#1118077 lintian: debian-watch-file-is-missing produced although uscan uses d/upstream/metadata

Package:
lintian
Source:
lintian
Submitter:
Gioele Barabucci
Date:
2026-08-22 20:09:02 UTC
Severity:
normal
Tags:
#1118077#5
Date:
2025-10-14 20:04:44 UTC
From:
To:
lintian will produce a `debian-watch-file-is-missing` I-level warning
when `debian/watch` is missing. Newer version of uscan do not need a
`debian/watch` file if `d/upstream/metadata` is present and contains all
the necessary fields (for example `Archive: GitHub` + `Repository:
https://github.com/group/project.git`).

Lintian should not produce a `debian-watch-file-is-missing` if
d/upstream/metadata is present and contains all needed fields.

Regards,

#1118077#10
Date:
2025-10-21 11:00:03 UTC
From:
To:
I know this works but I could not find it documented anywhere, and the uscan manpage also has no mention about it.
Can you link me up with docs, if any? Any ideas when this can make it to uscan manpage?

Also, I think we can potentially miss out on one thing here. There are upstreams that sign their tags which are validated
via d/watch (pgpmode=gittag) and upstreams that even give a .asc files with the tarballs. Adding a tag on lintian potentially
causes us to miss out on those checks if package maintainers were to migrate to using d/u/metadata.

What do you think?

#1118077#15
Date:
2025-10-23 22:22:28 UTC
From:
To:
https://salsa.debian.org/debian/devscripts/-/commit/0eb2557c

I filed https://bugs.debian.org/1118692 asking for more documentation
and guidance from the uscan developers.
files. Anything more complex will need (or, at least, needs at the
moment) a proper d/watch file.

The question for me is rather: by not warning about the lack of a
d/watch file, will Debian packager also not take the chance to support
additional features like different `pgpmode` settings?

Regards,

#1118077#20
Date:
2026-08-21 04:27:51 UTC
From:
To:
Hi Yadd,

Can you provide some documentation for this please?

Also, there is #1118077 open against lintian to avoid `debian-watch-file-is-missing` when d/u/metadata is present and uscan can use the same.

I have a merge request for this. Can you please review this?

<https://salsa.debian.org/lintian/lintian/-/merge_requests/781>



Best,
Nilesh

#1118077#23
Date:
2026-08-22 20:07:39 UTC
From:
To:
Hello,

Bug #1118077 in lintian reported by you has been fixed in the
Git repository and is awaiting an upload. You can see the commit
message below and you can check the diff of the fix at:

https://salsa.debian.org/lintian/lintian/-/commit/d89c857c261e8c3ae458e45eb456e267dbc1bdb6
The only drawback is that this needs to be in sync with `uscan` i.e. take up changes in the templates
as per uscan code changes. Unfortunately there is no perl library at the moment to provide these implementations.

Even if it were the case, we need to have the APIs consumable in a way for lintian to validate it.

Another approach would be to run `uscan --no-download` on the repo, but this will need internet access and also spawn
a bunch of other checks which we should avoid.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

(this message was generated automatically)
-- 
Greetings

https://bugs.debian.org/1118077