diff -r aeb2812f304d -r 7e99b02768ef mercurial/debugcommands.py
--- a/mercurial/debugcommands.py	Fri Sep 21 00:37:03 2018 -0400
+++ b/mercurial/debugcommands.py	Thu Sep 20 21:35:01 2018 -0700
@@ -733,13 +733,16 @@
     fm.end()
 
 @command('debugdirstate|debugstate',
-    [('', 'nodates', None, _('do not display the saved mtime')),
-    ('', 'datesort', None, _('sort by saved mtime'))],
+    [('', 'nodates', None, _('do not display the saved mtime (DEPRECATED)')),
+     ('', 'dates', True, _('display the saved mtime')),
+     ('', 'datesort', None, _('sort by saved mtime'))],
     _('[OPTION]...'))
 def debugstate(ui, repo, **opts):
     """show the contents of the current dirstate"""
 
-    nodates = opts.get(r'nodates')
+    nodates = not opts[r'dates']
+    if opts.get(r'nodates') is not None:
+        nodates = True
     datesort = opts.get(r'datesort')
 
     timestr = ""