diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index f0c86c1..6beb5b0 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
-ubuntu-dev-tools (0.84ubuntu1) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
+ubuntu-dev-tools (0.85) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
 
   * submittodebian: switch to use lucid as the default distro tag.
+  * submittodebian: if the package is in bzr, look for bzr metadata first
+    before looking for a previous package revision in the parent dir.
 
  -- Steve Langasek <steve.langasek@ubuntu.com>  Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:28:24 -0800
 
diff --git a/submittodebian b/submittodebian
index d6ff098..6e59f51 100755
--- a/submittodebian
+++ b/submittodebian
@@ -2,8 +2,9 @@
 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
 #
 # submittodebian - tool to submit patches to Debian's BTS
-# Copyright (C) 2007 Canonical Ltd.
-# Author: Soren Hansen <soren@ubuntu.com>
+# Copyright (C) 2007, 2009 Canonical Ltd.
+# Author: Soren Hansen <soren@ubuntu.com>,
+#         Steve Langasek <slangasek@canonical.com>
 #
 # ##################################################################
 #
@@ -51,22 +52,31 @@ def gen_debdiff(changelog):
 	oldver = changelog._blocks[1].version
 	newver = changelog._blocks[0].version
 
-	if oldver.epoch is not None:
-		oldver = str(oldver)[str(oldver).index(":")+1:]
-	if newver.epoch is not None:
-		newver = str(newver)[str(newver).index(":")+1:]
+	try:
+		print "Extracting bzr diff between %s and %s" % (oldver, newver)
+		(fd, debdiff) = mkstemp()
+		os.close(fd)
+		cmd = 'bzr diff -r tag:%s | filterdiff -x "*changelog*" > %s' % (oldver, debdiff)
+		run_cmd(cmd)
 
-	olddsc = '../%s_%s.dsc' % (pkg, oldver)
-	newdsc = '../%s_%s.dsc' % (pkg, newver)
+	except:
+		os.unlink(debdiff)
+		if oldver.epoch is not None:
+			oldver = str(oldver)[str(oldver).index(":")+1:]
+		if newver.epoch is not None:
+			newver = str(newver)[str(newver).index(":")+1:]
 
-	check_file(olddsc)
-	check_file(newdsc)
+		olddsc = '../%s_%s.dsc' % (pkg, oldver)
+		newdsc = '../%s_%s.dsc' % (pkg, newver)
 
-	print "Generating debdiff between %s and %s" % (oldver, newver)
-	(fd, debdiff) = mkstemp()
-	os.close(fd)
-	cmd = 'debdiff %s %s | filterdiff -x "*changelog*" > %s' % (olddsc, newdsc, debdiff)
-	run_cmd(cmd)
+		check_file(olddsc)
+		check_file(newdsc)
+
+		print "Generating debdiff between %s and %s" % (oldver, newver)
+		(fd, debdiff) = mkstemp()
+		os.close(fd)
+		cmd = 'debdiff %s %s | filterdiff -x "*changelog*" > %s' % (olddsc, newdsc, debdiff)
+		run_cmd(cmd)
 
 	return debdiff