On Mon, Jan 07, 2002 at 12:03:47PM +0100, Josip Rodin wrote:
> On Sun, Jan 06, 2002 at 06:35:20PM -0800, Yves Arrouye wrote:
> > > A Debian native source package is one which has no .diff.gz, because the
> > > Debian source code and the upstream source code are the same thing. This
> > > means that the source tarball contains a debian/ directory with the
> > > necessary packaging infrastructure. This configuration is used for
> > > packages
> > > such as dpkg and apt which are developed specifically for Debian.
> >
> > Thanks for the explanation. Well, ICU is definitely not developed
> > specifically for Debian, but since I am one of the upstream developers, I
> > found it convenient to have the debian/ directory in it, not just for me but
> > for anybody who would want to grab ICU from the CVS and build a .deb for it.
> >
> > So I guess that as long as the explanation in maint-guide says that a native
> > Debian package is a package that builds with no modifications, not just a
> > package developed specifically for Debian, it will be clear for everybody.
>
> Surely this is documented in the Policy or the Developers' Reference?
I thought the same thing. Before I replied to this post, I tried to look up
a reference, and I was amazed that there wasn't one. The FAQ was the only
place that mentioned it, and all that it said was that a native package had
no .diff.gz.
Policy only mentions them in two places, and doesn't explain the term
anywhere. Under 'dates in version numbers':
Native Debian packages (i.e., packages which have been written
especially for Debian) whose version numbers include dates should
always use the `YYYYMMDD' format.
about the changelog:
people. In such a case, however, it might be better to maintain the
package as a non-native package.
[...]
Packages that are not Debian-native must contain a compressed copy of
the `debian/changelog' file from the Debian source tree in
--
- mdz
