Seeing apt-get changelogs for to-be-upgraded packages












53















This question describes how to get the changelog for a given package. However, it's the whole changelog.



What I'd like is a way to see what's changed in whatever I'm about to upgrade. For example, I was imagining something like:



$ sudo apt-get upgrade --show-changelogs
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages will be upgraded:
foo
-- adds the bar feature for better snazziness
-- removes the deprecated baz feature

1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 8,864 kB of archives.
After this operation, 285 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?


Unfortunately, I don't see anything like that in the man pages for apt-get. Does this or something similar exist?



UPDATE: I've written a short blog post talking about apt-listchanges and Debian changelogs in a little more depth that incorporates some of the feedback in this question.










share|improve this question





























    53















    This question describes how to get the changelog for a given package. However, it's the whole changelog.



    What I'd like is a way to see what's changed in whatever I'm about to upgrade. For example, I was imagining something like:



    $ sudo apt-get upgrade --show-changelogs
    Reading package lists... Done
    Building dependency tree
    Reading state information... Done
    Calculating upgrade... Done
    The following packages will be upgraded:
    foo
    -- adds the bar feature for better snazziness
    -- removes the deprecated baz feature

    1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
    Need to get 8,864 kB of archives.
    After this operation, 285 kB disk space will be freed.
    Do you want to continue [Y/n]?


    Unfortunately, I don't see anything like that in the man pages for apt-get. Does this or something similar exist?



    UPDATE: I've written a short blog post talking about apt-listchanges and Debian changelogs in a little more depth that incorporates some of the feedback in this question.










    share|improve this question



























      53












      53








      53


      27






      This question describes how to get the changelog for a given package. However, it's the whole changelog.



      What I'd like is a way to see what's changed in whatever I'm about to upgrade. For example, I was imagining something like:



      $ sudo apt-get upgrade --show-changelogs
      Reading package lists... Done
      Building dependency tree
      Reading state information... Done
      Calculating upgrade... Done
      The following packages will be upgraded:
      foo
      -- adds the bar feature for better snazziness
      -- removes the deprecated baz feature

      1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
      Need to get 8,864 kB of archives.
      After this operation, 285 kB disk space will be freed.
      Do you want to continue [Y/n]?


      Unfortunately, I don't see anything like that in the man pages for apt-get. Does this or something similar exist?



      UPDATE: I've written a short blog post talking about apt-listchanges and Debian changelogs in a little more depth that incorporates some of the feedback in this question.










      share|improve this question
















      This question describes how to get the changelog for a given package. However, it's the whole changelog.



      What I'd like is a way to see what's changed in whatever I'm about to upgrade. For example, I was imagining something like:



      $ sudo apt-get upgrade --show-changelogs
      Reading package lists... Done
      Building dependency tree
      Reading state information... Done
      Calculating upgrade... Done
      The following packages will be upgraded:
      foo
      -- adds the bar feature for better snazziness
      -- removes the deprecated baz feature

      1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
      Need to get 8,864 kB of archives.
      After this operation, 285 kB disk space will be freed.
      Do you want to continue [Y/n]?


      Unfortunately, I don't see anything like that in the man pages for apt-get. Does this or something similar exist?



      UPDATE: I've written a short blog post talking about apt-listchanges and Debian changelogs in a little more depth that incorporates some of the feedback in this question.







      apt






      share|improve this question















      share|improve this question













      share|improve this question




      share|improve this question








      edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:23









      Community

      1




      1










      asked Mar 25 '13 at 11:51









      John FeminellaJohn Feminella

      5872715




      5872715






















          2 Answers
          2






          active

          oldest

          votes


















          52














          The nearest thing to what you are looking for can be had with a package called apt-listchanges, which will give you a changelog summary when you upgrade packages. You can set it up so the changelog notes appear in the terminal directly after apt-get downloads the upgrade (see below explanation and screenshot), but before you install it.



