Bug#250202: mandate a common name for "patched source" and/or "unpacked source"

[Bill Allombert <allomber@math.u-bordeaux.fr>]

On Fri, Jun 11, 2004 at 11:43:20AM -0700, Don Armstrong wrote:
> 
> On Thu, 03 Jun 2004, Wouter Verhelst wrote:
> > +          When running <prgn>dpkg-source -x</prgn> does not
> > +          immediately give one a directory with editable source, a
> > +          package must provide a file debian/README.source which
> > +          enumerates and documents the debian/rules targets for at
> > +          least <em>unpacking the source</em> and <em>applying
> > +          debian-specific patches</em> (if any, or a simple statement
> > +          that such a target does not exist or is not required if
> > +          none).</p>
> 
> Can you consider suggesting default targets for this sort of
> unpacking?
> 
> It would be nice if eventually these two targets were provided by all
> packages, so you could automate the unpacking and applying of patches
> if so desired, without having to read debian/README.source
> 
> I'm not sure if the targets 'unpack' and 'patch' would work, but they
> seem to make the most sense. [perhaps a 'unpatch' target as well would
> be usefull?]

I already objected to that before. The correct way to proceed is to not
require the use of any targets. There is no real needs for them outside
very awkward situations, and then we don't know what kind of target
would be useful. dpatch do not require any (when clean depends on patch)
and dbs v2 won't either. I would rather move to "You should not require
any target to be run before modifying sources unless it is really
unconvenient, and in this case, document it in debian/README.source",
but obviously we are not yet here.

Cheers,
-- 
Bill. <ballombe@debian.org>

Imagine a large red swirl here.