how to incorporate svn info into changelog when building deb packages?

Question

i have modified some open source code but i haven't figured how to change the info in debian/changelog so when i build my own deb it'll contain my new info. thanks for your help!

Answer 1

You can use the command "dch -i" or explicitly "dch -v version-revision" from the devscripts package. But unless you're doing that all the time it might just be easier to copy and paste the last revision, increment the release version and follow the format defined here.

Section 4.4: http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-source.html

So for example if it was:

package-name (0.8.0-2) stable; urgency=low

  * Blah blah blah

 -- Their Name <them@someplace.com>  Tue, 14 Feb 2011 02:24:40 -0700

You'd add another on top of that following the exact format including spaces in your favorite editor.

package-name (0.8.0-3) stable; urgency=low

  * Type your changes here

 -- Your GnuPG <you@someplace.com>  Tue, 15 Feb 2011 02:24:40 -0700

package-name (0.8.0-2) stable; urgency=low

  * Blah blah blah

 -- Their GnuPG <them@someplace.com>  Tue, 14 Feb 2011 02:24:40 -0700

Then just dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -b or something and it'll make a new 0.8.0-3 package with your changelog.Debian.gz.