Re: Bug#706160: general: it should be easier for ordinary developers to work with Debian packages
+++ Ben Longbons [2013-04-25 09:22 -0700]:
> Package: general
> Severity: wishlist
>
> Introduction:
> This is my attempt at explaining exactly what frustrations prevent me from
> doing anything with Debian packages, and how another distro (Gentoo) does
> it better. The fact that Gentoo is a source-based distro is irrelevant.
Not entirely irrelevant, as you admit yourself later.
And I think you are rather more familiar with gentoo than debian so
stuff seems simpler because you already know what to do. The converse
applies too.
> patch:
> Debian:
> - After trying to make local changes, it said: dpkg-source --commit
> - But it is tedious when you already have a full patch from upstream.
actually this is just the same in Debian as in Gentoo: put the patch in
debian/patches and add its name to debian/patches/series
Applying the patch to the sources first and doing dpkg-source --commit
(*as above) also works (more reliably as it forces you to check that
the patch actually applies here). Neither seems hard to me.
> Gentoo:
> - Assume that you're competent enough to get ahold of a patch.
> - Add the patch to files/ (which is shared between all versions of
> the package, though you can of course use a different name).
> - Add the filename to the PATCHES=() variable, remanifest.
> revert:
> Debian:
> - no clue, it keeps trying to readd the changes and it's not obvious
> how to wipe the working tree.
Remove the patchname from debian/patches/series. Seems equivalent to your
Gentoo example to me.
> Gentoo:
> - Remove the filename from the PATCHES=() variable, remanifest.
Wookey
--
Principal hats: Linaro, Emdebian, Wookware, Balloonboard, ARM
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