outdated changelog timestamps (was Re: Date and Upsteam-URL fields)
* Goswin von Brederlow [Sun, 11 Jun 2006 19:49:50 +0200]:
> David Weinehall <tao@debian.org> writes:
>> On Fri, Jun 09, 2006 at 10:04:48PM +0200, Bill Allombert wrote:
>>> Sometimes, the changelog will tell you the package was last changed 3
>>> month ago while actually it was changed yesterday and build and uploaded
>>> today. This can lead you to go on a wild-goose chase if you do not know
>>> about the problem.
[snip]
>>> Sure but adding entries to the changelog does not magically update the
>>> date.
> > Then I suggest you start using dch.
> Or an editor mode/plugin/whatever that updates the time on save in
> changelogs. Very usefull.
And hateful (IMHO) when this results in every commit you do in your
debian packaging in changes in the timestamp of the changelog (and for
co-maintained packages, the name as well).
I've thought about this several times, and I think what'd make me happy
would be, instead of this dist=UNRELEASED stuff to mark work in progress
in VCS, something like:
package (1.1) unstable; urgency=low
[ Joe Random ]
* Foo.
-- UNRELEASED
And then, dch -r would be run by the person uploading, placing their
name and current timestamp in the final changelog, optionally removing
the "[Joe Random]" bit iff there is no other name tag, and Joe Random is
the one uploading.
Pity that dpkg-parsechangelog would choke on that, and also, I haven't
heard anybody express discontent about this, so maybe I'm too picky,
which makes me think that everybody is happy with using dist=UNRELEASED
and updating the timestamp with each commit (or not doing, and risk
forgetting to do so the last time before uploading).
Cheers,
(I guess followups should go to -devel and not -policy.)
--
Adeodato Simó dato at net.com.org.es
Debian Developer adeodato at debian.org
Listening to: Joan Manuel Serrat - Soy lo prohibido
Reply to: