maint-guide updates (take 3)

[Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org>]

Hi,

On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 11:28:30AM +0200, Raphael Hertzog wrote:

Thanks.

> On Mon, 20 Sep 2010, Osamu Aoki wrote:i
...
> Why not use "master" or "debian", I don't know any VCS using "main" as
> common branch name.

True! I should have slept before sending this.  I meant as "master".  I
understand "debian" is a likely alternative for some but I do not know
which system uses it.  All git based solutions such as git-dpm,
git-buildpackage topgit ... seem to use <tt>master</tt> as default.  If
bzr or subversion are used, I guess "trunk" is used. ("debian" is used
as release tags though ...).  So I just use <tt>master</tt>, here as an
example to simplify this text.
 
> Note: remove the "--" in debian/source/local-options, it's only "unapply-patches".

I did not know this but it was clearly documented.  Sorry.  I fixed xpdf
source.

Here is my take 3 with a bit more twists:

<p>When you want to manage Debian packaging activities under a VCS, you
typically create one branch (e.g. <tt>upstream</tt>) tracking the
upstream source and another branch (e.g. <tt>master</tt> for the Git
archive) tracking the Debian package.  For the branch like
<tt>master</tt>, you usually want to have unpatched upstream source with
your <file>debian/*</file> files for the Debian packaging to ease
merging of the new upstream source.

<p>After building a package, the source is normally left patched.  You
need to unpatch it manually by running "<tt>quilt pop -a</tt>" before
committing to the <tt>master</tt> branch.  You can automate this unpatch
by adding the optional <file>debian/source/local-options</file> file
containing "<tt>unapply-patches</tt>".  This file is not included in the
generated source package and changes the local build behavior only.
This file may contain "<tt>abort-on-upstream-changes</tt>", too 
(see <manref name="dpkg-source" section="1">).

============

I removed repetitive "for", added "your", and documented
"<tt>abort-on-upstream-changes</tt>".