# deb-changes

## NAME



           deb-changes - Debian upload changes control 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 RFC9580.
    


## 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).
    
               **Note** : On some vendors, dpkg has been made to permit native
               sources with non-native versions, making this incoherent and
               adding to the confusion of the concept, where in addition this
               tends to be a trap for accidental mistakes.
    
           **Distribution:**_distribution_ s (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.
    
               If the section or priority are omitted from the package, these
               default to **unknown** and **optional** respectively (since dpkg
               1.22.13).
    
               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.
    
               **Note** : The MD5 checksum is considered weak, and should never be
               assumed to be sufficient for secure verification, but this
               field cannot be omitted as it provides metadata not available
               anywhere else.
    
           **Checksums-Sha1:**(required, weak)
           **Checksums-Sha256:**(required, strong)
            _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.
    
               **Note** : The SHA-1 checksum is considered weak, and should never
               be assumed to be sufficient for secure verification.
    


## 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.
    


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