Provided by: git-buildpackage_0.9.8_all bug

NAME

       gbp-dch - Generate the Debian changelog from git commit messages

SYNOPSIS

       gbp dch [--version] [--help] [--verbose] [--color=[auto|on|off]] [--color-scheme=
               COLOR_SCHEME] [--debian-branch= branch_name] [--debian-tag= tag-format]
               [--upstream-branch= branch_name] [--upstream-tag= tag-format] [--ignore-branch]
               [-s commitish | --since= commitish] [[-S | --snapshot] | [-R | --release]] [-N
               version | --new-version= version] [--bpo | --nmu | --qa | --security | --team]
               [--distribution= name] [--force-distribution] [-U level | --urgency= level]
               [--[no-]full] [--[no-]meta] [--meta-closes=bug-close-tags] [--meta-closes-
               bugnum=bug-number-format] [--snapshot-number= expression] [--id-length= number]
               [--git-log= git-log-options] [--[no-]git-author] [--[no-]multimaint]
               [--[no-]multimaint-merge] [--spawn-editor=[always|never|snapshot|release]]
               [--commit-msg= msg-format] [-c | --commit] [--customizations= customization-file]
               [--postedit= COMMAND] [--dch-opt= dch-options]... [--verbose] path1 path2

DESCRIPTION

       gbp dch reads git commit messages and generates the Debian changelog from it. It starts at
       a  given  commit  specified  by the --since option up to the current HEAD. For each commit
       found it adds the commit message to the changelog. If --since is not given the  commit  to
       start from is determined by the following rules (first one matches):

       1.  The start commit is read from the snapshot banner (see below for details)

       2.  If  the  topmost  version of the debian/changelog is alread tagged. Use the commit the
           tag points to as start commit.

       3.  The last commit that modified debian/changelog is used as start commit.

       This is called automatic mode.

       If the distribution  of  the  topmost  section  in  debian/changelog  is  UNRELEASED,  the
       changelog  entries  will  be  inserted  into this section. Otherwise a new section will be
       created.

       If one ore more paths are  given  as  arguments  gbp dch  will  only  include  changes  in
       debian/changelog  that affect these paths. E.g. using debian/ is a good choice if upstream
       uses Git and you don't want the upstream history to end up in debian/changelog.

       To restrict the selected changes even further you can use use the --git-log  option  which
       is passed on verbatim to git log. E.g. by using --git-log="--author=Foo Bar".

       The  above  relies  on  the  --debian-branch  option  pointing  to  the current branch and
       --upstream-branch pointing to the corresponding upstream branch in order to find the right
       merge points of these branches. Furthermore gbp dch must be able to identify git tags from
       upstream and  Debian  version  numbers.  If  you're  not  using  the  defaults  check  the
       --upstream-tag  and --debian-tag options and make sure they match the tags created by e.g.
       gbp import-orig (when using tarballs) or upstream's tagging pattern (when using upstream's
       git directly).

       If  not changelog exists yet it is created and the version number is derived from the last
       upstream tag if found.

OPTIONS

       --version
              Print version of the program, i.e. version of the git-buildpackage suite

       -v, --verbose
              Verbose execution

       -h, --help
              Print help and exit

       --color=[auto|on|off]
              Whether to use colored output.

       --color-scheme=COLOR_SCHEME
              Colors to use in output (when color is enabled). The  format  for  COLOR_SCHEME  is
              '<debug>:<info>:<warning>:<error>'.  Numerical values and color names are accepted,
              empty fields imply the default color. For  example,  --git-color-scheme='cyan:34::'
              would  show  debug  messages  in  cyan, info messages in blue and other messages in
              default (i.e. warning and error messages in red).

       --debian-branch=branch_name
              The branch in the Git repository the Debian package is being developed on,  default
              is master.

       --upstream-branch=branch_name
              Branch to determine the upstream version from.  Default is upstream.

       --git-upstream-tag=TAG-FORMAT
              Use  this  tag  format  when  looking  for  tags  of  upstream versions, default is
              upstream/%(version)s.

       --ignore-branch
              Don't check if the current branch matches debian-branch.

       --debian-tag=tag-format
              Tag format used, when tagging debian versions, default is debian/%(version)s

       --since=committish
              Start reading commit  messages  at  committish.   This  option  can't  be  set  via
              gbp.conf.

       --auto, -a
              This  option  is  ignored for compatibility with older versions. It used to trigger
              automatic mode.

       --[no-]meta
              Parse meta tags like Closes:, Thanks: and Gbp-Dch:. See META TAGS below.

       --meta-closes=bug-close-tags
              What meta tags to look for to generate bug-closing changelog entries.  The  default
              is 'Closes|LP' to support Debian and Launchpad.

       --meta-closes-bugnum=bug-number-format
              What regular expression should be used to parse out the bug number.  The default is
              '(?:bug|issue)?\#?\s?\d+'. Note: the regex should suppress all portions of the  bug
              number that are not wanted using "(?:)", see Python regex manual for details.

              Example: --meta-closes-bugnum="(?:bug)?\s*ex-\d+" would match all of the following:

                               Possible Txt  Match?    Result
                               ------------  ------    ------
                               bug EX-12345    Y       EX-12345
                               ex-01273        Y       ex-01273
                               bug ex-1ab      Y       ex-1
                               EX--12345       N

       --[no-]full
              Include the full commit message in the changelog output.

       --snapshot, -S
              Create a snapshot release entry. It uses a snapshot release number which is smaller
              than the final release number and adds a warning banner to the changelog entry. The
              version number is being auto incremented with every new snapshot release.

              The  snapshot banner is also used by gbp dch to determine which entries are already
              in the changelog. This prevents duplicated entries in debian/changelog when you did
              not commit the changelog yet.

