Adam Heath wrote: > C.4 Unpacking a Debian source package without dpkg-source > > dpkg-source -x is the recommended way to unpack a Debian source > package. However, if it is not available it is possible to unpack a > Debian source archive as follows: > 1. Untar the tarfile, which will create a .orig directory. > 2. Rename the .orig directory to package-version. > 3. Create the subdirectory debian at the top of the source tree. > 4. Apply the diff using patch -p0. > 5. Untar the tarfile again if you want a copy of the original source > code alongside the Debianised version. > > It is not possible to generate a valid Debian source archive without > using dpkg-source. In particular, attempting to use diff directly to > generate the .diff.gz file will not work. > -- > > Very many(most?) source packages do NOT unpack their .orig.tar.gz to > foo-ver.orig/. Also, the above paragraph does not consider debian-native > packages. > > This paragraph also does not allow the internal format of a src pkg to be > changed, which would make a new format more difficult to work with. I would > prefer to see this section removed, tbh.
This section used to be part of the debian packaging manual. Having documentation available to allow by-hand unpacking of a source package is pretty important from a security and general utility point of view. It does not, of course, belong in policy. -- see shy jo
