Bug#269673: tetex-bin: NEWS.Debian not displayed on upgrade
On Mon, Sep 06, 2004 at 10:39:43AM +0200, Frank Küster wrote:
> Hi Matt,
>
> me again... This might be a bug in apt-listchanges, or at least a
> request for some better documentation.
>
> Ross Boylan <RossBoylan@stanfordalumni.org> wrote:
>
> > Package: tetex-bin
> > Version: 2.0.2-20
> > Severity: normal
> >
> > During an upgrade from tetex-bin 2.0.2-15 the news (in NEWS.Debian.gz)
> > was not displayed. The file is present after the upgrade.
> >
> > For other packages, similar problems arise from improper formatting of
> > the NEWS file. It needs to be like the Debian.changelog's. It looks
> > to me as if it does have that format, so I don't know what's going on.
> >
> > It was apt-get dist-upgrade, with apt-listchanges installed and set to
> > output the news. This has worked with upgrades of other packages.
>
> I tried to debug this, but on my system I cannot get any NEWS.Debian
> displayed by apt-listchanges, e.g.
>
> alhambra:/home/frank# dpkg -l bug
> Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
> | Status=Not/Installed/Config-files/Unpacked/Failed-config/Half-installed
> |/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
> ||/ Name Version Description
> +++-=====================-=====================-==========================================================
> pn bug <none> (no description available)
> alhambra:/home/frank# apt-get install bug
apt-listchanges keeps (or uses) a high-water mark to determine the
previous installed version. It does this so it only displays changes
since the last version.
My guess is that if you attempt to reinstall a package you previously
had, the mark will still be there, so it shows nothing.
If you install a new package, it does not show the changelog, which
seems like reasonable behavior to me.
I'm not sure if the NEWS file is displayed for new package installs.
The desirable behavior in that case is unclear. In that NEWS is
supposed to show "what's new", skipping it seems right for a system on
which the whole package is new. On the other hand, sometimes (I
think) package maintainers use news to show important information;
that might be an argument for displaying it.
apt-list changes is definitely showing changes and NEWS for some
software on my system, so I suspect this is an issue particular to
this package. A lot of packages seem to have had trouble getting the
NEWS (that is NEWS.Debian) in the proper format for display by
apt-listchanges.
This particular case is weird, because the format looks OK.
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