Re: ITP: apt-listchanges (formerly debchanges)
On Sun, Nov 05, 2000 at 10:19:30AM +0100, Christian Marillat wrote:
> I don't see a difference with :
>
> apt-get install hello
> dblog hello
>
> Imagine for big package like netscape or tetex-extra, you need to download
> the deb to see the debian changelog ?
The differences are:
1. You can do this with a large group of packages at once, and have the
changelogs conveniently summarized
2. You see the changelog entries BEFORE you upgrade the package, and you can
decide to delay the upgrade (e.g. if additional measures need to be taken
to prepare for a big change: backups, putting packages on hold, etc.) or
abort it altogether
3. You ONLY see the new changelog entries, so you don't have to sift through
the entire changelog (think upgrades of many packages at once, e.g. when
tracking unstable)
Also note that one day, there will once again be a facility for downloading
changelogs apart from the rest of the package (e.g., a fixed version of
http://cgi.debian.org/cgi-bin/get-changelog). When that happens,
apt-listchanges will allow you to preview changes before downloading the
packages.
I wrote the script because I, as a developer, found it useful to get an
overview of what was changing on my system during periodic upgrades to
unstable. I wanted to know, for example, when bugs that affected me had been
fixed, when packages split, when new upstream versions were released.
After it was written, though, I found it useful on production servers as well,
when deciding whether to perform an upgrade, reviewing security fixes, etc.
Just try it.
http://people.debian.org/~mdz/debian/
--
- mdz
Reply to: