Please write useful changelogs
 

Hi Anibal,

please write what actually changed, what the issue was about.

| bzip2 (1.0.4-1) unstable; urgency=low
|
| * Synchronise with Ubuntu. Closes: #456237

This says about nothing at all. It gives me no more information than
"Something changed".

Peter
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Please write useful changelogs
 

On Wed, January 16, 2008 10:13, Peter Palfrader wrote:
> Hi Anibal,
>
>
> please write what actually changed, what the issue was about.
>
> | bzip2 (1.0.4-1) unstable; urgency=low
> |
> | * Synchronise with Ubuntu. Closes: #456237
>
>
> This says about nothing at all. It gives me no more information than
> "Something changed".

For all fairness, you cut out the rest of the changes below it, which
included the full Ubuntu changelogs where this refers to. It can be
debated if this is a nice style, but the information is there.


Thijs


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Please write useful changelogs
 

On Wed, Jan 16, 2008 at 10:26:00AM +0100, Thijs Kinkhorst wrote:
> On Wed, January 16, 2008 10:13, Peter Palfrader wrote:
> > please write what actually changed, what the issue was about.
> > | bzip2 (1.0.4-1) unstable; urgency=low
> > |
> > | * Synchronise with Ubuntu. Closes: #456237
> > This says about nothing at all. It gives me no more information than
> > "Something changed".
> For all fairness, you cut out the rest of the changes below it, which
> included the full Ubuntu changelogs where this refers to. It can be
> debated if this is a nice style, but the information is there.

Without looking at the bug, can you tell which bit of that #456237
relates to then?

I thought best practice was to make sure from just the email that the
bug reporter could work out which bug was fixed and with what action.

Simon.

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Please write useful changelogs
 

On Wed, Jan 16, 2008 at 10:26:00AM +0100, Thijs Kinkhorst wrote:
> On Wed, January 16, 2008 10:13, Peter Palfrader wrote:
> > Hi Anibal,
> >
> >
> > please write what actually changed, what the issue was about.
> >
> > | bzip2 (1.0.4-1) unstable; urgency=low
> > |
> > | * Synchronise with Ubuntu. Closes: #456237
> >
> >
> > This says about nothing at all. It gives me no more information than
> > "Something changed".
>
> For all fairness, you cut out the rest of the changes below it, which
> included the full Ubuntu changelogs where this refers to. It can be
> debated if this is a nice style, but the information is there.

Not entirely; this version incorporated some (but not all) of the
Debian/Ubuntu delta. It's important to be specific.

When an Ubuntu package is resynchronized with Debian, the complete list of
changes is included in the changelog entry. Ideally, the Debian changelog
would copy the same text when merging the changes, making it easy to confirm
what has or hasn't been merged.

For example:

xxxxx (vvv-1ubuntu1) edgy; urgency=low

* Merged with Debian. Changes are:
+ Modified build-dep on libfoo to build on edgy.
+ Added .desktop file.

More about our policies and procedures here:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDevelopment/Merging

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On Wed, 16 Jan 2008, Thijs Kinkhorst wrote:

> On Wed, January 16, 2008 10:13, Peter Palfrader wrote:

> > | bzip2 (1.0.4-1) unstable; urgency=low
> > |
> > | * Synchronise with Ubuntu. Closes: #456237
> >
> >
> > This says about nothing at all. It gives me no more information than
> > "Something changed".
>
> For all fairness, you cut out the rest of the changes below it, which
> included the full Ubuntu changelogs where this refers to. It can be
> debated if this is a nice style, but the information is there.

The other items were, well, other items at the same level as the one
quoted above. If any or all of those items were indeed part of the
synchronisation then they should appear as items under the sync-entry.
The way it's written leads me to believe that anibal synchronised, then
bumped the standards-version, moved the hompage, and improved
crossbuilding, etc.

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On Wed, Jan 16, 2008 at 01:58:19PM +0100, Peter Palfrader wrote:
> On Wed, 16 Jan 2008, Thijs Kinkhorst wrote:
>
> > On Wed, January 16, 2008 10:13, Peter Palfrader wrote:
>
> > > | bzip2 (1.0.4-1) unstable; urgency=low
> > > |
> > > | * Synchronise with Ubuntu. Closes: #456237
> > >
> > >
> > > This says about nothing at all. It gives me no more information than
> > > "Something changed".
> >
> > For all fairness, you cut out the rest of the changes below it, which
> > included the full Ubuntu changelogs where this refers to. It can be
> > debated if this is a nice style, but the information is there.
>
> The other items were, well, other items at the same level as the one
> quoted above. If any or all of those items were indeed part of the
> synchronisation then they should appear as items under the sync-entry.
> The way it's written leads me to believe that anibal synchronised, then
> bumped the standards-version, moved the hompage, and improved
> crossbuilding, etc.

I think Thijs meant the changelog entries 1.0.4-0ubuntu1 and
1.0.4-0ubuntu2, which are not in the .changes.

Maybe it would be alright to say "Synchronize with Ubuntu (closes:
#foo)" IF #foo is a "please synchronise with Ubuntu bug" (similar to a
"new upstream version available" bug) AND you include the relevant
Ubuntu changelog entries in the changes via dpkg-buildpackage
-vlastversionbeforeubuntuchanges.

Otherwise, elaborate on which bug gut fixed exactly and/or mention which
Ubuntu changes are still present.


Michael


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On Wed, 16 Jan 2008, Michael Banck wrote:
> I think Thijs meant the changelog entries 1.0.4-0ubuntu1 and
> 1.0.4-0ubuntu2, which are not in the .changes.
>
> Maybe it would be alright to say "Synchronize with Ubuntu (closes:
> #foo)" IF #foo is a "please synchronise with Ubuntu bug" (similar to a
> "new upstream version available" bug) AND you include the relevant
> Ubuntu changelog entries in the changes via dpkg-buildpackage
> -vlastversionbeforeubuntuchanges.
>
> Otherwise, elaborate on which bug gut fixed exactly and/or mention which
> Ubuntu changes are still present.

Ack.

And I'd like to express once more that's it's important to
have meaningful changelog entries for someone who has not done the work
and who has no corresponding debdiff.

We have (many) people reviewing debian-devel-changes and finding .changes
where the changelog entries do not mean anything is tiresome. That's why I
put a reminder in the developer news that I posted to d-d-a:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2007/12/msg00007.html

Cheers,
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