Quoting Samuel Benjamin Clegg, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (2002-11-07 12:44:28 GMT): > On Thu, Nov 07, 2002 at 05:05:06AM +0100, Simon Richter wrote: > > Debian native packages should be used only if the software was > > specifically written for Debian and makes no real sense on non-Debian > > systems. It is very common that you change the packaging without > > modifying the source code itself, and you usually don't want to release > > a new version then, just a new packaging patch. > > Ah, OK, I'll look into changing the way I build it. I was under the > impression that debian native was the way to go whenever the developer > and the package maintainer are the same person. Is it policy, in this > case, *not* to include the debian/ dir in the normal release tarball > as I am currently doing?
That's right. Have your upstream tarball as everything but the debian/ directory. It has two main advantages: The software is more open to the general Free Software community, since it's a tarball with no Debian-specific stuff included. You reduce archive bandwidth since orig.tar.gz will stay the same; only your diffs will change when a new Debian version comes out. It also has been asserted that NMUs are easier to handle, but I'm not sure why. -- Andrew Stribblehill <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Systems programmer, IT Service, University of Durham, England
