Question about make-kpkg and versions

[Panayiotis Karabassis <panayk@gmail.com>]

Hi,

I am trying to understand how make-kpkg chooses the versions for the
packages it creates. Each package has a name(a), which contains a
version part(a1), as well as a version(b), which is further split in
upstream version(b1) and Debian revision(b2), right? Assuming this, I'll
ask my question in the form of a quiz: :-)

1) The Makefile contains the three components of the upstream version,
as well as an EXTRA_VERSION string. Together these define the package
name(a). The make-kpkg replaces or appends the value of
--append-to-version to the EXTRA_VERSION string?
2) When I specify a --revision argument, this becomes the package's
complete version(b). The man pages mention that the default value is
10.00.Custom. However if I omit the --revision argument the version is
of the form 3.2.12-10.00.Custom, i.e. it includes the Makefile version,
and not 10.00.Custom. Is this an error in the manual?
3) When I omit the --revision argument how is the upstream version(b1)
calculated? In particular is the --append-to-version string included in
the version(b1), or only the EXTRA_VERSION string in the Makefile?
4) Finally does dpkg-buildpackage invoke make-kpkg or does it use it's
own mechanisms?

Thanks and best regards,
Panayiotis