Bug#840943: devscripts: Confusing warning message from uscan

[Robert Luberda]

Package: devscripts
Version: 2.16.8
Severity: normal


Hi

With the following watch file for my rlinetd package

  # control file for the uscan(1) tool
  version=4
  opts="pgpmode=next" http://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=30928 \
          (?:.*)/@PACKAGE@@ANY_VERSION@@ARCHIVE_EXT@ debian
  opts="pgpmode=previous" http://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=30928 \
          (?:.*)/@PACKAGE@@ANY_VERSION@@SIGNATURE_EXT@ previous


uscan --verbose shows this:

  [ stripped some output ]
  uscan info: Matching target for downloadurlmangle:
  http://alioth.debian.org/frs/download.php/file/3966/rlinetd-0.9.tar.gz
  uscan info: Upstream URL (downloadurlmangled):
     http://alioth.debian.org/frs/download.php/file/3966/rlinetd-0.9.tar.gz
  uscan info: Newest upstream tarball version selected for download
  (uversionmangled): 0.9
  uscan info: Download filename (filenamemangled): rlinetd-0.9.tar.gz
  uscan info: Newest version of rlinetd on remote site is 0.9, local
  version is 0.9
  uscan info:    => Package is up to date for from
        http://alioth.debian.org/frs/download.php/file/3966/rlinetd-0.9.tar.gz
  uscan info: opts: pgpmode=previous
  uscan info: line: http://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=30928
  (?:.*)/rlinetd[-_]?(\d[\-+\.:\~\da-zA-Z]*)(?i)\.(?:tar\.xz|tar\.bz2|tar\.gz|zip)\.(?:asc|pgp|gpg|sig)
  previous
  uscan info: Parsing pgpmode=previous
  uscan info: line: http://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=30928
  (?:.*)/rlinetd[-_]?(\d[\-+\.:\~\da-zA-Z]*)(?i)\.(?:tar\.xz|tar\.bz2|tar\.gz|zip)\.(?:asc|pgp|gpg|sig)
  previous
  uscan info: Last orig.tar.* tarball version (from debian/changelog): 
  uscan warn: Unable to set versionmode=prev for the line without opts=pgpmode=prev
    in debian/watch, skipping:
    http://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=30928
  (?:.*)/rlinetd[-_]?(\d[\-+\.:\~\da-zA-Z]*)(?i)\.(?:tar\.xz|tar\.bz2|tar\.gz|zip)\.(?:asc|pgp|gpg|sig) previous
  uscan info: Scan finished


The `Unable to set versionmode=prev for the line without opts=pgpmode=prev' 
warning is really confusing, as it does not really says what is wrong, and 
what I as a user can do to get rid of it. Not to mention that it
suggests replacing `pgpmode=previous' (taken from the man page) with 
`pgpmode=prev' in the watch file...

It took me some time to discover that the warning really means that the
locally downloaded version is just the same as the latest remote version...

Regards,
robert



-- System Information:
Debian Release: stretch/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (990, 'unstable'), (200, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 4.7.0-1-686-pae (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=pl_PL.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=pl_PL.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: sysvinit (via /sbin/init)

Versions of packages devscripts depends on:
ii  dpkg-dev     1.18.10
ii  libc6        2.24-3
ii  perl         5.24.1~rc3-3
pn  python3:any  <none>

Versions of packages devscripts recommends:
ii  apt                         1.3.1
ii  at                          3.1.20-1
ii  curl                        7.50.1-1
ii  dctrl-tools                 2.24-2
ii  debian-keyring              2016.09.04
ii  dput                        0.10.3
ii  dupload                     2.7.0
ii  equivs                      2.0.9+nmu1
ii  fakeroot                    1.21-2
ii  file                        1:5.28-4
ii  gnupg                       2.1.15-4
ii  gnupg2                      2.1.15-4
pn  libdistro-info-perl         <none>
ii  libencode-locale-perl       1.05-1
ii  liblwp-protocol-https-perl  6.06-2
ii  libsoap-lite-perl           1.20-1
ii  liburi-perl                 1.71-1
ii  libwww-perl                 6.15-1
ii  licensecheck                3.0.24-1
ii  lintian                     2.5.48
ii  man-db                      2.7.5-1
ii  patch                       2.7.5-1
ii  patchutils                  0.3.4-1
ii  python3-debian              0.1.29
pn  python3-magic               <none>
ii  sensible-utils              0.0.9
ii  strace                      4.13-0.1
ii  unzip                       6.0-20
ii  wdiff                       1.2.2-1+b1
ii  wget                        1.18-4
ii  xz-utils                    5.2.2-1.2

Versions of packages devscripts suggests:
pn  adequate                     <none>
pn  autopkgtest                  <none>
pn  bls-standalone               <none>
ii  bsd-mailx [mailx]            8.1.2-0.20160123cvs-3
ii  build-essential              12.2
pn  check-all-the-things         <none>
pn  cvs-buildpackage             <none>
pn  devscripts-el                <none>
pn  diffoscope                   <none>
pn  disorderfs                   <none>
pn  dose-extra                   <none>
ii  duck                         0.10
ii  faketime                     0.9.6-7
ii  gnuplot                      5.0.4+dfsg1-3
ii  gpgv                         2.1.15-4
pn  how-can-i-help               <none>
ii  libauthen-sasl-perl          2.1600-1
ii  libfile-desktopentry-perl    0.22-1
ii  libnet-smtp-ssl-perl         1.03-1
ii  libterm-size-perl            0.207-1+b4
ii  libtimedate-perl             2.3000-2
ii  libyaml-syck-perl            1.29-1+b2
ii  mailutils [mailx]            1:2.99.99-1.1+b1
pn  mozilla-devscripts           <none>
ii  mutt                         1.7.1-1
ii  openssh-client [ssh-client]  1:7.3p1-1
ii  piuparts                     0.72
pn  ratt                         <none>
pn  reprotest                    <none>
ii  s-nail [mailx]               14.8.12-1
ii  svn-buildpackage             0.8.6
ii  w3m                          0.5.3-31

-- no debconf information