requirements for sync requests (changelogs)

[Matthias Klose]

The current guidelines for sync requests require to include the
changelog of all debian versions uploaded after the last sync. I'm
requesting to drop this requirement.

 - it's incomplete
 - it's redundant
 - it's an extra step for the person requesting the sync and it needs
   to be checked by archive administrators anyway

Completeness:

You cannot rely just on the debian changelog when syncs are requested
when the sync of a new upstream version is requested. For completeness
you would have to include an upstream changelog, which we cannot automate.

Redundancy:

The information what changes are included in a sync are already given in
the version number required for the sync request. The changelog adds
little value to this. For example:

  http://launchpad.net/bugs/74835
  http://launchpad.net/bugs/74832

Reliability:

Although not mentioned in the wiki, the current rationale to include the
changelog appears to be a help for QA, in that an archive administrator
has the chance to compare the changelog entries with the other
information submitted in the sync request. If only this data is
compared, then it gives a wrong feeling of security, because just data
submitted by the sync requester is evaluated. If an archive
administrator compares the data from the sync request directly with the
debian data, then the inclusion of the changelog entries is not needed.


The changelog data has a value for documentation, but in this case this
data should not be requested by the sync requester, but automatically
added to the report for a sucessful sync (sending the changes file to
the bug report as well).

  Matthias