RE: Debian "Source Control"?

[Brent Fulgham <bfulgham@xpsystems.com>]

> 
> This does remind me of a question that I had though.  You
> mentioned having a new version arrive at an ftp site.  How do
> you handle keeping track of older versions?  Do you use some
> form of source code control?  It would seem from the description
> you provided that aside from the distribution's tarball from
> the "upstream provider" everything else is plain text of some
> form or another.
> 
> -steve
>

As far as I know, we do not keep track of changes over time
as in a source control type system.  I have never had cause
to look back between revisions of a package to see what has
changed.  Part of the reason is that we typically do not make
significant changes to the upstream source.  We probably do
not have space for the various revision levels to all exist 
in an "accessible" state, either.

You are correct that the files are all plain text.  Really,
when you get right down to it, everything we deal with
(from pristine source on down to the automated *.changes
file) are nothing but text.  We don't keep track of incremental
versions.  We generally have space for our current release,
a prior release, and our upcoming release in source form.

-Brent