Bug#1090956: debhelper: support CHANGELOG.org as changelog

[Niels Thykier]

Xiyue Deng:

Hi Niels,

Niels Thykier <ni...@thykier.net> writes:

Xiyue Deng:

Package: debhelper
Version: 13.11.4
Severity: wishlist

Dear Maintainer,

It would be great that if dh_installchangelogs can support CHANGELOG.org
as changelog.

A bit background: CHANGELOG.org is a type of changelog file in Org mode
format[1].  This is becoming more and more commonly used by many Emacs
addon packages, such as dap-mode, corfu, dape, vertico, etc.  It would
be great that dh_installchangelogs can support CHANGELOG.org OOTB so
that maintainers can avoid manual handling.

The change is trivial and I have made an MR at [2].  PTAL.  TIA!

[1] https://orgmode.org/
[2] https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debhelper/-/merge_requests/130

[...]

Hi,

I am happy to add `CHANGELOG.org` to the list provided we have data on
how many false positives it would have. Basically, how many packages
have a `CHANGELOG.org` that is not an org-mode changelog (or where a
different changelog would be a better fit).

I think an `apt-file search` through the source indices (or reading the
Contents files) might be the most reliable option.

Depending on the results, I would either enable it unconditionally or
conditionally.

Sounds reasonable.  I tried searching using apt-file and the results are
below:

,----
| $ apt-file -x search "(changelog|CHANGELOG).org"
| elpa-corfu: /usr/share/doc/elpa-corfu/CHANGELOG.org.gz
| elpa-dap-mode: /usr/share/doc/elpa-dap-mode/CHANGELOG.org.gz
| elpa-dape: /usr/share/doc/elpa-dape/CHANGELOG.org.gz
`----

```
sudo tee /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/60-local-apt-file.conf <<EOF
Acquire::IndexTargets::deb-src::Contents-dsc::DefaultEnabled "true";
EOF
sudo apt update
```

You would need to use apt-file's -Idsc index. Though it is disabled by default (check with `apt-file list-indices`). Enable with:

Which seems too few.  I then searched on Debian codesearch[1], and it
looks like all hits are actual changelogs in org mode, and there are
other packages also manually handling this either through
dh_installchangelogs or through other means.  To be extra careful, I
also searched for the lower case "changelog.org" and the only hit is
from clj-http-clojure[2] which is also in org mode.

What I do not like about codesearch for this is that is only finds mentions of the file (not the file itself). It is not very helpful for figuring out if changelog.org will shadow an existing changelog (dh_installchangelogs also looks for HISTORY and NEWS files).

Hopefully this can help clear the potential false positive doubts.

Best regards,
Niels

[1] https://codesearch.debian.net/search?q=CHANGELOG.org
[2] https://sources.debian.org/src/clj-http-clojure/3.12.3-2/

Best regards,
Niels

OpenPGP_signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature