Re: Survey results: git packaging practices / repository format

[Ben Finney <bignose@debian.org>]

Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org> writes:

> Ben Finney <bignose@debian.org> writes:
>
> > It may be “bare debian” is meant to cover this; but I don't
> > recognise the comment “requires use of quilt and similar tools”
> > because I've never needed to use Quilt for this.
>
> How do you handle needed changes to the upstream source?

* Use whatever VCS is published by upstream, to implement the change.

* Preferably do this in a local fork, because:

  * Rebase the branch as necessary while the change is not yet merged
    upstream.

* Export that change as a series of patches.

* Those patches become DEP-3 files in ‘debian/patches/’ of the Debian
  package.

So the VCS tools themselves, and the DEP-3 format, completely (?)
obviate the need for any human to touch Quilt.

> Or do you just never make any changes to the upstream source?

We are rarely that lucky! Changes to upstream are very often needed.
That's a good reason to maintain a local clone of the upstream VCS
repository.

And with a good Distributed VCS (like Git) resolving divergent upstream
development while you wait for them to (if ever) accept the changes
upstream, patches are relatively easy to keep clean.

-- 
 \     “Oh, I realize it's a penny here and a penny there, but look at |
  `\      me: I've worked myself up from nothing to a state of extreme |
_o__)                                          poverty.” —Groucho Marx |
Ben Finney