          You can install the program with



          sudo apt-get install apt-listchanges


          and then set it up with



          sudo dpkg-reconfigure apt-listchanges


          The setup file created is /etc/apt/listchanges.conf.



          My setup has the changelog information being shown directly as text in the terminal (stdout), which is just what you wanted. I find this is better than having a pager load up the information. I just have changelogs selected in my conf file, so the news about the package is not shown. I have also set it up to email root the excerpt of the changelog. You need to set up local email by referencing my article here if you want to use this feature.



          This is my /etc/apt/listchanges.conf:



          [apt]
          frontend=text
          email_address=root
          confirm=1
          save_seen=/var/lib/apt/listchanges.db
          which=changelogs


          A screenshot of the upgrade procedure when apt-listchanges is installed. I have set it to ask me for install confirmation after reading the changelog excerpt.



          enter image description here



          For more information see man apt-listchanges and the Ubuntu manpages online.






          share|improve this answer


























          • Excellent! This is exactly what I wanted. Thanks very much.

            – John Feminella
            Mar 26 '13 at 4:08











          • Doesn't work by me. Followed all the steps but still no description.

            – ka3ak
            Jan 8 '17 at 8:07



















          14














          I use aptitude:



          $ aptitude changelog package-name


          See this question: apt changelog for to-be installed packages






          share|improve this answer





















          • 1





            Is this the same link the OP posted when he said he had taken a look at it but wanted something different?

            – Stefan van den Akker
            Jan 16 '15 at 8:49






          • 2





            This is the whole changelog for a single package -- what I wanted was just the changes in all the packages I'm about to upgrade. Doing aptitude changelog ... and visually parsing out the results would be very tedious, especially when more than a few packages change.

            – John Feminella
            May 24 '15 at 12:19











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          2 Answers
          2






          active

          oldest

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          2 Answers
          2






          active

          oldest

          votes









          active

          oldest

          votes






          active

          oldest

          votes









          52














          The nearest thing to what you are looking for can be had with a package called apt-listchanges, which will give you a changelog summary when you upgrade packages. You can set it up so the changelog notes appear in the terminal directly after apt-get downloads the upgrade (see below explanation and screenshot), but before you install it.



          You can install the program with



          sudo apt-get install apt-listchanges


          and then set it up with



          sudo dpkg-reconfigure apt-listchanges


          The setup file created is /etc/apt/listchanges.conf.



          My setup has the changelog information being shown directly as text in the terminal (stdout), which is just what you wanted. I find this is better than having a pager load up the information. I just have changelogs selected in my conf file, so the news about the package is not shown. I have also set it up to email root the excerpt of the changelog. You need to set up local email by referencing my article here if you want to use this feature.



          This is my /etc/apt/listchanges.conf:



          [apt]
          frontend=text
          email_address=root
          confirm=1
          save_seen=/var/lib/apt/listchanges.db
          which=changelogs


          A screenshot of the upgrade procedure when apt-listchanges is installed. I have set it to ask me for install confirmation after reading the changelog excerpt.



          enter image description here



          For more information see man apt-listchanges and the Ubuntu manpages online.






          share|improve this answer


























          • Excellent! This is exactly what I wanted. Thanks very much.

            – John Feminella
            Mar 26 '13 at 4:08











          • Doesn't work by me. Followed all the steps but still no description.

            – ka3ak
            Jan 8 '17 at 8:07
















          52














          The nearest thing to what you are looking for can be had with a package called apt-listchanges, which will give you a changelog summary when you upgrade packages. You can set it up so the changelog notes appear in the terminal directly after apt-get downloads the upgrade (see below explanation and screenshot), but before you install it.



          You can install the program with



          sudo apt-get install apt-listchanges


          and then set it up with



          sudo dpkg-reconfigure apt-listchanges


          The setup file created is /etc/apt/listchanges.conf.



