changelog format

[Michael Schwendt]

On Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:23:31 +0100, Mat wrote:

> 2009/4/19 Björn Persson:
> > I gather I'm expected to write the changelog in a spec file by hand. How
> > strict are the requirements on the format of changelog entries? Are they
> > meant to be machine-readable? Is the format specified anywhere? The packaging
> > guidelines document contains four examples. Examples are good but they're no
> > replacement for a specification.
> >
> > So far, RPMlint has told me that each entry must start with an asterisk and
> > that the international standard date format is bad. Can I trust that the
> > format is OK if RPMlint doesn't complain?
> >
> > Björn Persson
> >
> 
> Check out the packaging guidelines:
> 
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging/Guidelines#Changelogs

Which is what the OP commented on in the first chapter quoted above.

Most important, rpmbuild parses the %changelog section of a spec file and
throws several error messages at you if it runs into trouble. For example,
these fatal ones:

error: %changelog entries must start with *
error: %changelog not in descending chronological order
error: bad date in %changelog: ...