converting from dpatch to quilt (was: Misc developer news (#21))

[Stefan Fritsch <sf@sfritsch.de>]

On Saturday 20 February 2010, Mike Hommey wrote:
> > I don't see any valid reason to convert packages which already
> > use a patch system such as dpatch to the new thing. Debian is in
> > dire need of manpower taking care of our core infrastructure,
> > converting dpatch-based packages to quilt is a total waste of
> > manpower.
> 
> If your dpatches are simply patches and not scripts, converting to
>  3.0 (quilt) is a few minutes job: rename the files, rename 00list
>  to series, adapt its content, remove your patch system from
>  debian/rules, change the build-deps accordingly, write a
>  debian/source/format file containing 3.0 (quilt). Done.

BTW, does anybody have suggestions how to handle cases where the 
dpatches are scripts? For example

1) patch some files, including foo.c
2) copy foo.c to bar.c
3) patch bar.c some more
4) build (using both foo.c and bar.c)

Do I have to reimplement a patch system for 3) in my rules file or can 
I somehow also use quilt for that, too? Or would it be best to simply 
keep dpatch?

Disclaimer: My experience with quilt so far is limited to adding new 
patches to existing packages.

Cheers,
Stefan