On Thu, Oct 04, 2018 at 08:21:07PM +0200, Philip Hands wrote: >... > IMO policy should recomend the use of separate source packages as the > prefered solution to the problem that vendor-specific patch series were > supposed to address.
In this case please make an explicit decision on whether build-time patching is the recommended replacement for vendor-specific patch series, or what kinds of build-time patching will no longer be permitted. The current situation in the archive is: - 18 packages with vendor-specific patch series - an unknown number of packages (e.g. src:gcc-8) that are doing vendor-specific build-time patching and/or patching based on other factors like architecture - > 100 packages that are doing patching and/or configuration based on dpkg-vendor - an unknown number of packages (e.g. src:gcc-8) that are doing patching and/or configuration based on other tools like lsb_release It is not clear at all which of the above exactly you want to have removed from the archive and moved as permanent deltas downstream. The status quo is that everything is permitted, which is a pretty clear situation. The TC was asked to make a decision, and a decision turning a clear situation into a blurry "it is permitted but kinda recommended against" would only create future conflicts. A 1:1 vendor-specific patch series -> build-time patching change would be a mostly technical change. As already said this could even be implemented before buster. If the TC wants to additionally change the status quo on the high-level question whether Debian wants permanent downstream deltas maintained in Debian or downstream, it should make an explicit decision on that. > Cheers, Phil. cu Adrian -- "Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days. "Only a promise," Lao Er said. Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed