Re: Developer names within debian/changelog

[Ben Finney <bignose+hates-spam@benfinney.id.au>]

Ben Finney <bignose+hates-spam@benfinney.id.au> writes:

> Thijs Kinkhorst <thijs@debian.org> writes:
> 
> > Maybe you can specify what problem you are trying to solve.
> 
> That's a fair question.

And I didn't really answer it directly. Here's another try:

I'm trying to know that what I put into the changelog is going to be
machine-parseable for all the structural information that can
reasonably be parsed from it.

Sure, the conventional way is to use 'debchange' with appropriate
options. What if I'm using a different tool? What if I'm editing the
changelog by hand? Then I have the options of either "generate it
however I think best, regardless of what parsers may expect", or
"don't ever use any tool but debchange". The latter is (for me)
unacceptable, and the former is irresponsible.

All the answers I've had so far indicate that there *is* no
specification for developer names within a changelog entry, and that
any format at all is allowed so long as the loose definition in Policy
is followed.

My issue with that is that it leads to this information being recorded
in many, mutually-incompatible ways (which was, I believe, the
existing state when the format was proposed), with no simple guide of
how one *should* put the information in to be a good Debian citizen.

-- 
 \            "If you continue running Windows, your system may become |
  `\                    unstable." —Microsoft, Windows 95 BSOD message |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney