diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 488a1380b2..710c5e9a52 100755
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -2198,7 +2198,7 @@ AC_CONFIG_FILES([
 	  config.version
 	  redhat/frr.spec
 	  solaris/Makefile
-	  debianpkg/changelog
+	  debianpkg/changelog-auto
 	  alpine/APKBUILD
 	  snapcraft/snapcraft.yaml
 	  lib/version.h
diff --git a/debianpkg/.gitignore b/debianpkg/.gitignore
index 6d10dce740..b48b513813 100644
--- a/debianpkg/.gitignore
+++ b/debianpkg/.gitignore
@@ -1 +1 @@
-changelog
+/changelog-auto
diff --git a/debianpkg/changelog b/debianpkg/changelog
new file mode 120000
index 0000000000..be6099f8d4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/debianpkg/changelog
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+changelog-auto
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/debianpkg/changelog.in b/debianpkg/changelog-auto.in
similarity index 100%
rename from debianpkg/changelog.in
rename to debianpkg/changelog-auto.in
diff --git a/debianpkg/subdir.am b/debianpkg/subdir.am
index 0a48ac7c35..196363c68b 100644
--- a/debianpkg/subdir.am
+++ b/debianpkg/subdir.am
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ EXTRA_DIST += \
 	debianpkg/README.Debian \
 	debianpkg/README.Maintainer \
 	debianpkg/changelog \
+	debianpkg/changelog-auto \
 	debianpkg/compat \
 	debianpkg/control \
 	debianpkg/copyright \