[Pkg-octave-devel] Proposal: RFU

[Rafael Laboissiere]

Now that there is SVN activity again and since I am currently the only
active member of the DOG who can upload packages, I would like to make a
proposal to you: as soon as any member of the DOG thinks that a package in
SVN is ready for upload, she/he should send a "Request For Upload" message
to pkg-octave with a Subject like "[RFU] matwrap 0.57-9".  After some
reasonable amount of time (say, two working days), if there are no
objections, then I (or any other DD) can upload the package.

I am also thinking about changing the Guidelines as regards the SVN commit
of debian/changelog files.  For now, we require that the trailer line is
empty.  The intention for this requirement was to make it clear that the
version in SVN does not correspond to a released version.  I think now that
leaving the trailer line would be better for two reasons: first, the package
can be build automatically after a svn checkout, without any editing of
debian/changelog. Second, when a DOG member prepares a new release, her/his
name should be in the trailer line, instead of that of the person doing the
upload.

Therefore, I propose to change the DOG Guidelines according to the patch
attached below (note that I removed all references to Emacs in this patch).
Comments are welcome.

-- 
Rafael
-------------- next part --------------
Index: DOG-Guidelines.txt
===================================================================
--- DOG-Guidelines.txt	(revision 976)
+++ DOG-Guidelines.txt	(working copy)
@@ -45,28 +45,6 @@
 is the common practice in Debian, being the format adopted in core packages
 like libc6 and xorg-x11.
 
-At the end of debian/changelog put the following lines::
-
-    Local Variables:
-    eval: (progn
-      (make-local-hook 'debian-changelog-add-version-hook)
-      (add-hook
-        'debian-changelog-add-version-hook
-          (lambda ()
-          (save-excursion
-            (forward-line -1)
-            (beginning-of-line)
-            (insert "\n  NOT YET RELEASED!\n\n  [ "
-              (or (getenv "DEBFULLNAME") (user-full-name)) " ]")))
-        nil t))
-    End:
-
-This is a great help when using (X)Emacs with the debian-changelog-mode and
-hitting [(control) c] [(control) v] for starting a new version entry of
-[(control) c] [(control) c] for closing an opened version entry.  Notice
-that for the "eval" code above to work, version 24.12-1 or later of the
-dpkg-dev-el must be installed.
-
 If you are a Debian developer, put your name in the Uploaders field of
 debian/control.  By doing this, your uploads will not be considered as NMUs
 (non-maintainer uploads).
@@ -92,7 +70,7 @@
 http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/pkg-octave-commit
 
 Bugs marked as *closed* in debian/changelog will be tagged *pending*
-automatically when you commit your changes into SVN. 
+automatically when you commit your changes into SVN.
 
 The repository is organized in a svn-buildpackage-friendly way, as follows::
 
@@ -207,24 +185,25 @@
 
 When committing changes that do not result in a Debian release, keep
 debian/changelog in a clearly broken state, such that the other developers
-will know that the version is not yet released.  Something like this::
+will know that the version is not yet released.  The preferable way of
+doing this is by setting the distribution to "UNRELEASED", like this::
 
-    octave-cool (1.2.3-4) unstable; urgency=low
+    octave-cool (1.2.3-4) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
 
-      NOT YET RELEASED!
-
       [ Joe Developer ]
       * First import
 
-    --
+    -- Joe Developer <joedev at debian.org>  Mon,  15 Oct 2012 08:30:00 -0400
 
-In (X)Emacs, the text shown above is automatically inserted, thanks to the
-"eval" code in the "Local Variables" section of the file (see section 2).
+Notice that the trailer line should be kept in the changelog entry.  This
+has the following advantages: first, it keeps the package in a buildable
+state from a SVN checkout.  In addition, the trailer line shows the name of
+the developer who effectively prepared that version of the package and
+which will appear in the "Changed-By:" field of the *.changes file.  The
+change from "UNRELEASED" to "unstable" (or any other valid distribution)
+should be done by the developer who does the actual upload.
 
-Notice the absence of signature and release date.  dpkg-buildpackage will
-refuse to build a package with such an entry at the top of debian/changelog.
 
-
 4. Centralized installation paths and octave2.1 dependency
 ----------------------------------------------------------