On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 12:44 AM, Lucas Nussbaum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On 17/06/08 at 20:11 -0500, Nicolas Valcarcel wrote: >> On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 5:52 AM, Lucas Nussbaum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <snip> > Linking to bugs is a good thing, but many changes are done without any > bug in launchpad (or the bug wasn't linked in the changelog). So > answering the "But why are you making this change? Should I merge it in > the Debian package?" question requires a lot of effort. I'm not asking > you to write a ten-line rationale for the patch. Often, 1 to 3 lines > should be enough. And you could link to a wiki page to provide a more > detailed explanation of the problem.
This of course assumes the person writing the changelog entry actually knows the answer to those questions. As you say, it requires a lot of effort on the part of the DD. I think it probably takes at least the same if not more effort on the part of the person writing the changelog. A fair amount of the time I don't think merger's really know why a change is needed or if it applies to Debian or not. While I appreciate your suggestions here and think it should definitely be the goal push things back to Debian, many people simply won't know if something applies to Debian specifically or not. I can think of several Debian bugs I've seen over the years where an Ubuntu contributor mistakenly thought an Ubuntu change applied to Debian when in fact it did not. The Debian maintainer is definitely in the best position to figure out if it applies them or not. They know the package and they know Debian. We should certainly try to give the information a Debian maintainer needs. But, for instance, I feel quite uncomfortable telling a Debian maintainer (who has maybe worked on package for years) they should take a patch in a package I've never touched before and am just propagating Ubuntu changes in. This is why I agree with Scott Kitterman that bugs in Debian's BTS are a much better place to discuss the appropriateness of Ubuntu changes for Debian than in changelog entries. -Jordan -- Ubuntu-motu mailing list Ubuntu-motu@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-motu
