I ended up writing this bash script: http://trac.natalian.org/browser/debian/latest-package-update.sh To print out the last modification of a (not installed) Debian package. Thanks for all your help. I wonder where do all the .changes files end up after an upload? http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-controlfields.html#s-f-Date That's where I've seen "Date:".