[debhelper-devel] Bug#798414: Bug#798414: debhelper: empty support file should imply no-op

[Niels Thykier]

On 2015-09-09 17:09, Michael Banck wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 09, 2015 at 07:48:43AM +0200, Niels Thykier wrote:
>> Control: tags -1 moreinfo
>>
>> On 2015-09-09 00:52, Michael Banck wrote:
>>> Package: debhelper
>>> Version: 9.20150101
>>> Severity: wishlist
>>>
>>> Dear Maintainer,
>>>
>>> I had the case of one upstream package shipping a useless ChangeLog file
>>> (basically having "check Github" as content).  dh_installchangelogs
>>> installs this file automatically, unless I manually intervene.  The only
>>> way to do so seems to be to add additional targets to debian/rules.  
>>>
>>> My original idea of just shipping an empty debian/<package>.changelog
>>> file did not work, debhelper aborted with an error.
>>>
>>> So I'm filing this wishlist bug for consideration of empty support files
>>> to imply no-ops rather than errors.  I think that would be an elegant
>>> design, but I am not sure whether this is in line with dh in general.
>>>
>>>
>>> Michael
>>>
>>> [...]
>>
>> Hi Michael,
>>
>> Thanks for your suggestion.
>>
>> Unfortunately, I am not convinced it can be trivially implemented as
>> such. In particular, please note that you probably do not want
>> dh_installchangelogs to be a (complete) no-op as it also installs the
>> Debian changelogs.
> 
> Right, I've since realized that.
>  
>> A couple of notes:
>>
>>  * debian/<pkg>.changelog is *not* the debhelper config file for
>>    dh_installchangelogs, but rather the *actual* changelog to put
>>    in that package.
>>    - That is why it breaks when it is empty.
> 
> Hrm, I see. Is this supposed to be a package-specific Debian changelog
> then?
>  
>[...]


Yes, you can use it to have package specific changelogs (or NEWS files).

(Also documented in man 1 dh_installchangelogs).


Thanks,
~Niels



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