- # patches-unapplied trees. We want to detect these, so we know
- # to escape into quilt_fixup_gbp.
+ # patches-unapplied trees.
+ #
+ # We would want to detect these, so we know to escape into
+ # quilt_fixup_gbp. However, this is in general not possible.
+ # Consider a package with a one patch which the dgit user reverts
+ # (with git-revert or the moral equivalent).
+ #
+ # That is indistinguishable in contents from a patches-unapplied
+ # tree. And looking at the history to distinguish them is not
+ # useful because the user might have made a confusing-looking git
+ # history structure (which ought to produce an error if dgit can't
+ # cope, not a silent reintroduction of an unwanted patch).