On 21/10/25 13:00, Nilesh Patra wrote:
lintian will produce a `debian-watch-file-is-missing` I-level warning when `debian/watch` is missing. Newer version of uscan do not need a `debian/watch` file if `d/upstream/metadata` is present and contains all the necessary fields (for example `Archive: GitHub` + `Repository: https://github.com/group/project.git`). Lintian should not produce a `debian-watch-file-is-missing` if d/upstream/metadata is present and contains all needed fields.I know this works but I could not find it documented anywhere, and the uscan manpage also has no mention about it. Can you link me up with docs, if any? Any ideas when this can make it to uscan manpage?
I think the only (implicit) documentation is in the code: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/devscripts/-/commit/0eb2557c
I filed https://bugs.debian.org/1118692 asking for more documentation and guidance from the uscan developers.
Also, I think we can potentially miss out on one thing here. There are upstreams that sign their tags which are validated via d/watch (pgpmode=gittag) and upstreams that even give a .asc files with the tarballs. Adding a tag on lintian potentially causes us to miss out on those checks if package maintainers were to migrate to using d/u/metadata.
Well, uscan + d/u/metadata is a replacement for the most basic d/watch files. Anything more complex will need (or, at least, needs at the moment) a proper d/watch file.
The question for me is rather: by not warning about the lack of a d/watch file, will Debian packager also not take the chance to support additional features like different `pgpmode` settings?
Regards, -- Gioele Barabucci