
                    "flag": "-v"
                },
                {
                    "name": "-u --until",
                    "content": "Include all changes earlier than version.\n",
                    "flag": "-u",
                    "long": "--until"
                },
                {
                    "name": "-f --from",
                    "content": "Include all changes equal or later than version.\n",
                    "flag": "-f",
                    "long": "--from"
                },
                {
                    "name": "-t --to",
                    "content": "Include all changes up to or equal than version.\n",
                    "flag": "-t",
                    "long": "--to"
                },
                {
                    "name": "-c --count",
                    "content": "",
                    "flag": "-c",
                    "long": "--count"
                },
                {
                    "name": "-n",
                    "content": "Include number entries from the top (or the tail if number is lower than 0).\n",
                    "flag": "-n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "-o --offset",
                    "content": "Change the starting point for --count, counted from the top (or the tail if number is\nlower than 0).\n",
                    "flag": "-o",
                    "long": "--offset"
                }
            ]
        },
        "CHANGELOG FORMATS": {
            "content": "It is possible to use a different format to the standard one, by providing a parser for that\nalternative format.\n\nIn order to have dpkg-parsechangelog run the new parser, a line must be included within the\nlast 40 lines of the changelog file, matching the Perl regular expression:\n“\\schangelog-format:\\s+([0-9a-z]+)\\W”.  The part in parentheses should be the name of the\nformat. For example:\n\n@@@ changelog-format: otherformat @@@\n\nChangelog format names are non-empty strings of lowercase alphanumerics (“a-z0-9”).\n\nIf such a line exists then dpkg-parsechangelog will look for the parser as a\nDpkg::Changelog::Otherformat perl module; it is an error for it not being present.  The\nparser name in the perl module will be automatically capitalized.  The default changelog\nformat is debian, and a parser for it is provided by default.\n\nThe parser should be derived from the Dpkg::Changelog class and implement the required\ndocumented interface.\n\nIf the changelog format which is being parsed always or almost always leaves a blank line\nbetween individual change notes, these blank lines should be stripped out, so as to make the\nresulting output compact.\n\nIf the changelog format does not contain date or package name information this information\nshould be omitted from the output. The parser should not attempt to synthesize it or find it\nfrom other sources.\n\nIf the changelog does not have the expected format the parser should error out, rather than\ntrying to muddle through and possibly generating incorrect output.\n\nA changelog parser may not interact with the user at all.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "NOTES": {
            "content": "All Parser Options except for -v are only supported since dpkg 1.14.16.\n\nShort option parsing with non-bundled values available only since dpkg 1.18.0.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "ENVIRONMENT": {
            "content": "DPKGCOLORS\nSets the color mode (since dpkg 1.18.5).  The currently accepted values are: auto\n(default), always and never.\n\nDPKGNLS\nIf set, it will be used to decide whether to activate Native Language Support, also known\nas internationalization (or i18n) support (since dpkg 1.19.0).  The accepted values are:\n0 and 1 (default).\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "FILES": {
            "content": "",
            "subsections": [
                {
                    "name": "debian/changelog",
                    "content": "The changelog file, used to obtain version-dependent information about the source\npackage, such as the urgency and distribution of an upload, the changes made since a\nparticular release, and the source version number itself.\n"
                }
            ]
        },
        "SEE ALSO": {
            "content": "deb-changelog(5).\n\n\n\n1.21.1                                       2025-09-09                       dpkg-parsechangelog(1)",
            "subsections": []
        }
    },
    "summary": "dpkg-parsechangelog - parse Debian changelog files",
    "flags": [
        {
            "flag": "-l",
            "long": "--file",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Specifies the changelog file to read information from. A ‘-’ can be used to specify reading from standard input. The default is debian/changelog."
        },
        {
            "flag": "-F",
            "long": null,
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Specifies the format of the changelog. By default the format is read from a special line near the bottom of the changelog or failing that defaults to the debian standard format. See also CHANGELOG FORMATS."
        },
        {
            "flag": "-L",
            "long": null,
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Obsolete option without effect (since dpkg 1.18.8). Setting the perl environment variables PERL5LIB or PERLLIB has a similar effect when looking for the parser perl modules."
        },
        {
            "flag": "-S",
            "long": "--show-field",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Specifies the name of the field to show (since dpkg 1.17.0). The field name is not printed, only its value. -?, --help Show the usage message and exit."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--version",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Show the version and exit."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--reverse",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Include all changes in reverse order (since dpkg 1.19.1). Note: For the dpkg format the first entry will be the most ancient entry."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--all",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Include all changes. Note: Other options have no effect when this is in use."
        },
        {
            "flag": "-s",
            "long": "--since",
            "arg": null,
            "description": ""
        },
        {
            "flag": "-v",
            "long": null,
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Include all changes later than version."
        },
        {
            "flag": "-u",
            "long": "--until",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Include all changes earlier than version."
        },
        {
            "flag": "-f",
            "long": "--from",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Include all changes equal or later than version."
        },
        {
            "flag": "-t",
            "long": "--to",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Include all changes up to or equal than version."
        },
        {
            "flag": "-c",
            "long": "--count",
            "arg": null,
            "description": ""
        },
        {
            "flag": "-n",
            "long": null,
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Include number entries from the top (or the tail if number is lower than 0)."
        },
        {
            "flag": "-o",
            "long": "--offset",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Change the starting point for --count, counted from the top (or the tail if number is lower than 0)."
        }
    ],
    "examples": [],
    "see_also": [
        {
            "name": "deb-changelog",
            "section": "5",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/deb-changelog/5/json"
        }
    ]
}