[Bug 1655717] Re: default distribution hard coded to release that devscripts was built on

[Scott Moser]

Additionally as blackboxsw pointed out to me recently the man page says
it will default to the previous value, which actually makes sense.

|  --release, -r
|   Finalize the changelog for a release. Update the changelog
|   timestamp. If the distribution is set to UNRELEASED, change it
|   to the distribution from the previous changelog entry (or
|   another distribution as specified by --distribution). If there
|   are no previous changelog entries and an explicit distribution
|   has not been specified, unstable will be used.

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Title:
  default distribution hard coded to release that devscripts was built
  on

Status in devscripts package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  devscripts/scripts/Makefile currently patches debchange.pl like this:

  debchange: debchange.pl $(VERSION_FILE)
                      cp $< $@
                      sed -i "s/###VERSION###/$(VERSION)/" $@
  ifeq ($(shell dpkg-vendor --query Vendor),Ubuntu)
  # On Ubuntu always default to targeting the release that it's built on,
  # not the current devel release, since its primary use on stable releases
  # will be for preparing PPA uploads.
                      sed -i 's/get_ubuntu_devel_distro()/"$(shell lsb_release -cs)"/' $@
  endif


  That means that we have to upload a change to devscripts in order to
  change the default to being the current development release.

  This is silly for a number of reasons
  a.) there is code in debchange.pl (get_ubuntu_devel_distro) that is never used.
  b.) the build distro is only right for 6 months at most, and then wrong ever after.

  Personally, I think the devel release is the correct default, but to preseve
  the original intent, we could possibly change it to the *runtime* value of
  lsb_release -sc.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.04
  Package: devscripts 2.16.6ubuntu1
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.8.0-30.32-generic 4.8.6
  Uname: Linux 4.8.0-30-generic x86_64
  NonfreeKernelModules: zfs zunicode zcommon znvpair zavl
  ApportVersion: 2.20.4-0ubuntu1
  Architecture: amd64
  CurrentDesktop: Unity
  Date: Wed Jan 11 12:04:50 2017
  EcryptfsInUse: Yes
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-07-23 (538 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 15.10 "Wily Werewolf" - Alpha amd64 (20150722.1)
  SourcePackage: devscripts
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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