Hi Otto, i'm doing this for years now (LXQt)
To sum it up: * there are no special rules, but i suggest to keep your hats strictly separated * if there are some doubts upstream - just think how you would feel with a release with your downstream hat on * if you release something upstream and have to patch it for debian (nuff said :D) * if still in doubt - just make an Arch Linux package - and think about the differences At all, we (LXQt) have learned a lot about licenses, abi and api things and simple no-go's for an reliable upstream. Most of my packages are without any patches, some packages have some ness. overrides for architectures, nothing i could do against. All packages are boring packagingwise - and that's a very good sign. I use the classical way of release tarballs, the workflow is: download, import, pristine-tar, check control, copyright and be done with. In my case up- and down-stream are fully discoupled. If something special happend - new abi, need for package splits, things we couldn't handle upstream - i know it before and be prepared, even packagingwise. So the maintainance is just a breeze most of the time. If you ware both upstream and downstream hats you should ask yourself some questions: * have i really done all the things to make downstream comftable * if not, what could i do to make downstream more comftable * what can i do to make downstream life better in future releases Guess what, other downstreams will love you for. Cheers Alf
