The debian/changelog file generated by default is invalid

[Jackenmen]

I followed the instructions here:
https://fpm.readthedocs.io/en/latest/packages/deb.html#sample-usage
i.e.:

wget https://releases.hashicorp.com/terraform/1.0.10/terraform_1.0.10_linux_amd64.zip
fpm -s zip -t deb --prefix /usr/bin -n terraform -v 1.0.10 terraform_1.0.10_linux_amd64.zip

and then extracted the contents of the package and tried parsing the changelog:

dpkg --extract terraform_1.0.10_amd64.deb extracted
dpkg-parsechangelog -l extracted/usr/share/doc/terraform/changelog.gz

which gave me:

dpkg-parsechangelog: warning: extracted/usr/share/doc/terraform/changelog.gz(l2): found end of file where expected first heading
dpkg-parsechangelog: error: fatal error occurred while parsing extracted/usr/share/doc/terraform/changelog.gz

The output isn't terribly helpful but, looking at the raw contents, it's a bit more obvious what's wrong:

$ zcat extracted/usr/share/doc/terraform/changelog.gz
terraform (1.0.10) ; urgency=medium

  * Package created with FPM.

 -- <ubuntu@JackPC>  Sun, 23 Nov 2025 11:11:06 +0100

There is no distribution specified before the semicolon. As soon as I add something before the semicolon, the changelog can be parsed.

It's possible that there's some combination of FPM flags that solves it, but I feel like the default behaviour probably shouldn't lead to the generation of an invalid changelog file. However, I did try the one that seemed most obvious - --deb-dist unstable - and it did not affect the output (i.e. there was still no distribution specified before the semicolon).

[jordansissel]

Thank you for the detailed report! I agree fpm should be producing a more-correct package here by default. I think fpm has tests to cover this, but not sure specifically about this exact issue. Either way, your findings should make it easy to get this fixed :)

On Sun, Nov 23, 2025, at 2:25 AM, Jakub Kuczys wrote: *Jackenmen* created an issue (jordansissel/fpm#2126) <#2126> I followed the instructions here: https://fpm.readthedocs.io/en/latest/packages/deb.html#sample-usage i.e.: `wget https://releases.hashicorp.com/terraform/1.0.10/terraform_1.0.10_linux_amd64.zip fpm -s zip -t deb --prefix /usr/bin -n terraform -v 1.0.10 terraform_1.0.10_linux_amd64.zip

`

and then extracted the contents of the package and tried parsing the changelog: `dpkg --extract terraform_1.0.10_amd64.deb extracted dpkg-parsechangelog -l extracted/usr/share/doc/terraform/changelog.gz

`

which gave me: `dpkg-parsechangelog: warning: extracted/usr/share/doc/terraform/changelog.gz(l2): found end of file where expected first heading dpkg-parsechangelog: error: fatal error occurred while parsing extracted/usr/share/doc/terraform/changelog.gz

`

The output isn't terribly helpful but, looking at the raw contents, it's a bit more obvious what's wrong: `$ zcat extracted/usr/share/doc/terraform/changelog.gz terraform (1.0.10) ; urgency=medium * Package created with FPM. -- ***@***.***> Sun, 23 Nov 2025 11:11:06 +0100

`

…

There is no distribution specified before the semicolon. As soon as I add *something* before the semicolon, the changelog can be parsed. It's possible that there's some combination of FPM flags that solves it, but I feel like the default behaviour probably shouldn't lead to the generation of an invalid changelog file. However, I did try the one that seemed most obvious - `--deb-dist unstable` - and it did not affect the output. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#2126>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AABAF2THVRD2ZRIPZI6OXJL36GDTNAVCNFSM6AAAAACM6BDOGGVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43ASLTON2WKOZTGY2TKOBQG44TSMY>. You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>