RFE: document relation between DEBCHANGE_TZ and TZ more clearly (patch included)

Hm, looks like I was approaching this from the wrong angle.

The DEBCHANGE_TZ variable has been introduced to specifically override any environment variables. At least that is my understanding now. What I want can be done like this (unless DEBCHANGE_TZ is set in ~/.devscripts)

TZ=Japan dch -i
TZ=Europe/Berlin dch -i
...

Makes me wonder if DEBCHANGE_TZ is actually useful (see comment from Loïc Minier in debbug 417261 on Thu, 5 Apr 2007 10:36:39 +0200) instead of detrimental. The documentation should be improved to prevent misunderstandings like in my case. I'll leave this bug open to achieve that.

OK, how about the attached patch?

Looking at the attachments in this bug report, I noticed that "diff for "man 1 dch"" was not flagged as a patch. A patch contains changes to an Ubuntu package that will resolve a bug and this attachment is one! Subsequently, I've checked the patch flag for it. In the future when submitting patches please use the patch checkbox as there are some Launchpad searches that use this feature. Thanks for your contribution Rolf Leggewie!

The patch is of course reverse. Can we please see this in Karmic?

ping sponsors

Do you think you could forward it to Debian too?

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Debian/Bugs

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. The issue you are reporting is an upstream one and it would be nice if somebody having it could send the bug to the developers of the software by following the instructions at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Upstream/Debian. If you have done so, please tell us the number of the upstream bug (or the link), so we can add a bugwatch that will inform us about its status. Thanks in advance.

Matthias, why is this fix committed? Are you sure you understand the meaning of that flag correctly?

@all: why is this patch lingering here more than a year now?

This bug was fixed in the package devscripts - 2.10.67ubuntu1

---------------
devscripts (2.10.67ubuntu1) maverick; urgency=low

  * Merge from Debian unstable; remaining changes:
    - Demote Recommends to Suggests:
      + libcrypt-ssleay-perl: only needed for a corner case (uscan on SSL
        download sites), wasn't installed by default in previous releases
        either, and seems quite dead upstream; universe only.
      + libsoap-lite-perl: only needed for one less common command ("select")
        for bts, which isn't useful for Ubuntu itself, and pulls in a lot of
        other universe Perl libraries; universe only.
      + debian-{keyring,maintainers}: not useful enough in Ubuntu; universe
        only.
      + equivs: too much of a hack to install by default; universe only.
      + libyaml-syck-perl: transition-check is fairly Debian-specific.
    - scripts/debchange.{pl,1}:
      + Adjust --security template for Ubuntu.
      + Add -U/--upstream flag that forces original "just increment
        the end" behaviour; Ubuntu is upstream for some pieces of software.
      + Add --distributor= to override lsb_release output.
      + Default to "maverick" as distribution.
      + Add "ubuntu1" to version string for new versions, with tweaks for
        special cases.
      + Add -R/--rebuild flag for Ubuntu's no-change rebuilds.
      + Don't use the last distribution in debian/changelog when doing
        "dch -r" on Ubuntu. "Just because it was last uploaded to jaunty
        doesn't mean that's the right thing to do now." Thanks to Colin
        Watson. (LP: #429288)
    - scripts/debcommit.pl: support commiting to bzr from debian/.
    - scripts/debsign.{sh,1}: Implement DEBSIGN_ALWAYS_RESIGN variable to skip
      the "Would you like to use the current signature?" question. (Debian
      #447955)
    - scripts/debuild.pl: Enforce Ubuntu merge policy.
    - scripts/dscverify.pl: Add Ubuntu keyrings.
    - scripts/rmadison.pl: Change default URL parameter to ubuntu.
    - Add test/debchange.pl, test/Makefile: debchange test suite; call it
      during build in debian/rules. Also add lsb-release build dependency for
      this, so that debchange uses Ubuntu mode.
  * Add natty as an allowable distribution for Ubuntu (Closes: #593659).

devscripts (2.10.67) unstable; urgency=low

  * debcommit: Use the first detected changelog instead of the last. (Closes:
    #591368)
  * debsnap: Remove use of pure-perl specific functions from JSON module.
    (Closes: #591392)
  * debchange: Clarify how the TZ environment variable affects debchange.
    Based on a patch by Rolf Leggewie. (LP: #330430)
 -- Benjamin Drung <email address hidden> Fri, 20 Aug 2010 03:39:01 +0200