Re: picking apart a source package (regards kernel mremap() patch)
On Wed, Jan 21, 2004 at 07:44:36PM -0800, debl@noid.net wrote:
> Is a debian/patches directory (a la dpatch or dbs) for source archives
> the wave of the future? It seems preferable to me (but then, I'm not
> a maintainer...).
There are technical problems with systems like dpatch and dbs that use
debian/patches directories; they break the traditional expectation that
you can do 'dpkg-source -x' and get the source code that will be built
without having to trust the build scripts in the source package.
Therefore, a number of maintainers (including myself) don't like them.
There's one workaround which involves shipping a debian/patches
directory *and* pre-applying the patches in the .diff.gz; this
unfortunately doubles the size of the patch but is otherwise OK.
The real answer is a dpkg-source that understands multiple patches. This
has been discussed for years, but a real usable implementation is,
sadly, a mirage.
Cheers,
--
Colin Watson [cjwatson@flatline.org.uk]
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