On 04/13/2014 02:25 AM, gregor herrmann wrote:
>
> (The git history + d/changelog don't say why I changed this in 2011,
> I guess it was a similar request :))
And now you know why I am always so nitpicky about changelogs :).
As someone who has been reviewing several dozen packages over the past
18 months when sponsoring them, I have seen many packages where the
debian/changelog had many useless or virtually empty entries.
Things like "Fix a minor bug in xyz" or "Fix bug #133222" aren't really
what you'd expect from a changelog. Instead, a proper changelog entry
should include exactly what changes were made and why there were made,
e.g.:
* Add missing build dependency on libabc-dev. Fixes FTBFS on powerpc.
(Closes: #122333)
* Add debian/patches/0001-hardening.patch to pass proper compiler and
linker flags necessary for hardening.
Just providing the bug number isn't helpful either. Some older bugs
I have searched for aren't actually accessible through the bug tracker
anymore. And, even if the bug number is included, there is no guarantee
the bug report actually documents the cause of the bug or the changes
that were made to remedy it. Some bug reports don't even include
any discussions besides the original bug report and the automated
message which closed the bug when the fixed version was uploaded.
So, in order to avoid situations like these in the future, please write
proper changelogs, people! Your future self or the future maintainer
of your package will be very glad to have them. It can save you or them
lots of time digging through mailing list archives, commit histories
and similar resources.
And, while you're at it, please use proper grammar, punctuation,
spelling, indentation and avoid trailing spaces :).
PS: If you're maintaining your packages source in git, just use
git-dch to create a nicely formatted and complete changelog
entry including all changes since the last package revision.
It usually just involves some additional editing since git-dch
doesn't wrap lines after 80 characters (which lintian will
complain about), for example (I should file a bug against
git-dch, maybe).
Thank you!
Adrian
--
.''`. John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
: :' : Debian Developer - glaubitz@debian.org
`. `' Freie Universitaet Berlin - glaubitz@physik.fu-berlin.de
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