Re: Purpose of source packages?
>
>
> Hi!
>
> What's the exact purpose of the .tar.gz source packages and the diff? I'm
> asking because I want to create a package for the metapost system, that's
> like metafont but produces postscript output. The currently available
> distribution is a patch against the latest webc, 6.3 I think, which is a
> tar.gz (>5MB I think). But the webc distrib contains everything that's
> needed for a whole TeX/MF systems--much more than I need here.
The .tar.gz needs to be provided because one needs sources, otherwise one
can't build anything at all.
> Is it possible that I reduce the source so that everyone can recompile the
> package (and add a short description of my changes) plus a diff that adds
> debian specific files?
You can modify the source if you want but I don't recommend it. Note
that with the current new source packaging system (described in policy and
programmers documents which come with dpkg / dpkg-deb) you have to upload
the orig source only once. Add a few things for debianinazation and these
will automagically go in the diff, the binary should be build as described
in the manuals. Take a few hours to read them, then check the hello
package and sources, you might check another package as well and use these
as starters for your metapost package.
Erick>
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