git-buildpackage pattern question

[Ross Vandegrift <ross@kallisti.us>]

Hello all,

I've been working on packages using git-buildpackage, and have been
wondering if there's a better pattern out there.

Upstream makes periodic releases, which often receive a few maintenance
updates.  For upstream, often looks like this:

o---o--------o--------o--------o------------o  master
     \                          \
      o---o  1.0.0               o---o  1.1.0
           \                          \
            o---o  1.0.1               o---o 1.1.1
                 \
                  o---o 1.0.2

In my packaging, I've worked on 1.0.0, and updated for 1.0.1 and 1.0.2.
 So my packaging looks like this:

o---o--------o--------o--------o------------o master
     \                          \
      o---o 1.0.0                o---o 1.1.0
       \                          \
        o---o 1.0.1                o---o 1.1.1
         \
          o---o 1.0.2
               \
                o  debian/sid

To update to 1.1.1, I've read that I should merge 1.1.1 into debian/sid.
 But this is painful - upstream 1.1.1 conflicts with 1.0.2.

I've developed an alternative where I rebase 1.0.2..debian/sid onto
1.1.1.  This is straightforward, but rewrites all previous packaging
commits, so they come after all upstream commits.

Does anyone have an alternative pattern to try? Thanks for any tips!

Ross