apt-listchanges(1)apt-listchanges(1)NAMEapt-listchanges — Show new changelog entries from Debian package ar‐
chives
SYNOPSISapt-listchanges [options ... ] {--apt | package.deb ... }
DESCRIPTIONapt-listchanges is a tool to show what has been changed in a new ver‐
sion of a Debian package, as compared to the version currently
installed on the system.
It does this by extracting the relevant entries from both the
NEWS.Debian and changelog[.Debian] files, usually found in
/usr/share/doc/package, from Debian package archives.
Given a set of filenames as arguments (or read from apt when using
--apt), apt-listchanges will scan the files (assumed to be Debian pack‐
age archives) for the relevant changelog entries, and display them all
in a summary, sorted by urgency.
OPTIONS--apt
Read filenames from a specially-formatted pipeline (as pro‐
vided by apt), rather than from command line arguments, and
honor certain apt-specific options in the config file. This
pipeline must be in "version 2" format, specified in the apt
configuration.
-v, --verbose
Display additional (usually unwanted) information. For
instance, print a message when a package of the same or older
version is to be installed, or when a package is to be newly
installed.
-f, --frontend
Select which frontend to use to display information to the
user. Current frontends include:
pager Uses your favorite pager to display output. By
default, the PAGER environment variable will be
used. The "pager" option may be specified in the
configuration file to select a specific pager for
use with apt-listchanges.
browser Displays an HTML-formatted changelog using a web
browser, with hyperlinks for bugs and email
addresses. By default, the BROWSER environment
variable will be used. The "browser" option may be
specified in the configuration file to select a
specific browser for use with apt-listchanges.
xterm-pager
Uses your favorite pager to display output, but
does so in an xterm (using the x-terminal-emulator
alternative) in the background. This allows you to
go on with the upgrade if you like, and continue to
browse the changelogs. You can override the termi‐
nal emulator to be used with the "xterm" configura‐
tion option.
xterm-browser
The logical combination of xterm-pager and browser.
Only appropriate for text-mode browsers.
text Dumps output to stdout, with no pauses.
mail Sends mail to the address specified with --email-
address, and does not display changelogs.
gtk Spawns a gtk window to display the changelogs.
Needs python-glade2, python-gtk2 to be installed.
none Does nothing. Can be used to prevent apt-
listchanges from running when configured to run
automatically from apt.
--email-address=address
In addition to displaying it, mail a copy of the changelog
data to the specified address. To only mail changelog
entries, use this option with the special frontend 'mail'.
-c, --confirm
Once changelogs have been displayed, ask the user whether or
not to proceed. If the user chooses not to proceed, a
nonzero exit status will be returned, and apt will abort.
-a, --all Rather than trying to display changelog entries that are
newer than the currently installed version of the package,
simply display all changelog entries for all packages. This
is useful for viewing the entire changelog of a .deb before
extracting it.
--save_seen=file
This option will cause apt-listchanges to keep track of the
last version of a package for which changelogs have been dis‐
played, to avoid redisplaying the same changelogs in a future
invocation. The database is stored in the named file. Spec‐
ify 'none' to disable this feature.
--since=version
This option will cause apt-listchanges to show the entries
later than the specified version. With this option, the only
other argument you can pass is the path to a .deb file.
--which={news|changelogs|both}
This option selects whether news (from NEWS.Debian et al.),
changelogs (from changelog.Debian et al.) or both should be
displayed. The default is to display only news.
--help Displays syntax information.
-h, --headers
These options will cause apt-listchanges to insert a header
before each package's changelog showing the name of the pack‐
age, and the names of the binary packages which are being
upgraded (if there is more than one, or it differs from the
source package name).
--debug Display some debugging information
--profile=name
Select an option profile. name corresponds to a section in
/etc/apt/listchanges.conf. The default when invoked from apt
is "apt", and "cmdline" otherwise.
--reverse Show the changelog entries in reverse order.
ENVIRONMENT
APT_LISTCHANGES_FRONTEND
Frontend to use
BROWSER Used by the browser frontend, should be set to a command
expecting a file: URL for an HTML file to display.
FILES
/etc/apt/listchanges.conf
Configuration file. Most options have the same names as com‐
mand-line options, with hyphens translated to underscores.
Example configuration file
[cmdline]
frontend=pager
[apt]
frontend=xterm-pager
email_address=root
confirm=1
[custom]
frontend=browser
browser=mozilla
The above configuration file specifies that in command-line
mode, the default frontend should be "pager". In apt mode,
the xterm-pager frontend is default, a copy of the changelogs
(if any) should be emailed to root, and apt-listchanges
should ask for confirmation. If apt-listchanges is invoked
with --profile=custom, the browser frontend will be used, and
invoke mozilla.
/var/lib/apt/listchanges.db
Database used for save-seen
AUTHORapt-listchanges was written by Matt Zimmerman <mdz@debian.org>
SEE ALSOapt.conf(5)apt-listchanges(1)
