Re: what if upstream provides debian build directory
On Fri, 18 Mar 2011, Harald Dunkel wrote:
> What is Debian's policy, if upstream provides its own debian
> directory or package build procedure? Is upstream always right?
There's no official policy, but generally speaking, you should use a
non-native package. The one exception to this is a case where every
Debian release will also entail a new upstream release.
You can also suggest to upstream that they include the debian
directory in a examples directory or similar, so that it doesn't get
in the way of packaging (or just not distribute it in the main package
at all.)
> What if upstream's package sets conflict with Debian's packages, and
> I want to install upstream's packages? Is it the DM's responsibility
> to avoid this conflict or to preserve compatibility? Famous example
> for this would be the Linux kernel sources.
It's the maintainer's responsibility to make sure the package in
Debian is the highest quality possible. Generally this means working
with upstream so that the patches don't conflict, but sometimes
upstream has a different set of goals than a distribution packager,
and compromises and divergences need to exist. There's no hard and
fast rule here either, but the best thing is to communicate and work
with your upstream.
Don Armstrong
--
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http://www.donarmstrong.com http://rzlab.ucr.edu
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