How to view changelog of a deb package not yet installed

Question

I got prompted to update libxml2 on my Debian Jessie Server however prior doing so i want to know what has changed on the latest version.

I have tried visiting Debian`s repo website for the relevant package but i found no info nor a changelog.

How can you read the changelog of a debian package prior installing-updating it?

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 06 '16 at 08:57

1

You can try to use following command:

apt-get changelog libxml2

answered Jun 06 '16 at 08:57

warder

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1
11

i tried this but i get the following message "Err Changelog for libxml2 (http://security.debian.org/pool/updates/main/libx/libxml2/libxml2_2.9.1+dfsg1-5+deb8u2.changelog) 404 Not Found E: changelog download failed – giomanda Jun 06 '16 at 09:01
Its looks like it is debian repo issue, in ubuntu it work's fine. – warder Jun 06 '16 at 09:05

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 06 '16 at 10:53

A non command line solution that worked for me was to search for the package on debian`s repo website. Once you find the package version you are interested in, you click on it and you are navigated to the package details.

On the right hand side menu there is a heading "Download Source Package" followed by the package name. In my case:
Download Source Package libxml2:

Once you click on that link you are navigated to another page which lists the binary files included in the package with some other information. Again on the right hand side menu under the heading Debian Resources there is a link named "Debian Changelog" which contains the changes of the package.

How to view changelog of a deb package not yet installed

2 Answers2