          My setup has the changelog information being shown directly as text in the terminal (stdout), which is just what you wanted. I find this is better than having a pager load up the information. I just have changelogs selected in my conf file, so the news about the package is not shown. I have also set it up to email root the excerpt of the changelog. You need to set up local email by referencing my article here if you want to use this feature.



          This is my /etc/apt/listchanges.conf:



          [apt]
          frontend=text
          email_address=root
          confirm=1
          save_seen=/var/lib/apt/listchanges.db
          which=changelogs


          A screenshot of the upgrade procedure when apt-listchanges is installed. I have set it to ask me for install confirmation after reading the changelog excerpt.



          enter image description here



          For more information see man apt-listchanges and the Ubuntu manpages online.






          share|improve this answer


























          • Excellent! This is exactly what I wanted. Thanks very much.

            – John Feminella
            Mar 26 '13 at 4:08











          • Doesn't work by me. Followed all the steps but still no description.

            – ka3ak
            Jan 8 '17 at 8:07














          52












          52








          52







          The nearest thing to what you are looking for can be had with a package called apt-listchanges, which will give you a changelog summary when you upgrade packages. You can set it up so the changelog notes appear in the terminal directly after apt-get downloads the upgrade (see below explanation and screenshot), but before you install it.



          You can install the program with



          sudo apt-get install apt-listchanges


          and then set it up with



          sudo dpkg-reconfigure apt-listchanges


          The setup file created is /etc/apt/listchanges.conf.



          My setup has the changelog information being shown directly as text in the terminal (stdout), which is just what you wanted. I find this is better than having a pager load up the information. I just have changelogs selected in my conf file, so the news about the package is not shown. I have also set it up to email root the excerpt of the changelog. You need to set up local email by referencing my article here if you want to use this feature.



          This is my /etc/apt/listchanges.conf:



          [apt]
          frontend=text
          email_address=root
          confirm=1
          save_seen=/var/lib/apt/listchanges.db
          which=changelogs


          A screenshot of the upgrade procedure when apt-listchanges is installed. I have set it to ask me for install confirmation after reading the changelog excerpt.



          enter image description here



          For more information see man apt-listchanges and the Ubuntu manpages online.






          share|improve this answer















          The nearest thing to what you are looking for can be had with a package called apt-listchanges, which will give you a changelog summary when you upgrade packages. You can set it up so the changelog notes appear in the terminal directly after apt-get downloads the upgrade (see below explanation and screenshot), but before you install it.



          You can install the program with



          sudo apt-get install apt-listchanges


          and then set it up with



          sudo dpkg-reconfigure apt-listchanges


          The setup file created is /etc/apt/listchanges.conf.



          My setup has the changelog information being shown directly as text in the terminal (stdout), which is just what you wanted. I find this is better than having a pager load up the information. I just have changelogs selected in my conf file, so the news about the package is not shown. I have also set it up to email root the excerpt of the changelog. You need to set up local email by referencing my article here if you want to use this feature.



          This is my /etc/apt/listchanges.conf:



          [apt]
          frontend=text
          email_address=root
          confirm=1
          save_seen=/var/lib/apt/listchanges.db
          which=changelogs


          A screenshot of the upgrade procedure when apt-listchanges is installed. I have set it to ask me for install confirmation after reading the changelog excerpt.



          enter image description here



          For more information see man apt-listchanges and the Ubuntu manpages online.







          share|improve this answer














          share|improve this answer



          share|improve this answer








          edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:25









          Community

          1




          1










          answered Mar 25 '13 at 22:07







          user76204




















          • Excellent! This is exactly what I wanted. Thanks very much.

            – John Feminella
            Mar 26 '13 at 4:08











          • Doesn't work by me. Followed all the steps but still no description.

            – ka3ak
            Jan 8 '17 at 8:07



















          • Excellent! This is exactly what I wanted. Thanks very much.

            – John Feminella
            Mar 26 '13 at 4:08











          • Doesn't work by me. Followed all the steps but still no description.

