diff -ru dpkg-1.18.10/lib/dpkg/parse.c dpkg-1.18.10+iPhone/lib/dpkg/parse.c
--- dpkg-1.18.10/lib/dpkg/parse.c	2016-07-05 01:55:13.000000000 +0000
+++ dpkg-1.18.10+iPhone/lib/dpkg/parse.c	2016-08-22 21:55:26.000000000 +0000
@@ -187,8 +187,6 @@
   if ((ps->flags & pdb_recordavailable) ||
       (pkg->status != PKG_STAT_NOTINSTALLED &&
        pkg->status != PKG_STAT_HALFINSTALLED)) {
-    parse_ensure_have_field(ps, &pkgbin->description, "description");
-    parse_ensure_have_field(ps, &pkgbin->maintainer, "maintainer");
     parse_must_have_field(ps, pkgbin->version.version, "version");
   }
 
diff -ru dpkg-1.18.10/lib/dpkg/parsehelp.c dpkg-1.18.10+iPhone/lib/dpkg/parsehelp.c
--- dpkg-1.18.10/lib/dpkg/parsehelp.c	2016-07-05 01:55:13.000000000 +0000
+++ dpkg-1.18.10+iPhone/lib/dpkg/parsehelp.c	2016-08-22 21:55:03.000000000 +0000
@@ -233,19 +233,6 @@
     *hyphen++ = '\0';
   rversion->revision= hyphen ? hyphen : "";
 
-  /* XXX: Would be faster to use something like cisversion and cisrevision. */
-  ptr = rversion->version;
-  if (*ptr && !c_isdigit(*ptr++))
-    return dpkg_put_warn(err, _("version number does not start with digit"));
-  for (; *ptr; ptr++) {
-    if (!c_isdigit(*ptr) && !c_isalpha(*ptr) && strchr(".-+~:", *ptr) == NULL)
-      return dpkg_put_warn(err, _("invalid character in version number"));
-  }
-  for (ptr = rversion->revision; *ptr; ptr++) {
-    if (!c_isdigit(*ptr) && !c_isalpha(*ptr) && strchr(".+~", *ptr) == NULL)
-      return dpkg_put_warn(err, _("invalid character in revision number"));
-  }
-
   return 0;
 }