Hi Vincent,
On 17/dic/2016 01:18, "Vincent Carluer" <vcarluer@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I have a question: The upstream have not change since 15 years!
> Instead of applying patch to make it works on debian, won't it be
> better for me to fork the source and correct it directly (for gcc-6
> compatibility for instance or this one
> https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=401440)
It is best practice to have all the patches applied upstream.
If upstream is not active anymore, you may want to have a look if there is an alternative (e.g., a maintained fork, ...) to this software.
If you also want to become upstream maintainer for that software, you can do that, but keep in mind that the upstream maintainer role and the Debian package maintainer role are two different roles and you will still write patches for Debian (e.g., to fix a bug without importing new features). The main purpouse in becoming upstream maintainer is to include patches, to further develop the tool and to make all these changes available outside of Debian as well.
Best,
Giulio