dpkg-parsechangelog(1) dpkg utilities dpkg-parsechangelog(1)
NAME
dpkg-parsechangelog - parse Debian changelog files
SYNOPSIS
dpkg-parsechangelog [options]
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
-lchangelogfile
Specifies the change log file to read information from. The default is debian/changelog.
-Fchangelogformat
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.
-Llibdir
Specify an additional directory to search for parser scripts. This directory is searched before the default directories which are
currently /usr/local/lib/dpkg/parsechangelog and /usr/lib/dpkg/parsechangelog.
-h, --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, e.g. the range of entries or the format of the output.
They need to be supported by the parser script in question. See also CAVEATS.
--format outputformat
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 paragraph in Debian control format (see deb-control(5)). If more than one entry is
requested, then most fields are taken from the latest entry, except otherwise stated:
Source: <pkg name>
Version: <version>
Distribution: <target distribution>
Urgency: <urgency>
The highest urgency of all included entries is used.
Maintainer: <author>
Date: <date>
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.
There might be additional user-defined fields present.
The rfc822 format uses the same fields but outputs a separate paragraph for each changelog entry so that all metadata for each entry
is preserved.
--since version, -sversion, -vversion
include all changes later than version.
--until version, -uversion
include all changes earlier than version.
--from version, -fversion
include all changes equal or later than version.
--to version, -tversion
include all changes up to or equal than version.
--count number, -cnumber, -nnumber
include number entries from the top (or the tail if number is lower than 0).
--offset number, -onumber
change the starting point for --count, counted from the top (or the tail if number is lower than 0).
--all include all changes. Note: other options have no effect when this is in use.
CAVEATS
All Parser Options except for -v are only supported in dpkg, version 1.14.16 and later. Third party parsers for changelog formats other
than debian might not support all options.
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.
AUTHORS
Copyright (C) 1995-1996 Ian Jackson
Copyright (C) 2000 Wichert Akkerman
Copyright (C) 2007, 2008 Frank Lichtenheld
This is free software; see the GNU General Public Licence version 2 or later for copying conditions. There is NO WARRANTY.
Debian Project 2009-05-19 dpkg-parsechangelog(1)