Bug#675790: "dch -r" refuses to proceed

[Luk Claes]

On 06/03/2012 09:13 PM, James McCoy wrote:
> On Sun, Jun 03, 2012 at 08:52:06PM +0200, Harald Dunkel wrote:
>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>> Hash: SHA1
>>
>> On 06/03/12 13:39, James McCoy wrote:
>>> On Sun, Jun 03, 2012 at 01:27:09PM +0200, Harald Dunkel wrote:
>>>> If I run "dch -r" to change the distribution entry in debian/changelog from "UNRELEASED" to the real distribution (e.g. "unstable"), then dch refuses to proceed. It just says
>>>>
>>>> dch: debian/changelog unmodified; exiting.
>>>
>>> You didn't save the file before exiting your editor.  That's the typical way of acknowledging the changes that have been automatically applied by dch.  See DEBCHANGE_FORCE_SAVE_ON_RELEASE if you don't like the behavior.
>>>
>>
>> Thats a misunderstanding. I just called dch -r to change the
>> distribution from "UNRELEASED" to "unstable", as intended.
>> There was nothing to save in the editor, since dch did all
>> the necessary changes _before_ running vi.
> 
> No, it's not a misunderstanding.  Just make vi write the file again
> (:wq).  We use the modification time to determine whether the changes
> are acceptable.
> 
> Alternatively, you can one of the options suggested in the man page.
> Either "dch -r """ (i.e., run -r and supply an empty changelog message)
> or use --no-force-save-on-release.

Did you actually try it? When you do save the changes after invoking
'dch -r' it gives 'dch: debian/changelog unmodified; exiting.' even when
it changed from UNRELEASED to unstable. Personally I use the workaround
of typing a character I remove again right after it to fool the
procedure to believe it has changed...

Cheers

Luk