I'm considering how to remove .jar files and convenience copies of other libraries from upstream tar balls. It seems to me that there are several ways of approaching repacking:
1) Add Files-Excluded to debian/copyright
2) Create a debian/orig-tar.sh script and call it from debian/watch
3) Call jh_repack from debian/watch
4) Create a debian/gbp.conf and add filters to the import-orig section
Possibly there are other options I haven't thought of.
1) seems the best approach to me, since it is declarative rather than scripted, is independent of the choice of VCS, and also allows one to check the repacked tarball before importing it to pristine-tar. The files being excluded don't have anything to do with copyright though.
Is there a team preference for a particular approach?
Thanks.
Christopher