Not installing changelogs in 11.04

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Tue, Nov 09, 2010 at 09:52:41AM +0000, Colin Watson wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 09, 2010 at 10:33:19AM +0100, Martin Pitt wrote:
> > Matt Zimmerman [2010-11-08 12:47 +0000]:
> > > that this would eliminate 95% of the changelog, but would still attribute
> > > recent work.  This doesn't address Colin's concern.
> > 
> > I could live with this compromise, but I actually think it would
> > create more confusion than it would help. You still need a way to see
> > the complete changelog.
> 
> This option has its benefits.  The reason I think this is better than
> the status quo in natty is that there's going to be a sizeable
> population of knowledgeable users who reach for
> /usr/share/doc/<package>/changelog.<tab><tab> "what the heck?", and I'd
> like to eliminate the "what the heck?" factor.  A simple option would be
> to cap the size of the changelog we distribute in binary packages to
> min(a release cycle, some size limit), and at the end of the changelog,
> write:
> 
>   For older changelog entries, run 'apt-changelog <package>'.

If we add a note (which I think is a good idea), it would be nice if we
could do it without changing the format of the changelog.

> That would simultaneously help people feel less disoriented by the
> change, and introduce them to apt-changelog (which otherwise they
> probably wouldn't know about unless they follow Ubuntu developer
> announcements - not all the people who read changelogs are Ubuntu
> developers).

Agreed.

> Also, what I think Matt is trying to do here is to minimise the
> disorientation for people familiar with changelogs.  Many of those
> people will be upgrading.  There's some value in easing them in
> gradually, rather than just nuking everything in one go.

Yes, yes, and yes.

> Could somebody do the arithmetic on option A to find out how much space
> it would save in comparison to (1) maverick and (2) the natty status
> quo?  I realise that the answers may be approximate.

My 95% figure came from counting the approximate number of changelog entries
which would be removed if we stripped maverick this way today.  I estimated
it by scanning the changelogs on my system for the earliest one with a
"maverick" distribution entry in it, and comparing this to the total number
of entries in the changelog.  This excluded packages which were identical in
Debian.

-- 
 - mdz