RFC: should there be a dpkg-edit-patch

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

Hi,

I recently converted a few local packages from dpatch to 3.0 (quilt)
format. But now I wonder what the equivalent of

dpatch-edit-patch foo

is. Ok, as quilt user I know I can do

QUILT_PATCHES=debian/patches quilt pop/push
quilt add file
sensible-editor file
QUILT_PATCHES=debian/patches quilt refresh

But what if the package was unpacked without quilt? Or the user is not
familiar with quilt? Having to add files before editing takes getting
used to.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a dpkg-edit-patch command in dpkg-dev that
would work like dpatch-edit-patch and with or without quilt?

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

dpkg-patch --edit name
dpkg-patch --rename new_name [old_name]  <- default to last patch
dpkg-patch --merge [target [source]]     <- default to last 2 patches

Last how about annotating the debian/patches/debian-changes-version
patch when generating it adding infos from DEBFULLNAME, NAME, DEBEMAIL
and/or EMAIL just like dch does when generating the changelog? If none
of them are set the name/email from the last changelog entry could be
used.

Comments?

MfG
        Goswin