Upstream sources in future uploads of gnat-4.8

[Ludovic Brenta <ludovic@ludovic-brenta.org>]

Hello,

I have decided to include the upstream sources in future uploads of
gnat-4.8, staring with 4.8.1-1 in a couple of weeks (if all goes well).
Merging gnat-4.8 into the gcc-4.8 source package is also an option but I
prefer to keep the two separate because I have too little time available
for Debian to keep up with the rapid pace of uploads of gcc-x.y and
because subversion, where the Debian packaging is kept, is not well
equipped to handle parallel branches of development especially merging.

It occurred to me that maybe the best thing to do would be to turn
gnat-4.8 into a proper 3.0 (quilt) source package where the .orig.tar.gz
would contain the already-unpacked upstream sources (i.e. not a tarball
inside a tarball) and the debian/patches/series file would be maintained
directly unser source control, rather than generated by "debian/rules
patch".

I understand that generating debian/patches/series is currently
necessary to distinguish between native and cross-compilers.  I think it
would be acceptable to have a "fixed" set of patches in
debian/patches/series plus a "variable" set of patches, applied on top
of the "fixed" set, for cross-compilers.  The "fixed" set would be
applied directly by dpkg-source and the "variable" set would be
constructed & applied later by debian/rules patch. What do you think of
this?  (The contents of debian/patches/series should not depend on the
language front-ends being compiled, either).

Ideally we could get rid of "debian/rules unpack" entirely and simplify
the code base of Debian packaging.  The fixed set of patches,
i.e. debian/patches/series, would also simplify debian/rules.patch quite
a bit.

Ideas, objections?

-- 
Ludovic Brenta.