The --changelog option lists what has changed, as described in a file that logs changes, from previous versions of a given package. The change log is just a convention, so not all packages will sport this nifty feature. In addition, the change log for many packages documents the changes in the RPM packaging, not the changes in the underlying application. If a change log is available, however, this can prove a very good way to help determine whether you want to upgrade to a new version of a package.

For example, a network server application may have been updated to fix some security problems. In that case, you likely want to upgrade. Other changes may not affect your site, leading you to decide not to upgrade.

The basic format of the command is:

rpm –q --changelog package_name

For example, the following shows the beginning of the log-change log for the bash package, with names and e-mail addresses changed to protect the innocent:

# rpm -q --changelog bash

* Fri Aug 23 2002 Bob Marley <bob@marley.com.>

- re-bzip the docs, something was corrupted

* Thu Aug 22 2002 Peter Tosh <peter@tosh.com> 2.05b-4

- Fix history substitution modifiers in UTF-8 (bug #70294, bug #71186).

- Fix ADVANCE_CHAR at end of string (bug #70819).

- docs: CWRU/POSIX.NOTES no longer exists, but ship POSIX.

* Wed Aug 07 2002 Jimmy Cliff <jimmy@cliff.com> 2.05b-3

- Fixed out of memory problem with readline.

* Tue Jul 23 2002 Jimmy Cliff <jimmy@cliff.com> 2.05b-2

- Added symlink for sh.1 in man1 section so that man sh works (#44039).