On Tue, Aug 07, 2001 at 05:41:43PM -0600, Barak Pearlmutter wrote: > I'm packaging something which upstream distributes as four separate .tgz > files, each for a vaguely orthogonal hunk of functionality. I'd like to glom > them all together as one single source package. > > Is there nice way to handle this? Aside from the ugly workaround of smashing > the upstream stuff into a single .tar.gz and pretending that was the upstream > sources, I mean.
If they are capable of being built separately (i.e., they don't expect to be unpacked into a single source tree and built together), I recommend distributing them as separate source packages, especially if: - The upstream maintainer might release a new version of one tarball, without a new version of the others - They have different build-time dependencies (leaving them divided would make it easier for a user to build the part that they want from source) Using multiple source packages allows you to isolate packaging changes, so you don't have to upload an enormous set of source and binary packages just because of one small change. Consider the upstream maintainer's reasons for splitting the package, and see if they will apply to Debian as well. -- - mdz
