Russ Allbery <r...@debian.org> writes:
> Ben Finney <bign...@debian.org> writes:
>
> > It may be “bare debian” is meant to cover this; but I don't
> > recognise the comment “requires use of quilt and similar tools”
> > because I've never needed to use Quilt for this.
>
> How do you handle needed changes to the upstream source?
* Use whatever VCS is published by upstream, to implement the change.
* Preferably do this in a local fork, because:
* Rebase the branch as necessary while the change is not yet merged
upstream.
* Export that change as a series of patches.
* Those patches become DEP-3 files in ‘debian/patches/’ of the Debian
package.
So the VCS tools themselves, and the DEP-3 format, completely (?)
obviate the need for any human to touch Quilt.
> Or do you just never make any changes to the upstream source?
We are rarely that lucky! Changes to upstream are very often needed.
That's a good reason to maintain a local clone of the upstream VCS
repository.
And with a good Distributed VCS (like Git) resolving divergent upstream
development while you wait for them to (if ever) accept the changes
upstream, patches are relatively easy to keep clean.
--
\ “Oh, I realize it's a penny here and a penny there, but look at |
`\ me: I've worked myself up from nothing to a state of extreme |
_o__) poverty.” —Groucho Marx |
Ben Finney