       --snapshot-number=expression
              Python expression that gets eval()ed to the new snapshot number.

       --release, -R
              Remove  any snapshot release banners and version suffixes (if any), set the current
              distribution to unstable, and open the changelog for final  tweaking.  This  option
              can't  be  set  via  gbp.conf.  It's  usually used to finalize the changelog before
              making a release.

       --new-version=version, -N version
              Add a new changelog section with version newversion. Together with --snapshot,  the
              snapshot  number  will  be  appended  to  newversion.  This option can't be set via
              gbp.conf.

       --team Create a Team upload changelog entry.  This option can't be set via gbp.conf.

       --bpo  Increment the Debian release number for an upload to backports, and add a  backport
              upload changelog comment.  This option can't be set via gbp.conf.

       --nmu  Increment the Debian release number for a non-maintainer upload.  This option can't
              be set via gbp.conf.

       --qa   Increment the Debian release number for a Debian QA  Team  upload,  and  add  a  QA
              upload changelog comment.  This option can't be set via gbp.conf.

       --security
              Increment  the  Debian  release  number  for  a Debian Security Team non-maintainer
              upload, and add a "Security Team upload" changelog comment.  This option  can't  be
              set via gbp.conf.

       --distribution=name
              Set the distribution field to name.  This option can't be set via gbp.conf.

       --force-distribution
              Force the distribution specified with --distribution to be used, even if it doesn't
              match the list of known distributions.  This option can't be set via gbp.conf.

       --urgency=level
              Set the urgency field to level.

       --git-log=git-log-options
              Options passed on verbatim to git-log(1).

       --id-length=N
              Include N digits of the commit id in the changelog entry. Default is to not include
              any commit ids at all.

       --ignore-regex=regex
              Ignore commit lines matching regex when generating the changelog.

       --git-author
              Use user.name and user.email from git-config(1) for changelog trailer.

       --[no-]multimaint-merge
              Merge commits by maintainer.

       --spawn-editor=[always|never|snapshot|release]
              Whether  to  spawn  an  editor: always, never, when doing snapshots or when doing a
              release.

       --commit-msg=msg-format
              Use this format string  for  the  commit  message  when  committing  the  generated
              changelog  file  (when  --commit  is  given).   Default  is  Update  changelog  for
              %(version)s release

       --commit
              Commit the generated changelog.

       --customizations=customization-file
              Load Python code from customization-file.  At the moment, the only useful thing the
              code can do is define a custom format_changelog_entry() function.

       --postedit=COMMAND
              RunCOMMAND  after changes to the changelog file have been finalized, That is, after
              dch has been run and possible text editor has been exited, but, before changes  are
              (possibly) committed to git.

       --dch-opt=dch-option
              Pass  option  to dch verbatim. Note that gbp dch invokes dch multiple times and the
              option is passed to all invocations so not all dch options make sense here. Options
              may also conflict with options picked by gbp dch.

SNAPSHOT MODE

       Snapshot  mode can be used for quick test and install cycles without having to worry about
       version numbers or changelog entries.

       When using --snapshot or -S, gbp dch uses a pseudo  header  in  the  Debian  changelog  to
       remember the last git commit it added a changelog entry for. It also sets a version number
       ending in ~<snaspshotnumber>.gbp<commitid>.   It  automatically  increments  the  snapshot
       number  on subsequent invocations of gbp dch -S so that later snapshots automatically have
       a higher version number. To leave snapshot mode, invoke gbp dch with the --release option.
       This  removes  the  pseudo header and unmangles the version number so the released version
       has a higher version number than the snapshots.

META TAGS

       Additional to the above options, the formatting of the commit message in  debian/changelog
       can  be  modified by special tags (called Meta Tags) given in the git commit message. Meta
       Tag processing can be activated via the --meta option. The tags must start  at  the  first
       column  of  a  commit  message  but can appear on any line.  They are of the form Tagname:
       value. Valid Meta Tags are:

       Gbp-Dch: action
              Supported actions are:  Ignore  which  will  ignore  this  commit  when  generating
              debian/changelog, Short which will only use the description (the first line) of the
              commit message when generating the changelog entry (useful when --full  is  given),
              and Full which will use the full commit message when generating the changelog entry
              (useful when --full is not given).

              In addition to Gbp-Dch, the deprecated Git-Dch is still supported.

       Thanks: msg
              Add a thanks message after the commit message.

       Closes: bugnumber
              Indicate in the debian/changelog that the bug was closed by this  commit.  See  the
              --meta-closes on how to extend this for other bugtrackers.

       The following git commit message:

             Document meta tags

             so one doesn't have to consult the manual

             Gbp-Dch: Short
             Closes: #636088
             Thanks: Raphaël Hertzog for the suggestion

       Results in this debian/changelog entry:

             * Document meta tags.
               Thanks to Raphaël Hertzog for the suggestion (Closes: #636088)

CONFIGURATION FILES

       Several  gbp.conf  files  are parsed to set defaults for the above command-line arguments.
       See the gbp.conf(5) manpage for details.

SEE ALSO

       gbp-buildpackage(1),    gbp-import-dsc(1),     gbp-import-dscs(1),     gbp-import-orig(1),
       gbp.conf(5), debuild(1), git(1), pristine-tar(1), The Git-Buildpackage Manual ⟨file:///
       usr/share/doc/git-buildpackage/manual-html/index.html⟩ Cl2vcs ⟨https://honk.sigxcpu.org/
       cl2vcs⟩ ,

AUTHOR

       Guido Günther <agx@sigxcpu.org>

                                           3 April 2018                                gbp-dch(1)