Bug#874718: debchange doesn't allow empty changelog entry

[Osamu Aoki]

Package: devscripts
Version: 2.17.9
Severity: normal
File: /usr/bin/debchange

I thought I fixed in git repo for
  https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=842468
  https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=845610
by updating uupdate to run debchange with empty string:

-	debchange $BADVERSION -v "$NEW_VERSION-$SUFFIX" "New upstream release"
+	if [ -z "$BADVERSION" ]; then
+	    debchange -v "$NEW_VERSION-$SUFFIX" "New upstream release"
+	else
+	    debchange $BADVERSION -v "$NEW_VERSION-$SUFFIX" ""
+	fi

If "" is the text to be added to the changelog, debchange skips making line
with "*".  This seems to intentional design decision of debchange which I have
no idea why.  (Code logic around it is a bit complicated.  So I may be wrong)
This kind of changelog chokes other tools parsing it.

pkg-parsechangelog: warning:     debian/changelog(l4): found trailer where expected start of change data
LINE:  -- Osamu Aoki <osamu at debian.org>  Sat, 09 Sep 2017 10:10:20 +0900

To me, it is better to create an empty entry to be modified later by the
maintainer.

If no objection, I will try to update debchange.

Otherwise, I will re-update uupdate to use non-null string such as

debchange $BADVERSION -v "$NEW_VERSION-$SUFFIX" "[Edit this line before uploading]"

(Second option really doesn't fix bugs 842468 and 845610)

Osamu