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, e.g.
       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 paragraph 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
           Version: version
           Distribution: target-distribution
           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
           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 paragraph 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.

SEE ALSO

       deb-changelog(5).