Bug#693445: [bts] bts silently fails - should give better error message

[Praveen Arimbrathodiyil]

Package: devscripts
Version: 2.12.4
Severity: wishlist

Currently bts does not give any visible indication that it has failed. The command runs successfully but not change is visible at bugs.debian.org

Possibly it is an issue with sending mails (it worked after giving smtp-host option), but bts should catch it or at least use reportbug.debian.org as default smtp host (as used by reportbug package). Also if a .reportbugrc is present bts should use it (for example to pick email address to be used).

-- Package-specific info:

--- /etc/devscripts.conf ---

--- ~/.devscripts ---
Not present

-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-042stab059.7 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages devscripts depends on:
ii  dpkg-dev  1.16.9
ii  libc6     2.13-35
ii  perl      5.14.2-14
ii  python    2.7.3-3

Versions of packages devscripts recommends:
ii  at                        3.1.13-2
ii  curl                      7.28.0-2
ii  dctrl-tools               2.22.2
ii  debian-keyring            2012.06.01
ii  dput                      0.9.6.3+nmu1
ii  equivs                    2.0.9
ii  fakeroot                  1.18.4-2
ii  gnupg                     1.4.12-6
ii  libcrypt-ssleay-perl      0.58-1
ii  libdistro-info-perl       0.10
ii  libjson-perl              2.53-1
ii  libparse-debcontrol-perl  2.005-3
ii  libsoap-lite-perl         0.714-1
ii  liburi-perl               1.60-1
ii  libwww-perl               6.04-1
ii  lintian                   2.5.10.2
ii  man-db                    2.6.3-1
ii  patch                     2.6.1-3
ii  patchutils                0.3.2-1.1
ii  python-debian             0.1.21+nmu2
ii  python-magic              5.11-2
ii  sensible-utils            0.0.7
ii  strace                    4.5.20-2.3
ii  unzip                     6.0-7
ii  wdiff                     1.1.2-1
ii  wget                      1.14-1
ii  xz-utils                  5.1.1alpha+20120614-1

Versions of packages devscripts suggests:
ii  bsd-mailx [mailx]            8.1.2-0.20111106cvs-1
ii  build-essential              11.5
pn  cvs-buildpackage             <none>
pn  devscripts-el                <none>
pn  gnuplot                      <none>
pn  libauthen-sasl-perl          <none>
pn  libfile-desktopentry-perl    <none>
pn  libnet-smtp-ssl-perl         <none>
pn  libterm-size-perl            <none>
ii  libtimedate-perl             1.2000-1
pn  libyaml-syck-perl            <none>
pn  mutt                         <none>
ii  openssh-client [ssh-client]  1:6.0p1-3
pn  svn-buildpackage             <none>
pn  w3m                          <none>

-- no debconf information