            – ka3ak
            Jan 8 '17 at 8:07

















          Excellent! This is exactly what I wanted. Thanks very much.

          – John Feminella
          Mar 26 '13 at 4:08





          Excellent! This is exactly what I wanted. Thanks very much.

          – John Feminella
          Mar 26 '13 at 4:08













          Doesn't work by me. Followed all the steps but still no description.

          – ka3ak
          Jan 8 '17 at 8:07





          Doesn't work by me. Followed all the steps but still no description.

          – ka3ak
          Jan 8 '17 at 8:07













          14














          I use aptitude:



          $ aptitude changelog package-name


          See this question: apt changelog for to-be installed packages






          share|improve this answer





















          • 1





            Is this the same link the OP posted when he said he had taken a look at it but wanted something different?

            – Stefan van den Akker
            Jan 16 '15 at 8:49






          • 2





            This is the whole changelog for a single package -- what I wanted was just the changes in all the packages I'm about to upgrade. Doing aptitude changelog ... and visually parsing out the results would be very tedious, especially when more than a few packages change.

            – John Feminella
            May 24 '15 at 12:19
















          14














          I use aptitude:



          $ aptitude changelog package-name


          See this question: apt changelog for to-be installed packages






          share|improve this answer





















          • 1





            Is this the same link the OP posted when he said he had taken a look at it but wanted something different?

            – Stefan van den Akker
            Jan 16 '15 at 8:49






          • 2





            This is the whole changelog for a single package -- what I wanted was just the changes in all the packages I'm about to upgrade. Doing aptitude changelog ... and visually parsing out the results would be very tedious, especially when more than a few packages change.

            – John Feminella
            May 24 '15 at 12:19














          14












          14








          14







          I use aptitude:



          $ aptitude changelog package-name


          See this question: apt changelog for to-be installed packages






          share|improve this answer















          I use aptitude:



          $ aptitude changelog package-name


          See this question: apt changelog for to-be installed packages







          share|improve this answer














          share|improve this answer



          share|improve this answer








          edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:24









          Community

          1




          1










          answered Mar 14 '14 at 11:00









          WillWill

          16115




          16115








          • 1





            Is this the same link the OP posted when he said he had taken a look at it but wanted something different?

            – Stefan van den Akker
            Jan 16 '15 at 8:49






          • 2





            This is the whole changelog for a single package -- what I wanted was just the changes in all the packages I'm about to upgrade. Doing aptitude changelog ... and visually parsing out the results would be very tedious, especially when more than a few packages change.

            – John Feminella
            May 24 '15 at 12:19














          • 1





            Is this the same link the OP posted when he said he had taken a look at it but wanted something different?

            – Stefan van den Akker
            Jan 16 '15 at 8:49






          • 2





            This is the whole changelog for a single package -- what I wanted was just the changes in all the packages I'm about to upgrade. Doing aptitude changelog ... and visually parsing out the results would be very tedious, especially when more than a few packages change.

            – John Feminella
            May 24 '15 at 12:19








          1




          1





          Is this the same link the OP posted when he said he had taken a look at it but wanted something different?

          – Stefan van den Akker
          Jan 16 '15 at 8:49





          Is this the same link the OP posted when he said he had taken a look at it but wanted something different?

          – Stefan van den Akker
          Jan 16 '15 at 8:49




          2




          2





          This is the whole changelog for a single package -- what I wanted was just the changes in all the packages I'm about to upgrade. Doing aptitude changelog ... and visually parsing out the results would be very tedious, especially when more than a few packages change.

          – John Feminella
          May 24 '15 at 12:19





          This is the whole changelog for a single package -- what I wanted was just the changes in all the packages I'm about to upgrade. Doing aptitude changelog ... and visually parsing out the results would be very tedious, especially when more than a few packages change.

          – John Feminella
          May 24 '15 at 12:19


















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