Re: Documentation on handling of orig.tar.gz files for Developer's Reference or for Debian Policy

[Bill Allombert <allomber@math.u-bordeaux.fr>]

On Mon, Nov 01, 2004 at 02:32:27PM +0100, Frank Küster wrote:
> Bill Allombert <allomber@math.u-bordeaux.fr> wrote:
> >> Having the get-orig-source target is nice, but there might be cases
> >> where this is impractical.
> >
> > debian/rules get-orig-source is code, not a documentation.
> 
> In this case it's both, at least if some comment says that this is the
> way the orig.tar.gz was actually prepared.

In second though I reread policy:
     
     `get-orig-source' (optional)
          This target fetches the most recent version of the original
          source package from a canonical archive site (via FTP or WWW, for
          example), does any necessary rearrangement to turn it into the
          original source tar file format described below, and leaves it in
          the current directory.

so get-orig-source is not a way to convert the upstream tarball to a
Debian tarball: if upstream upload a new version after the package is
uploaded, get-orig-source will build the new Debian tarball, not the
one shipped as .orig.tar.gz. This difference is important if upstream
site only carry out the latest version without archiving older versions
(yes that does happen). 

Cheers,
-- 
Bill. <ballombe@debian.org>

Imagine a large red swirl here.