Tutorial:Mod changelog format

This is the format required by the in-game changelog viewer to display mod changelogs in the browse mods GUI. The changelog.txt file is expected to be located in the root of the mod folder, see Tutorial:Mod_structure#Files.

The online mod portal does not require this changelog format, it will display any changelog.txt file content.

Parsing errors can be found in the log file in the user data directory.

It may be simpler to copy and modify the #Example changelog than to start from scratch.

Formatting rules

The changelog is expected to consist of one or multiple version sections, which are read line by line. Each version section has to start with the #Version section start line. Each version section is expected to describe exactly one mod version with an arbitrary amount of categories that each may have an arbitrary amount of entries.

Completely empty lines will be skipped by the parser, with the exception that the line after #Version section start may not be empty.

General

• Do not use tabs.
• Do not leave whitespace at the end of lines ("trailing spaces").

It is recommended to set up the text editor to enforce this automatically. Usage of tabs and trailing spaces is likely to result in confusing error messages.

Version section start

The line must be exactly ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

The next line must be a #Version line. It cannot be empty.

Version

The line must start with exactly Version: , note the space after the colon. The remaining part of the line will be parsed as the version the section is about.
The version itself is expected in the format number.number.number for major.minor.sub, for example 0.6.4. Each number can range from 0 to 65535. 0.0.0 is not considered a valid version.

There may not be two version sections with the same version.
This line is mandatory.

Example:
Version: 0.12.35

Date

The line must start with exactly Date: , note the space after the colon. The remaining part of the line will be parsed as the date the version was released. There are no restrictions for the format of the date itself.

There may not be two date lines within the same version section.
This line is optional.

Example:
Date: 01. 06. 2016

Category

The line must start with exactly two spaces. The remaining part of the line will be parsed as the category. The line must end with a colon. This colon is removed for the purpose of display.

This line and its following entry lines are optional.

There are no restrictions for the format of the category itself.

However, some categories are recognized by the game and sorted before the "All" tab in the GUI:

• Major Features
• Features
• Minor Features
• Graphics
• Sounds
• Optimizations
• Balancing
• Combat Balancing
• Circuit Network
• Changes
• Bugfixes
• Modding
• Scripting
• Gui
• Control
• Translation
• Debug
• Ease of use
• Info
• Locale

Example:
  Minor Features:

Entry

The line must start with exactly four spaces followed by exactly -  (note the space after the dash) for a single line entry. For a multiline entry, lines after the first line must start with exactly six spaces.

If an entry is used, a previous line in the version section must be a #Category line. The entry is then associated with the category, see #Example changelog.

Entries in the same version and the same category may not be exact duplicates.

Example:
    - Fixed the missing title in character logistics window.

Example changelog

It may be simpler to copy and modify this example than to start from scratch.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Version: 1.1.60
Date: 06. 06. 2022
  Features:
    - This is an entry in the "Features" category.
    - This is another entry in the "Features" category.
    - This general section is the 1.1.60 version section.
  Balancing:
    - This is a multiline entry in the "Balancing" category.
      There is some extra text here because it is needed for the example.
      Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
  Bugfixes:
    - Fixed that canceling syncing mods with a save would exit the GUI.
    - Fixed a desync when fast-replacing burner generators.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Version: 1.1.59
Date: 06. 05. 2022
  Bugfixes:
    - This general section is the 1.1.59 version section.
    - This is an entry in the "Bugfixes" category.
    - Fixed grenade shadows.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Version: 0.1.0
Date: 24. 12. 2012
  Major Features:
    - Initial release.
    - This general section is the 0.1.0 version section.

See also

• Forum thread about the changelog format
• Tutorial:Mod structure