Brand new devscripts package now available for perusal

[jdg@maths.qmw.ac.uk (Julian Gilbey)]

Well, after several weeks of work on and off, and about 20 hours over
the last few days, I am proud to present:

    devscripts version 2.0.0

This is a major rewrite of Christoph Lameter's excellent package,
which aims to improve the functionality of several parts of the code
and at the same time to fix all of the currently outstanding bug
reports against the package.  (Although having said that, I presume
that there will be a number of new bug reports now....)

I have just uploaded the package to master, so it should be available
from a mirror near you within the next 48 hours or so.

In the rest of this email, I will aim to outline the major changes in
version 2.0.0, list the outstanding bugs and their fixes, and finally
append the .changes file for your delictation.

Major changes in 2.0.0 as compared with 1.x
===========================================

(1) release has been deprecated in favour of dupload

(2) build has been renamed debuild

(3) uscan now handles upstream filenames in a much more intelligent
    way

(4) No more compiled executables, only scripts

(5) debuild now runs lintian, and can take options for both
    dpkg-buildpackage and for lintian

(6) debchange/dch is now much more intelligent, safer, and always
    requires an argument (this is because release has been deprecated)

(7) Roderick Schertler's dscverify program has been added to the
    package -- this is used to validate the PGP signature and MD5 sums
    of packages from the .dsc or .changes files


Bugs fixed
==========

#19235: devscripts: fails to detect upgrade from x.x.9 to x.x.10
#19467: devscripts: uscan fails to find latest version
  These are the same bug.  uscan now uses the algorithm used by dpkg
  to compare filenames to deduce the latest one, rather than a simple
  lexicographic sort

#20278: devscripts: incorrect command line for uupdate
  uupdate has been modified so this now works

#20968: devscripts: should depend on ncftp
  uscan now uses ftp instead of ncftp

#25774: devscripts: .orig file in source is deleted
  .orig files are no longer touched, as patch only creates them if
  there is an error, in which case we probably want the to be left

#26805: devscripts: dch should use sensible-editor
  now does, according to policy instructions

#27752: build command with -sa option
  fixed: debuild always uses fakeroot unless some other gain-root
  command is specified, or it is run by or setuid root

#29826: devscripts: release: doesn't work
#29855: devscripts: release version bug
#29978: release: breaks rules in developers reference
  release is now deprecated, so these are non-bugs

#30204: devscripts: DISTRIB variable should behave more intelligently
  now does as per supplied patch

#18254: devscripts: run lintian?
  now does, with an option to not run lintian


Changes file
============

Format: 1.5
Date: Thu,  7 Jan 1999 02:46:04 +0000
Source: devscripts
Binary: devscripts
Architecture: source all
Version: 2.0.0
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: low
Maintainer: Julian Gilbey <jdg@debian.org>
Description: 
 devscripts - Scripts to make the life of a Debian Package maintainer easier
Changes: 
 devscripts (2.0.0) unstable; urgency=low
 .
   * New maintainer
   * Standards: 2.5.0.0
   * New version numbering scheme: major.minor.patchlevel
   * Changed the name of build to debuild.  build now just prints an error
     message and will disappear completely in the near future.
   * Correct handling of epochs in debc, debi and release (closes: #29855)
   * Use environment variables EDITOR, then VISUAL, and failing that,
     /usr/bin/editor in accordance with policy 5.3 (except that VISUAL is
     not mentioned there)  (closes: #28605)
   * Many modifications to uscan: it now compares version numbers
     correctly, using a Perl script which works in a similar way to
     dpkg --compare-versions, and it no longer has the extra 0 bug
     (closes: #19235, #19467); it no longer uses ncftp but only ftp
     (closes: #20968)
   * uscan now expects the watch file to explicitly indicate how to deduce
     the version number from the filename, by writing the filename as a
     Perl regular expression and enclosing the version number part in (...)
   * uupdate now allows a version number as an argument after the archive
     filename, allowing it to work in harmony with uscan (closes: #20278)
   * uupdate no longer tries to remove *.orig files, as the only ones which
     are created by GNU patch are those where the patch failed, and we
     probably _want_ to keep those (closes: #25774)
   * build rewritten in Perl (now called debuild); has a nicer handling of
     command line options (can accept a -r option with one of binary etc.,
     and doesn't need an explicit -r option if there are other
     dpkg-buildpackage options)  (closes: #27752)
   * debpkg rewritten in Perl as well
   * This package is now an Architecture: all package as there are no
     binaries left
   * debchange now uses the last distributions mentioned in the changelog
     as the default for the new version (closes: #30204)
   * debchange now uses the environment variables DEBFULLNAME and EMAIL as
     the uploader's details if these are set
   * release has been deprecated in favour of dupload, and now just prints
     a message suggesting the use of dupload instead (Closes: #29826,
     #29978)
   * The debchange command line options have been changed.  debchange no
     longer pays attention to the presence of a RELEASED file.  The -i
     option is for Increasing the Debian release number; the -a option is
     for Appending to the current version, and the -v option specifies a
     specific version number.  One of these is mandatory
   * Debchange now adds new changelog entries to the END of the current
     section, rather than the beginning
   * Improved logic of upgrading the Debian release number in debchange
   * Debchange does not supply a release number if there is an explicit
     version number provided
   * Now debchange works on a version of the changelog in /tmp and only
     overwrites the current changelog if everything is OK; this is much
     safer than the original version.  Also, all system calls have their
     return status checked
   * release and build now print error messages suggesting their
     replacements
   * debuild now runs lintian by default if it is installed; there is an
     override facility etc., as described in the manpage (Closes: #18254)
   * Added Roderick Schertler's dscverify program to devscripts
   * Rewrote many bits of many man pages
   * debian/rules and Makefile modified to use debhelper
Files: 
 661b448622f948631c754c960b67960e 730 utils optional devscripts_2.0.0.dsc
 6e33bd2dff61864dd7a0314fdbb77f8c 25915 utils optional devscripts_2.0.0.tar.gz
 a83799418387b8a133da6f3d5e2aa478 30788 utils optional devscripts_2.0.0_all.deb


Looking forward to receiving comments!

Next project -- dinstall!

   Julian

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

            Julian Gilbey             Email: J.D.Gilbey@qmw.ac.uk
       Dept of Mathematical Sciences, Queen Mary & Westfield College,
                  Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, ENGLAND
      -*- Finger jdg@goedel.maths.qmw.ac.uk for my PGP public key. -*-