Handling non-DFSG clean upstream sources

If you have to handle non DFSG clean upstream sources you can use a different branch which you have to create once:

git branch dfsg_clean upstream
    

This creates the dfsg_clean branch from the tip of a branch called upstream. Then, when importing a new upstream version, you import the new version on the upstream-branch (by default named upstream) as usual and just don't merge to the debian-branch (by default named master):

gbp import-orig --no-merge /path/to/nondfsg-clean-package_10.4.orig.tar.gz
git tag 10.4
    

After the import you can switch to the dfsg_clean branch and get the newly imported changes from the upstream branch:

git checkout dfsg_clean
git pull . upstream
    

Now make this checkout dfsg clean (preverably by a cleanup script), commit your changes and merge to your debian-branch:

cleanup-script.sh
git commit -a -m "Make source dfsg clean"
git tag 10.4.dfsg
git checkout master
git pull . dfsg_clean
    

Importing NMUs

First create a branch that holds the NMUs from the tip of your debian-branch (default is master) once:

git branch nmu master
    

To import an NMU change into the git repository and use gbp import-dsc:

git checkout master
gbp import-dsc --debian-branch=nmu /path/to/package_1.0-1nmu0.dsc
    

This will import the NMU onto the branched named nmu instead of the default master. This method can also be used to import "old" releases into the Git repository when migrating to Git from another VCS.

Using Pbuilder

Since Pbuilder uses different command line arguments than Debuild and Dpkg-buildpackage we can't simply pass the options on the command line but have to wrap them in the --git-builder option instead. git-pbuilder helps you with that:

git-buildpackage --git-builder="git-pbuilder"  --git-cleaner="fakeroot debian/rules clean"

cat <<EOF > ~/.gbp.conf
[DEFAULT]
# tell git-buildpackage howto clean the source tree
cleaner = fakeroot debian/rules clean
# this is how we invoke pbuilder, arguments passed to git-buildpackage will be
# passed to dpkg-buildpackge in the chroot
builder = /usr/bin/git-pbuilder

git-buildpackage --git-builder=debuild

Working on random packages

Whenever you need to work on an arbitrary Debian package you can check it right into Git with one command:

git-import-dsc --download package
cd package
git-branch debian

This uses apt-get to download the source package, puts the orig tarball on the upstream-branch and the Debian changes on the debian-branch (by default master). The second command creates a branch called debian. Now you can easily modify the package, revert changes you made, create other branches for testing, see what changes you made, etc.. When finished just do

git-commit -a
git-diff debian --

to get a nice patch that can be submitted to the Debian BTS. You can also fetch the source package from an URL:

git-import-dsc --download http://mentors.debian.net/debian/pool/main/i/ipsec-tools/ipsec-tools_0.7.3-9.dsc