Re: Source changes in debs
On Fri, Aug 16, 2002 at 01:29:45PM +0200, Raffaele Sandrini wrote:
> Is the original source changed in some debian packs?
"Packages" is the usual word - your term confused me for a second.
> I talk about the testing XFree86 4.2 packs. There is a patch supplied
> witch has a compressed size of 2MB. Is that only for the install
> system (sources wich are not made by Xfree86) or is the original
> source also changed? I hope not... because then there would be a
> "Debian XFree" and that would lead to a ReadHat style Debian.
Maintainers often backport changes from upstream before official
releases have been made in order to fix bugs. It's each maintainer's
responsibility to avoid forking where possible, and contribute changes
back to upstream.
One of my packages, groff, has a large patch for Japanese support which
isn't going to be integrated upstream. This is necessary because
otherwise Japanese people can't read man pages, and upstream want to
implement a more general solution but won't have it ready for some time.
There are plenty of cases like this. It's a careful compromise between
maximizing the quality of our distribution and preserving compatibility.
In the specific case of XFree86, all the patches are stored separately
in the debian/patches directory of the source tree, usually with
comments. I think if you read through them you'll find that there is no
intention to fork from upstream XFree86.
--
Colin Watson [cjwatson@flatline.org.uk]
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