New optional debian/rules targets for consistency of patch systems?

[Daniel Schepler <schepler@math.unipd.it>]

I'd like to get an opinion on a proposal for several new debian/rules targets 
I've been thinking of for a while now.  The motivation here is that the 
different patch systems have differing targets required for applying or 
unapplying patches, which is highly annoying when trying to debug packages 
using them.  For example, I think dpatch uses patch/unpatch, cdbs uses 
apply-patches/unapply-patches, and dbs needs 
make -f /usr/share/dbs/something.mk debian/stampdir/patch or something 
strange like that.  So for consistency, I'd like to propose the optional 
targets:

unpack
  Unpacks any embedded source tarballs into a build directory, without
  applying any patches.

patch
  Applies all patches to the build directory, after unpacking sources if
  required.

unpatch
  Reverts all patches which have been applied to the build directory.

And while I'm at it:

configure
  Prepares the build directory for compilation, for example by running
  autoconf scripts.

(The last already being supported by most packages based on the dh-make 
templates, but not by cdbs for example.)
-- 
Daniel Schepler