default distribution hard coded to release that devscripts was built on

[Scott Moser]

devscripts/scripts/Makefile currently patches debchange.pl like this:

debchange: debchange.pl $(VERSION_FILE)
                    cp $< $@
                    sed -i "s/###VERSION###/$(VERSION)/" $@
ifeq ($(shell dpkg-vendor --query Vendor),Ubuntu)
# On Ubuntu always default to targeting the release that it's built on,
# not the current devel release, since its primary use on stable releases
# will be for preparing PPA uploads.
                    sed -i 's/get_ubuntu_devel_distro()/"$(shell lsb_release -cs)"/' $@
endif

That means that we have to upload a change to devscripts in order to change the default to being the current development release.

This is silly for a number of reasons
a.) there is code in debchange.pl (get_ubuntu_devel_distro) that is never used.
b.) the build distro is only right for 6 months at most, and then wrong ever after.

Personally, I think the devel release is the correct default, but to preseve
the original intent, we could possibly change it to the *runtime* value of
lsb_release -sc.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.04
Package: devscripts 2.16.6ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.8.0-30.32-generic 4.8.6
Uname: Linux 4.8.0-30-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: zfs zunicode zcommon znvpair zavl
ApportVersion: 2.20.4-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Wed Jan 11 12:04:50 2017
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-07-23 (538 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 15.10 "Wily Werewolf" - Alpha amd64 (20150722.1)
SourcePackage: devscripts
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Scott Moser (smoser)]

I opened this just because I hate that right now 'dch -r' writes 'yakkety'.
I'm running zesty, personally that is a better default.

[Scott Moser (smoser)]

Additionally as blackboxsw pointed out to me recently the man page says it will default to the previous value, which actually makes sense.

| --release, -r
| Finalize the changelog for a release. Update the changelog
| timestamp. If the distribution is set to UNRELEASED, change it
| to the distribution from the previous changelog entry (or
| another distribution as specified by --distribution). If there
| are no previous changelog entries and an explicit distribution
| has not been specified, unstable will be used.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.