Bug#847681: packaging repository and sid diverging? Various fixes needed.

[Andreas Henriksson <andreas@fatal.se>]

On Tue, Dec 13, 2016 at 08:55:34PM +0100, Daniel Pocock wrote:
> Hi Ben,
> 
> Thanks for providing this feedback
> 
> I've done the following:
> - forked the upstream repository
> - created a debian/sid branch
> - copied debian/* from jessie into that branch and committed
> - copied debian/* from sid into that branch and committed
[...]

Haven't checked the actual repo, but this sounds horrible to me.

Even just using dgit would likely give you a better history.

I'd instead suggest you do something like this to preserve some
most history:

- clone the existing kernel-team repo
- git reset --hard the master branch to the last tag/commit/whatever
  where the repo and the uploaded packages are in sync.
- do the above for other branches as well if needed.
- import NMUs and other uncommitted uploads.
- git cherry-pick the remaining commits from origin/master, etc.

This would create a repo that's not a fast-forward of the current one
but still preserves as much history etc as possible.

Possibly even better would be to create a fast-forward compatible
repo with a "complex" history. Eg. like this:

- clone the existing kernel-team repo
- checkout a debian-archive branch from the last tag/commit/whatever
  that was in sync with the archive.
- checkout a upstream-archive branch from tha last tag/commit/whatever
  from upstream that was in sync with the archive.
- import uncommitted archive uploads in debian-archive (and upstream-archive
  if needed).
- gbp buildpackage --git-debian-branch=debian-archive --git-upstream-branch=upstream-archive --git-tag-only
- merge debian-archive into master and upstream-archive into upstream
- (remove debian-archive and upstream-archive branches, you have tags
   if you ever need a handle to these again.)

HTH.

Regards,
Andreas Henriksson