Re: keyword=value in debian/changelog
Rafael Laboissiere wrote:
>
> I have seen debian/changelog files in some packages in which the keyword
> `closes' is set at the first line of new entries. However, the
> packaging-manual (version 2.4.1.2, section 3.2.3) states that:
>
> urgency is the value for the Urgency field in the .changes file for
> the upload. See Urgency, subsection 4.2.15. It is not possible to
> specify an urgency containing commas; commas are used to separate
> keyword=value settings in the dpkg changelog format (though there is
> ^^^^^^^^
> currently only one useful keyword, urgency).
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> Is the `closes' keyword some new useful, undocumented feature of the
> packaging/uploading system or are the maintainers just using it to
> highlight which bugs were closed?
Check the bug tracking system wrt dpkg-dev. There should be some patches
that make use of it.
The benefit of this "closes=" field is that the changelog file will
contain a "Closes: nr1 nr2 nr3..." line which can be used to automatically
notify the bug tracking system that bugs are fixed and and versions are
uploaded, or installed and therefore fixed.
Speaking of me, I have special rules so I don't have to close bug reports
on my own, it's all done by some scripts that run automatically, both
during upload and and after installation. Check out bugs against my
packages for reference.
So yes, it is an undocumented feature. It is a preview of a feature
of dinstall (as run on master) that will talk to the bug tracking
system itself. Since I don't want to wait that long, I modified some
local tools.
Regards,
Joey
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