Re: Question about Debian-native package

[Ben Finney <ben+debian@benfinney.id.au>]

Noel David Torres Taño <envite@rolamasao.org> writes:

> I'm the (new) maintainer of wmaker-data which is a package
> containing files from several upstream sources. Some files have been
> downloaded from one place, some from other place, etc.
> 
> Which is the recommended practice here?

If the package could reasonably be useful outside the context of
Debian, it should not be a Debian-native package. The Debian
packaging, and the (possibly empty) set of changes to the upstream
source, should be separated from the "pristine" upstream source.

> I see the following options:
> 
> A) - The package was put together specifically for Debian, so it
> must be native

No. See Developer's Reference §6.7.8.2, "Repackaged Upstream Source":

    You **should** upload packages with a pristine source tarball if
    possible, but there are various reasons why it might not be
    possible. This is the case if upstream does not distribute the
    source as gzipped tar at all, or if [non-free].

    In these cases the developer must construct a suitable
    .orig.tar.gz file himself. We refer to such a tarball as a
    repackaged upstream source. Note that a repackaged upstream source
    is different from a Debian-native package. A repackaged source
    still comes with Debian-specific changes in a separate .diff.gz
    and still has a version number composed of <upstream-version> and
    <debian-revision>.

> B) - The files are not for Debian

or rather, they are meaningfully useful outside Debian.

> so it must not be native and needs a orig.tar.gz

Yes.

> I feel that correct answer is B but here is where the real problem
> arises for me. How to set up a orig.tar.gz file from several places?

Construct a procedure to do so automatically, e.g. a command-line
program. Set a target 'get-orig-source' in the 'debian/rules' file
that invokes the program you just wrote.

For an example that I recently had to do myself, see the
'lojban-common' package version 1.5-2. For another, see 'vim-scripts'
version 20080705-1.

-- 
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Ben Finney