Re: upstream author == debian maintainer

[cd_smith@ou.edu]

On Sun, 25 Jul 1999, Alex Shnitman wrote:
> IANAD [I am not a developer] but it looks to me that if the program is
> useful for the general public (not only Debian users) it's better to
> not make it a native debian package -- what if someone else takes
> maintenance of it when you don't have time anymore; will it need to be
> converted?

I'm not a developer either, but as far as I understand things, making a
package a native Debian package doesn't make it only usable on Debian.  It
just means that there's a debian/ directory in the source distribution
that contains Debian packaging info.  Non-native packages, on the other
hand, have a diff file to add the debian/ directory.  It would still be
possible to build and use the package on other architectures... it'd just
ignore the debian/ directory.

So making something a native Debian package is just a matter of
convenience when Debian maintainer == upstream maintainer; it doesn't
affect interoperability with other platforms.

Chris Smith <cd_smith@ou.edu>