Bug#904302: Whether vendor-specific patch series should be permitted in the archive

[David Bremner <david@tethera.net>]

Tollef Fog Heen <tfheen@err.no> writes:

>
> The Committee recognises that there is a need for packages to behave
> differently when built on different distributions, but this should be
> done as part of the build process, using current and future practices
> such as patches with conditional behaviour, patching of files during the
> build, rather than at source unpacking time.

Does it need to be said that producing different source packages for
different distributions is also perfectly acceptable? A narrow reading
of this paragraph might give the impression that it is not. One option
would be say something like

      ... on different distributions, but this difference should not be
      done at source unpacking time but e.g. as part of the build
      process...

Arguably this concern is moot because everyone (TM) understands that a
package being built refers to going from a source package to one or more
binary packages.