6. Debian Packaging

This chapter documents Debian packaging policy. It only applies to packages building at least one Debian package.

  1. Debian policy should be followed, preferably version 4.4.0 or later.
  2. debian/README.source should contain instructions if there are special steps required to import new upstream sources or to build the package
  3. If you’re modifiying / backporting non-native Debian packages you should use pristine-tar and a pristine-tar branch. This will make sure the build systems are able to reproduce a bit identical upstream tarball from the git repository.