debian/rules and *.spec files already exist

[Scott Kitterman]

On Wednesday 24 January 2007 16:02, Barry deFreese wrote:
> Dan Roberts wrote:
> > I've been wanting to package Code::Blocks in time for fiesty, I'm
> > currently talking to the devs about this.  As it turns out their SVN
> > repository actually houses more stable code than their last stable
> > release (there's been a substantial rewrite).  However, regardless of
> > any of that, their source tree contains information needed to create
> > binary packages for several package managers, including deb and rpm.  So
> > my question is, for the *.orig.tgz should i remove these files?
...
> > Thanks,
> > -Dan
>
> In the short term I would say yes.  In the long term I would ask them to
> remove the package manager directories from their 'make dist' target.
>
...

I think this is a good question to try and have a definitive policy statement 
on.  One developer that is upstream for me includes debian/ in his upstream 
tarball.  I've asked him not to do that and he's declined.

On REVU this has gotten a variety of responses up to a suggestion that this 
was sufficient reason to repakcage orig.tar.gz.

I think that part of the answer to the original question can be found in the 
Debian Developer's Reference:

http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/developers-reference/ch-best-pkging-practices.en.html#s-bpp-origtargz
or
http://preview.tinyurl.com/yrgp47

"A repackaged .orig.tar.gz
...

   3.  should, except where impossible for legal reasons, preserve the entire 
building and portablility infrastructure provided by the upstream author. For 
example, it is not a sufficient reason for omitting a file that it is used 
only when building on MS-DOS. Similarly, a Makefile provided by upstream 
should not be omitted even if the first thing your debian/rules does is to 
overwrite it by running a configure script.

      (Rationale: It is common for Debian users who need to build software for 
non-Debian platforms to fetch the source from a Debian mirror rather than 
trying to locate a canonical upstream distribution point)."

That appears to me to indicate the rpm files should remain, but I'm new here.

Scott K