Package: debhelper
Version: 11.3.5
Severity: normal
Debian policy version 4.2.0 added the following change (excerpt from
the Upgrade checklist):
Upstream release notes, when available, should be installed as
/usr/share/doc/package/NEWS.gz. Upstream changelogs may be made
available as /usr/share/doc/package/changelog.gz.
which seems to have steamed from the discussion in Debian bug #459427.
The Debian policy does not go in details on the definition of release
notes and changelogs. I'm only familiar with the definition by the
GNU standards where NEWS (release notes) is a file containing a list
of user-visible changes worth mentioning [1], and ChangeLog is a file
containing all the changes made to program source files [2].
Following that definition, a lot of files currently being installed as
changelog.gz should be installed as NEWS.gz instead.
My experience may be biased since I mainly package perl packages where
the standard is to have a file named 'Changes' with release notes (a
news file) and not source-level changes (a changelog file). My
experience as user of non-perl packages is also that most packages
only have release notes and not a changelog (even if they do call it
changelog).
I'm unsure the best way to address this issue with my short experience
as packager. My suggestion would be to look for files named:
1 news
2 history
3 changes
4 changelog
in that order. The first file found becomes the NEWS file and the
second becomes the changelog. This assumes that if there is only one
of them, it will be a release notes type of file, while still enabling
the two types.
I have taken a quick look at the source of dh_installchangelogs and
this seems a doable change.
Thank you
David
[1] https://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/standards.html#NEWS-File
[2] https://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/standards.html#Change-Logs
-- System Information:
Debian Release: buster/sid
APT prefers unstable
APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Kernel: Linux 4.9.0-6-amd64 (SMP w/16 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968) (ignored: LC_ALL set to C),
LANGUAGE=en_GB:en (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968) (ignored: LC_ALL set to C)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: unable to detect
Versions of packages debhelper depends on:
ii autotools-dev 20180224.1
ii dh-autoreconf 19
ii dh-strip-nondeterminism 0.042-1
ii dpkg 1.19.0.5+b1
ii dpkg-dev 1.19.0.5
ii dwz 0.12-2
ii file 1:5.34-2
ii libdpkg-perl 1.19.0.5
ii man-db 2.8.4-2
ii perl 5.26.2-7
ii po-debconf 1.0.20
debhelper recommends no packages.
Versions of packages debhelper suggests:
pn dh-make <none>
-- no debconf information
