Contents
How to help with fixing debian/watch files
Verify whether an updated watch file is already available on the PTS page of the package.
- Write a good debian/watch file and test it with uscan.
- Ask bartm or another DD from the qa team to add your debian/watch files in qa.debian.org:/srv/qa.debian.org/data/watch/watchfiles. The file names are package_eversion.watch with eversion = version without epoch but with Debian revision.
How to write a good debian/watch file
See "man uscan".
Check the common mistakes section of the debian/watch page.
How to test the debian/watch file
By example pqiv 0.12-1:
- The file named "watch" contains this:
version=3 https://github.com/phillipberndt/pqiv/downloads .*/pqiv-(.*)\.tbz$
- Strip epoch and debian revision from the version. So 1:3.39-1 would become 3.39. In this case 0.12-1 becomes 0.12.
- Then use uscan like this (see "man uscan"), and verify whether the status makes sense:
uscan --watchfile watch --package pqiv --upstream-version 0.12 --no-download --verbose
- Then use uscan like this (see "man uscan"), and verify whether the link to the upstream file works:
uscan --watchfile watch --package pqiv --upstream-version 0 --no-download --verbose
List of debian/watch files with temporary or permanent problems
Here is the list of debian/watch files with temporary or permanent problems : http://qa.debian.org/watch/uscan-errors.txt
More reports are found here.