Running... $ apt-get changelog UPGRADEABLE_PACKAGE
...on a wheezy system pointed at these sources... $ grep '^deb ' /etc/apt/sources.list deb http://debian.univ-lorraine.fr/debian/ wheezy-updates main deb http://debian.univ-lorraine.fr/debian/ wheezy main deb http://debian.univ-lorraine.fr/debian/ wheezy-backports main deb http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main ...frequently fails to do what I expect. A recent example: $ apt-get changelog libxslt1.1 Err Changelog for libxslt1.1 (http://packages.debian.org/changelogs/pool/updates/main/libx/libxslt/libxslt_1.1.26-14.1+deb7u2/changelog) 404 Not Found [IP: 5.153.231.3 80] Err Changelog for libxslt1.1 (http://security.debian.org/pool/updates/main/libx/libxslt/libxslt_1.1.26-14.1+deb7u2.changelog) 404 Not Found [IP: 128.31.0.63 80] E: changelog download failed In the example above, I sought to read a description of the differences between my currently installed libxslt1.1 package, and the more recent available version. Instead, to obtain changelogs, the 8-step workflow outlined below is typical for me. It seems to work fine, but I am curious why steps 1--4 alone do not suffice. If anyone can give me a clue here, I would be grateful. WORKFLOW Since I like to do some reading about packages, and (at least) review changelogs, before I upgrade them, instead of simply doing... # apt-get update && apt-get upgrade ...I follow the template below: 1. Retrieve information about new/updated packages. # apt-get update 2. Simulate an upgrade, to see what can be upgraded. # apt-get -s upgrade 3. For each upgradeable package, review its description. $ apt-cache --no-all-versions show UPGRADEABLE_PACKAGE |sed -n '/^Description-en/,/^[^[:blank:]]/ p' 4. Attempt to review the changelog for that package. $ apt-get changelog UPGRADEABLE_PACKAGE When step 4 fails, I continue as follows: 5. Get the diff from the source archive. $ apt-get --diff-only source UPGRADEABLE_PACKAGE 6. Decompress and unpack the diff. $ gunzip SOURCE_VERSION.debian.tar.gz && tar xf SOURCE_VERSION.debian.tar 7. See what files I've just unpacked. $ ls debian/ 8. Look at most recent entry in the changelog, which is what I was after in step 4. $ sed -n '1,/^[^[:blank:]]/ p' debian/changelog (And then of course, after I've finished reading about what it will do, I eventually run apt-get upgrade.) -- MS CLINTON: If you google up what the Chinese claim is, it's the entire South China sea... MR BLANKFEIN: An unfortunate name. MS CLINTON: Which one? MR BLANKFEIN: The South China sea. MS CLINTON: Yes, it is. https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/fileid/11011/2873
