merge-upstream changes po files behind your back

[Andreas Hasenack]

I found this unexpected. While updating landscape-client to 12.05, with an upstream tarball, merge-upstream changed the po files by normalizing them.

Here is the diff by just replacing the po/* files with the upstream version:
http://pastebin.ubuntu.com/1018636/ (attached as "good-diff.diff")

Here is the diff produced after running bzr merge-upstream:
http://pastebin.ubuntu.com/1018638/ (attached as "merge-upstream.diff")

Maybe we need an option to not do this.

[James Westby (james-w)]

Hi,

The merge is done by the po_merge plugin.

http://doc.bazaar.canonical.com/beta/en/whats-new/whats-new-in-2.5.html#po-merge-plugin

bzr-builddeb might be causing this to activate when using in bzr branches, but I don't think
so. Do you have the config described in that link set on your machine?

Thanks,

James

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

No, I don't have any po_merge configuration in locations.conf or branch.conf.

[Vincent Ladeuil (vila)]

@Andreas: The default values for the plugin may still apply to your setup.

po_merge.po_dirs = po,debian/po
po_merge.po_glob = *.po
po_merge.po_glob = *.pot
po_merge.command = 'msgmerge -N "{other}" "{pot_file}" -C "{this}" -o "{result}"'

See 'bzr help po_merge' and set what is appropriate for your use case (including po_merge.po_dirs = do-not-even-try ;).

You can set any of these options in bazaar.conf, locations.conf or branch.conf depending on where you want to apply them.

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

That's why I opened this bug. I find that behavior unexpected. I asked to merge a one-liner typo fix, and got a huge diff where I challenge the reviewer to find it.

[Vincent Ladeuil (vila)]

I don't get it, your report ended with: "Maybe we need an option to not do this.". You *do* have options.

Additionally, as mentioned in 'bzr help po_merge', you can even redo the merge if the results don't suit your needs.

[Vincent Ladeuil (vila)]

bug #884270 records most of the discussion leading to the plugin introduction

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

Yeah, provided you know there is something calling po_merge acting behind your back. Then you can search for its documentation, and finally how to disable it.

This bug is about it being enabled by default I guess. bzr is a version control system, with some steroids. I think this behavior in particular is too much steroids. This together with bzr commit automatically using the changes in debian/changelog as the commit message (to cite another example of a writable behind-your-back action enabled by default) freak me out.

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

And made me lose time, because reviewing a 200kb+ debdiff and chasing that po file change wasn't fun.

[James Westby (james-w)]

On Wed, 20 Jun 2012 14:56:15 -0000, Andreas Hasenack <email address hidden> wrote:
> Yeah, provided you know there is something calling po_merge acting
> behind your back. Then you can search for its documentation, and finally
> how to disable it.
>
> This bug is about it being enabled by default I guess. bzr is a version
> control system, with some steroids. I think this behavior in particular
> is too much steroids. This together with bzr commit automatically using
> the changes in debian/changelog as the commit message (to cite another
> example of a writable behind-your-back action enabled by default) freak
> me out.

The changelog thing is now disabled by default.

The po_merge thing is in bzr core, so I'll reassign the bug there.

Thanks,

James

[Martin Packman (gz)]

So, there is an option to not do this, but people using merge when po files are present need to know about the po_merge plugin to perhaps disable it in some circumstances.