=back
+=head3 Using untagged upstream commits
+
+=over 4
+
+Sometimes upstream does not tag their releases, or you want to package
+an unreleased git snapshot. In such a case you can create your own
+upstream release tag, of the form B<upstream/>I<ver>, where I<ver> is
+the upstream version you plan to put in I<debian/changelog>. The
+B<upstream/> prefix ensures that your tag will not clash with any tags
+upstream later creates.
+
+For example, suppose that the latest upstream release is 1.2.2 and you
+want to package git commit ab34c21 which was made on 2013-12-11. A
+common convention is to use the upstream version number
+1.2.2+git20131211.ab34c21 and so you could use
+
+=over 4
+
+ % git tag -s upstream/1.2.2+git20131211.ab34c21 ab34c21
+
+=back
+
+to obtain a release tag, and then proceed as above.
+
+=back
+
=head2 When upstream releases only tarballs
Because we want to work in git, we need a virtual upstream branch with
=back
+If you want to package an untagged upstream commit (because upstream
+does not tag releases or because you want to package an upstream
+development snapshot), see "Using untagged upstream commits" above.
+
=head3 When upstream releases only tarballs
You will need the I<debian/gbp.conf> from "When upstream releases only
=back
-Pass I<--stat> just to see the list of changed files, which is useful
-to determine whether there are any new or deleted files to may need
-accounting for in your copyright file.
+Also, diff with I<--name-status> and I<--diff-filter=ADR> to see
+just the list of added or removed files, which is useful to determine
+whether there are any new or deleted files that may need accounting
+for in your copyright file.
If you obtained a tarball from upstream, you are ready to try a build.
If you merged a git tag from upstream, you will first need to generate
In some cases where you used B<git debrebase convert-from-gbp> since
the last upload, it is not possible for dgit to make your history
fast-forwarding from the history on B<dgit-repos>. In such cases you
-will require I<--overwrite>. Try pushing without this option first,
-and then dgit will suggest using it if it is needed.
+will have to pass I<--overwrite> to dgit. git-debrebase will normally
+tell you if this will be needed.
Right before uploading, if you did not just already do so, you might
want to have git-debrebase(1) shuffle your branch such that the Debian
Our approach is to maintain a DFSG-clean upstream branch, and create
tags on this branch for each release that we want to import. We then
-import those tags per "Importing the release", above.
+import those tags per "Importing the release", above. In the case of
+a new package, we base our initial Debianisation on our first
+DFSG-clean tag.
For the first upstream release that requires DFSG filtering:
% git commit -m "upstream version 1.2.3 DFSG-cleaned"
% git tag -s 1.2.3+dfsg
% git checkout master
- % # proceed with "Importing the release" on 1.2.3+dfsg tag
=back
-And for subsequent releases (whether or not they require filtering):
+Now either proceed with "Importing the release" on the 1.2.3+dfsg tag,
+or in the case of a new package,
+
+=over 4
+
+ % git branch --unset-upstream
+ % git reset --hard 1.2.3+dfsg
+
+=back
+
+and proceed with "INITIAL DEBIANISATION".
+
+For subsequent releases (whether or not they require additional
+filtering):
=over 4
=back
-If that fails, because your branch and the NMUers work represent
+If that fails, because your branch and the NMUers' work represent
divergent branches of development, you have a number of options. Here
we describe the two simplest.