Re: RFC: should there be a dpkg-edit-patch

[Goswin von Brederlow <goswin-v-b@web.de>]

Raphael Hertzog <hertzog@debian.org> writes:

> On Tue, 28 Apr 2009, Goswin von Brederlow wrote:
>> > No.
>> 
>> Then I think we at least need a way to make quilt work without
>> QUILT_PATCHES=debian/patches. Maybe there could be a .pc/patches file
>> that tells quilt where to find the debian patches and dpkg-source
>> would create that file (or rather quilt when it gets called by
>> dpkg-source the first time).
>
> Why not. Feel free to work towards this.

will do.

>> >> Additionaly I think it would be nice to be able to rename the
>> >> debian/patches/debian-changes-version file or merge it into a previous
>> >> patch. Maybe we could have
>> >
>> > Same answer, it's not really dpkg's businees IMO.
>> 
>> Running quilt rename does not alter the .dpkg-source-applied file and
>> dpkg-source currently insists on using that file even when using
>> quilt. Any objection to making dpkg-source not create that file in
>> quilt mode?
>
> .dpkg-source-applied is not used by dpkg-source, it's only created
> by dpkg-source for the purpose of analysis by some external tool. 
> I'm not convinced that it was a wise choice, but it's difficult to
> back out now that the existence of this file is documented in the stable
> dpkg.
>
> Cheers,

It is somewhat inconsisten when it gets created and what is put into
it. When you have a source without quilt usage then all patches are
listed. If you unpack a source with quilt usage then the file is not
used. If you build a source with changes then it gets created and only
the debian-changes-version patch is listed but not the already applied
other patches. If you rebuild without changes the
debian-changes-version patch gets removed but the file is left empty.

man dpkg-source says

       The file debian/patches/.dpkg-source-applied is created if some patches
       have been applied during the extraction.

Does it say anywhere what the contents is? Maybe when quilt is used
the file could always be created but left empty. And without quilt the
applied patches could be listed in it (till that is fully deprecated).

Although since I only see it mentioned as being there in the manpage
and the fact that often it isn't there or totaly incomplete I
don't think it would hurt much to remove it and only rely on quilts
informations. External tools can not rely on the file in any usable
way now.

MfG
        Goswin