Re: Ubuntu-to-Debian packaging

[James Westby <jw+debian@jameswestby.net>]

On Fri, 2007-11-23 at 18:23 -0400, Jose Luis Rivas Contreras wrote:
> Giovanni Mascellani wrote:
> > All'incirca Fri, 23 Nov 2007 14:23:54 -0400,  Jose Luis Rivas Contreras
> > <ghostbar38@gmail.com> sembrerebbe aver scritto:
> > 
> >> You just need to make the package accomplish the Debian policy, that's
> >> all you need to do.
> > 
> > Thank you, but I'm still not confident about how to deal with
> > debian/copyright and debian/changelog. Should I delete them and rewrite
> > like as I were making a new package, or should I just modify them
> > (adding a new entry in changelog and a new paragraph in copyright
> > describing that the package was ported to Debian by me)?
> 
> You need a new changelog for Debian starting from scratch and you could
> adapt the copyright (if the license allow it) or just make one new.

I'm not so sure.

Some people would request a new changelog, but it's not a hard and fast
rule as far as I know.

If the packaging work is going to follow Ubuntu closely then a shared
changelog could be useful.

As for debian/copyright make any changes that you need, but if
you are using the Ubuntu packaging then do not remove their copyright
notice and licensing. Also if it has the note at the top saying
who added the packaging and when it would be polite to leave that
present and just add a note saying who modified it for Debian if
you like.

Obviously if the packaging is completely new then you can ignore
all this, but I don't think we would have this thread if that was
the case.

Thanks,

James