I have CVS write access to a package I maintain for Debian. Currently the upstream pristine tar file for this package comes from `make source' in the CVS and does not include the debian directory (which is now in the debian .diff.gz file).
I could add the debian directory to CVS and to `make source' such that it becomes part of the upstream tar file. Good idea? If I do this and continue renaming the tar file as PKG_VSN.orig.tar.gz to build the package, then dpkg-buildpackage creates an empty diff file which compresses to a 20 bytes .diff.gz file which will still be required for `dpkg-source -x' to work. Seems strange. On the other hand, uploading it to Debian as PKG_VSN.tar.gz seems wrong because there is a true upstream tar file. Should I bother including the debian directory at all? One advantage is that other people downloading the tar file can build debian packages for themselves easily (perhaps that's bad! Mat lead to bad bug reports), and that developers using Debian can tweak code and make modified packages for themselves for testing purposes. Another advantage is making it easier for me to build new versions of the package (nothing to patch!). Comments? Thanks, Peter
