Re: New source package formats now available

[Gerfried Fuchs <rhonda@deb.at>]

	Hi!

 Some few comments.

* Raphael Hertzog <hertzog@debian.org> [2009-11-21 16:54:36 CET]:
>  * even if you don't have any upstream patch right now, next time that
>    someone must NMU your package, they can cleanly add a patch (with a
>    proper DEP-3 header) without having to modify the build system

 This is nothing new for the 3.0 (quilt) format, this is a reason for
any patch system format, so this feels a bit like false-advertising,
sorry. Don't get me wrong, I use quilt where I have to touch upstream
sources myself and totally like it, I just don't see the need to use
this as advertising for the 3.0 format because that doesn't buy you much
more in that respect.

>  * in the long run it's best to standardize on a single patch system (new
>    contributors need to learn a single system, more people can help you,
>    etc.) and quilt appears to be that patch system.

 That part feels also a bit strange - I don't think it should be the
decision of the dpkg team to force people to use a specific patch
system. Again, I use quilt myself. Though, Debian (and free software in
general) always was about choice. And yes, I know, there's 3.0 (native),
but that wasn't mentioned.

> When you switch to "3.0 (quilt)", there are other changes that you might
> want to do:
>  * You can remove everything related to quilt in debian/rules
>    (patch/unpatch logic, cleanup of quilt stamp file and its .pc
>    directory).

 Unfortunately, I can't follow that "can remove". It sounds like it
would work if you keep it in. Unfortunately that's not the case. Please
take a look at the build logs for wesnoth 1:1.7.8-1. The story is easy:

 -) The buildd does a debian/rules clean.
 -) quilt doesn't find any applied patches (because dpkg doesn't create
the .pc/ directory structure)
 -) The buildd then starts with the building.
 -) quilt likes to apply the patches and failes because they already
*are* applied but quilt doesn't know about it.

 So pretty please, change that "can remove" into a "MUST remove",
otherwise you will stumble into problems.

> === Does a 3.0 (quilt) source package need to build-depend on quilt? ===
> 
> If you drop the quilt usage in debian/rules (patch/unpatch logic), then no.

 You *HAVE* to drop the quilt usage in debian/rules, otherwise it will
fail.

 So long, and thanks for the work involved, but this minor issues should
still be addressed, in one way or the other. :)

 *waves*
Rhonda