Reminder to update timestamps before sponsoring (or maybe not :))

[Micah Gersten]

On 07/07/2011 12:23 AM, Scott Kitterman wrote:
> On Thursday, July 07, 2011 01:19:07 AM Micah Gersten wrote:
>> smarty3 (3.0.8-0ubuntu1) oneiric; urgency=low
>>
>>> * New upstream release. (LP: #801924)
>>>
>>> Date: Sat, 25 Jun 2011 12:38:31 +0100
>>> Changed-By: Mat Scales <mat at wibbly.org.uk>
>>> Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <ubuntu-devel-discuss at lists.ubuntu.com>
>>> Signed-By: Micah Gersten <launchpad at micahscomputing.com>
>>> https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/oneiric/+source/smarty3/3.0.8-0ubuntu1
>> I goofed here, but seems like it's a good opportunity for another PSA
>> (Public Service Announcement) since I found a handful of others like
>> it in the last 24 hours.  One should try to update the timestamp
>> before sponsoring/uploading a package.  This can be accomplished with
>> either 'dch -m -r' for sponsoring or just 'dch -r' for one's own upload.
> Why should one do this?
>
> Scott K
>
Apparently I thought it was a good idea and was under the impression
that it was widely done, but I find no reference to updated timestamps
in Debian policy, so I guess this was all in my head.  I apologize for
the noise.  I will however explain why I think it's a good idea in any case.
The changelog is what is pushed to the user's system and also is a
snapshot of the history of the package.  When I was commenting above
about timestamps being off, I was referring to where it was off by more
than one day, not just a few hours or minutes.  This seems
counterintuitive to see something uploaded on a certain date, but dated
much before then.  It would seem to make sense to keep this relatively
in line with when events occur.

Perhaps someone with a historical perspective can explain what the
intended goal of the timestamp in the changelog was.

Thanks,
Micah