How to handle Debian patches

[Manoj Srivastava]

On Sat, 17 May 2008 09:07:08 +0200, Mike Hommey <mh at glandium.org> said: 

>> I find a quilt series to not fit the bill very well. On the other
>> hand, creating ./debian/topics/foo/ with a git-format-patch series
>> for each branch in there might be doable -- but then, these
>> individual patches might not apply cleanly over each other.

> Having to merge 30 topic branches is not a workable solution either.

        I personally do not have a package with 30 topic branches. I
 have had ones with about 10 or so, though none at the moment.

        But in each topic branch, there are more than one patches -- I
 like having one patchset that makes a change, but still compiles and
 works, and then the next patchset, until I have the functionality
 needed for the topic branch.

        This breaking up the topic branch into separate, small,
 individually documented patches helps understanding; and does not
 create an explosion of branches -- all these patches are on the same
 topic.

        To do the same in quilt, by maintaining patchsets into small,
 easily understandable, but working chunks, we'll have to keep these
 patches separate -- which is why we can get away with fewer branches
 than we can with quilt patches. Or else make our quilt patches less
 easy to understand and test.

        manoj
-- 
Be urgent in good; hold your thoughts off evil. When one is slack in
doing good the mind delights in evil. 116
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta at debian.org> <http://www.debian.org/~srivasta/>  
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