Features of different version control package systems

[Russ Allbery]

Dick <dick at mrns.nl> writes:

> That indeed doesn't sound like a good idea, then please note a general
> name or location how patch systems are called before building the
> package.
>
> Something like "debian/rules patch"

For Debian packages, either the patching is done automatically as part
of building the package (no special interface required) or the results
are already included in the source package and the patches provided for
reference but not applied at run time.

Debian encourages providing a patch target:

    This target performs whatever additional actions are required to
    make the source ready for editing (unpacking additional upstream
    archives, applying patches, etc.). It is recommended to be
    implemented for any package where dpkg-source -x does not result in
    source ready for additional modification.

but it's not required.

-- 
Russ Allbery (rra at stanford.edu)             <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>