Re: RH tools and conf changes (was: Re: Vi backspace key problem)

[Dag Wieers <dag wieers com>]

On Thu, 21 Jul 2005, Ed Wilts wrote:

> Not to pick on Dag (he does a fantastic job for us) but I just happened
> to have one of his packages lying around and here's how descriptive his
> changelog is:
> 
> * Wed Jul 13 2005 Dag Wieers <dag wieers com> - 20050712-1 - 3051+/dag
> 
> - Updated to release 20050712.
> 
> * Sat Jan 22 2005 Dag Wieers <dag wieers com> - 20050121-1
> 
> - Updated to release 20050121.
> 
> * Fri Jan 21 2005 Dag Wieers <dag wieers com> - 20050120-1
> 
> - Updated to release 20050120.
> 
> Now what have we really gotten from this changelog?  No mention of
> new features, bugs fixed, config file changes required, nothing - just a
> simple date.  Red Hat has done stuff like this with a lot of their
> packages too.  I've got 3rd party products that just deliver a new
> version with no changelog whatsoever.

Correct, the application changelog is inside the package. That's what I 
meant when I said 'massive undertaking'. If you require packagers to check 
and add things like this, it becomes hard or impossible to make packages.

And what's even more, the upstream changelog is not always clear on 
changes either. So you probably need to read the sourcecode changes to 
really grasp what has changed and what impact it has.

And we haven't talked about non-standard usage of tools. Stuff that relies 
on a bug or even worse uses a feature for something completely different.
You won't catch those problems either.

The %changelog included in RPMs details what has changed in the SPEC file, 
not what has changed in the program. Go look in Red Hat's packages, the 
%changelog details the SPEC file changes. In your example, there have not 
been any changes except updating the version/release.

I also do not add minor changes to a SPEC file, because often they don't 
mean anything. If you want to know what has changed in a SPEC file when 
it's not in the %changelog. Check our subversion :)

Kind regards,
--   dag wieers,  dag wieers com,  http://dag.wieers.com/   --
[all I want is a warm bed and a kind word and unlimited power]