Manual: dpkg-parsechangelog

dpkg-parsechangelog(1)					 dpkg suite				      dpkg-parsechangelog(1)

NAME
       dpkg-parsechangelog - parse Debian changelog files

SYNOPSIS
       dpkg-parsechangelog [option...]

DESCRIPTION
       dpkg-parsechangelog reads and parses the changelog of an unpacked Debian source tree and outputs the information in
       it to standard output in a machine-readable form.

OPTIONS
       -l, --file changelog-file
	   Specifies the changelog file to read information from.  A ‘-’ can be used to specify reading from standard input.
	   The default is debian/changelog.

       -F changelog-format
	   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".

       -L libdir
	   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.

       -S, --show-field field
	   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.

       --version
	   Show the version and exit.

   Parser Options
       The  following  options can be used to influence the output of the changelog parser, for example the range of entries
       or the format of the output.

       --format output-format
	   Set the output format.  Currently supported values are dpkg and rfc822.  dpkg is the classic output format  (from
	   before  this	 option	 existed)  and	the  default.	It  consists  of  one  stanza  in Debian control format (see
	   deb-control(5)).  If more than one entry is requested, then most fields are taken from the first  entry  (usually
	   the most recent entry), except otherwise stated:

	   Source: pkg-name
	       The source package name.

	   Version: version
	       The source version number.  Note: For binary-only releases there might be no corresponding source release.

	   Distribution: target-distribution
	       A  space-separated  list	 of one or more distribution names where this version should be installed when it is
	       uploaded.

	   Urgency: urgency
	       The highest urgency of all included entries is used, followed by the concatenated (space-separated)  comments
	       from all the versions requested.

	   Maintainer: author
	       The  name  and  email address of the person who prepared these changes, they are not necessarily those of the
	       uploader or the usual package maintainer.

	   Date: date
	       The date of the entry as a string, as it appears in the changelog.  With a strptime(3) format "%a, %d  %b  %Y
	       %T %z", but where the day of the week might not actually correspond to the real day obtained from the rest of
	       the  date  string.  If you need a more accurate representation of the date, use the Timestamp field, but take
	       into account it might not be possible to map it back to the exact value in this field.

	   Timestamp: timestamp
	       The date of the entry as a timestamp in seconds since the epoch (since dpkg 1.18.8).

	   Closes: bug-number
	       The Closes fields of all included entries are merged.

	   Changes: changelog-entries
	       The text of all changelog entries is concatenated.   To	make  this  field  a  valid  Debian  control  format
	       multiline  field	 empty	lines  are  replaced  with a single full stop and all lines is intended by one space
	       character.  The exact content depends on the changelog format.

	   The Version, Distribution, Urgency, Maintainer and Changes fields are mandatory.

	   There might be additional user-defined fields present.

	   The rfc822 format uses the same fields but outputs a separate  stanza  for  each  changelog	entry  so  that	 all
	   metadata for each entry is preserved.

       --reverse
	   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.

       --all
	   Include all changes.	 Note: Other options have no effect when this is in use.

       -s, --since version
       -v version
	   Include all changes later than version.

       -u, --until version
	   Include all changes earlier than version.

       -f, --from version
	   Include all changes equal or later than version.

       -t, --to version
	   Include all changes up to or equal than version.

       -c, --count number
       -n number
	   Include number entries from the top (or the tail if number is lower than 0).

       -o, --offset number
	   Change the starting point for --count, counted from the top (or the tail if number is lower than 0).

CHANGELOG FORMATS
       It is possible to use a different format to the standard one, by providing a parser for that alternative format.

       In  order  to  have  dpkg-parsechangelog	 run the new parser, a line must be included within the last 40 lines of the
       changelog file, matching the Perl regular expression: “\schangelog-format:\s+([0-9a-z]+)\W”.  The part in parentheses
       should be the name of the format.  For example:

	   @@@ changelog-format: otherformat @@@

       Changelog format names are non-empty strings of lowercase alphanumerics (“a-z0-9”).

       If such a line exists then dpkg-parsechangelog will look	 for  the  parser  as  a  Dpkg::Changelog::Otherformat	perl
       module;	it  is	an  error  for	it  not	 being	present.   The	parser name in the perl module will be automatically
       capitalized.  The default changelog format is debian, and a parser for it is provided by default.

       The parser should be derived from the Dpkg::Changelog class and implement the required documented interface.

       If the changelog format which is being parsed always or almost always leaves a blank line between  individual  change
       notes, these blank lines should be stripped out, so as to make the resulting output compact.

       If the changelog format does not contain date or package name information this information should be omitted from the
       output.	The parser should not attempt to synthesize it or find it from other sources.

       If  the changelog does not have the expected format the parser should error out, rather than trying to muddle through
       and possibly generating incorrect output.

       A changelog parser may not interact with the user at all.

NOTES
       All Parser Options except for -v are only supported since dpkg 1.14.16.

       Short option parsing with non-bundled values available only since dpkg 1.18.0.

ENVIRONMENT
       DPKG_COLORS
	   Sets the color mode (since dpkg 1.18.5).  The currently accepted values are: auto (default), always and never.

       DPKG_NLS
	   If set, it will be used to decide whether to activate Native Language Support, also known as internationalization
	   (or i18n) support (since dpkg 1.19.0).  The accepted values are: 0 and 1 (default).

FILES
       debian/changelog
	   The changelog file, used to obtain version-dependent information about the source package, such  as	the  urgency
	   and distribution of an upload, the changes made since a particular release, and the source version number itself.

BUGS
       The  Maintainer field has a confusing name matching the field in the debian/control file but not its exact semantics,
       where its meaning would be better represented by the Changed-By field name used in the .changes file.

SEE ALSO
       deb-changelog(5).

1.23.7							 2026-03-31				      dpkg-parsechangelog(1)