Ubuntu Manpage: git-dpm - Debian packages in git manager

NAME

       git-dpm - Debian packages in git manager

SYNOPSIS

       git-dpm --help

       git-dpm [ options ] command [ per-command-options and -arguments ]

DESCRIPTION

       Git-dpm is a tool to handle a Debian source package in a git repository.

       Each  project contains three branches, a Debian branch (master/whatever), a patched branch
       (patched/patched-whatever) and an upstream branch (upstream/upstream-whatever) and git-dpm
       helps  you  store  the  information  in there so you have your changes exportable as quilt
       series.

       Git-dpm will guess the other two branches based on the branch it sees.  (Most commands act
       based on the current HEAD, i.e. what branch you have currently checked out, though some as
       e.g. status allows an optional argument instead).  So for example, if you  are  in  branch
       master,  git-dpm assumes the corresponding upstream branch is called upstream.  If you are
       in branch upstream-something, it assumes the Debian branch is called something.

       Note that most commands may switch to another branch automatically, partly because  it  is
       easier  to  implement  that  way  and  hopefully  so  one does not need to switch branches
       manually so often.

SHORT EXPLANATION OF THE BRANCHES

       the upstream branch (upstream|upstream-whatever)
              This branch contains the upstream sources.  Its contents need to be equal enough to
              the contents in your upstream tarball.

       the patched branch (patched|patched-whatever)
              This  branch  contains  your  patches to the upstream source.  Every commit will be
              stored as a single patch in the resulting package.

              Most of the time it will not exist as a branch known to git, but only as some point
              in  the  history  of  the Debian branch and possibly as tag for published versions.
              Git-dpm will create it when needed and remove the branch when no longer needed.

              To help git generate a linear patch series, this should ideal be a linear chain  of
              commits, whose description are helpful for other people.

              As this branch is regularly rebased, you should not publish it.

       the Debian branch (master|whatever)
              This is the primary branch.

              This branch contains the debian/ directory and has the patched branch merged in.

              Every  change  not  in debian/, .git* or deleting files must be done in the patched
              branch.

EXAMPLES

       Let's start with some examples:

       Checking out a project
              First get the master branch:
               git clone URL

              Then create upstream branch and see if the .orig.tar is ready:
               git-dpm prepare

              Create the patched branch and check it out:
               git-dpm checkout-patched

              Do some changes, apply some patches, commit them..
               ...
               git commit

              If your modification fixes a previous change (and that  is  not  the  last  commit,
              otherwise  you could have used --amend), you might want to squash those two commits
              into one, so use:
               git rebase -i upstream

              Then you want to get those changes into the Debian branch and the new  patch  files
              created  (which  you can do using git-dpm update-patches), but you most likely want
              to also document what you did in the changelog, so all in one step:
               git-dpm dch -- -i

              Perhaps change something in the Debian packaging:
               ...
               git commit -a

              Then push the whole thing back:
               git push

       Switching to a new upstream version
              Get a new .orig.tar file.  Either upgrade your upstream branch to the  contents  of
              that file and call git-dpm new-upstream ../new-stuff.orig.tar.gz or tell git-dpm to
              import and record it:
               git-dpm import-new-upstream --rebase ../new-stuff.orig.tar.gz

              This will rebase the patched branch to the new upstream branch,  perhaps  you  will
              need to resolve some conflicts:
               vim ...
               git add resolved files
               git rebase --continue

              After rebase is run (with some luck even in the first try):
               git-dpm dch -- -v newupstream-1 "new upstream version"

              You could have also done the last step in three by:
               git-dpm update-patches
               dch -- -v newupstream-1 "new upstream version"
               git commit --amend -a

              Do other debian/ changes:
               ...
               git commit -a

              Then push the whole thing back:
               git push

       Creating a new project
              Create  an  upstream  (or upstream-whatever) branch containing the contents of your
              orig.tar file:
               tar -xvf example_0.orig.tar.gz
               cd example-0
               git init
               git add .
               git commit -m "import example_0.orig.tar.gz"
               git checkout -b upstream-unstable

              You might want to use pristine tar to store your tar:
               pristine-tar commit ../example_0.orig.tar.gz upstream-unstable

              Then let git-dpm know what tarball your upstream branch belongs to:
               git-dpm init ../example_0.orig.tar.gz

              Note that since you were in upstream-unstable in this example, in the last  example
              git-dpm  assumed  you  want  your  Debian branch called unstable and not master, so
              after the command returned you are in the newly created unstable branch.

              Do the rest of the packaging:
               vim debian/control debian/rules
               dch --create --package example -v 0-1
               git add debian/control debian/rules debian/changelog
               git commit -m "initial packaging"

              Then add some patches:
               git-dpm checkout-patched
               vim ...
               git commit -a
               git-dpm dch "fix ... (Closes: num)"

              The git-dpm checkout-patched created a temporary branch  patched-unstable  (as  you
              were  in  a  branch  called unstable. If you had called it with HEAD being a branch
              master, it would have been patched) to which you added commits.  Then  the  git-dpm
              update-patches  implied  by git-dpm dch merged those changes into unstable, deleted
              the temporary branch and created new debian/patches/ files.

              Then build your package:
               git-dpm status &&
                dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -us -uc -I".git*"

              Now take a look what happened, perhaps you want to add some files to .gitignore (in
              the  unstable  branch),  or remove some files from the unstable branch because your
              clean rule removes them.

              Continue the last few steps until the package is finished.  Then push your package:
               git-dpm tag
               git push --tags target unstable:unstable pristine-tar:pristine-tar

GLOBAL OPTIONS

       --debug
              Give verbose output what git-dpm is doing.  Mostly only  useful  for  debugging  or
              when preparing an bug report.

       --debug-git-calls
              Output git invocations to stderr.  (For more complicated debugging cases).

       --allow-changes-in-debian-branch
              Ignore  upstream  changes  in your Debian branch.  This will either discard them if
              merge-patched is called by come command or them being ignored elsewhere.

COMMANDS

init [options] tarfile [upstream-commit [preapplied-commit [patched-commit]]]
Create a new project.

The first argument is an upstream tarball.

You also need to have the contents of that file and the files given with
--component unpackaged as some branch or commit in your git repository (or similar
enough so dpkg-source will not know the difference). This will be stored in the
upstream branch (called upstream or upstream-whatever). If the second argument is
non-existing or empty, that branch must already exist, otherwise that branch will
be initialized with what that second argument. (It's your responsibility that the
contents match. git-dpm does not know what your clean rule does, so cannot check
(and does not even try to warn yet)).

You can already have an Debian branch (called master or whatever). If it does not
exist, it will exist afterwards. Otherwise it can contain a debian/patches/series
file, which git-dpm will import.

The third argument can be a descendant of your upstream branch, that contains the
changes of your Debian branch before any patches are applied (Most people prefer to
have none and lintian warns, but if you have some, commit/cherry pick them in a new
branch/detached head on top of your upstream branch and name them here). Without
--patches-applied, your Debian branch may not have any upstream changes compared to
this commit (or if it is not given, the upstream branch).

If there is no fourth argument, git-dpm will apply possible patches in your Debian
branch on top of the third argument or upstream. You can also do so yourself and
give that as fourth argument.

The contents of this commit/branch given in the fourth commit or created by
applying patches on top of the third/your upstream branch is then merged into your
Debian branch and remembered as patched branch.

Options:

--component filename
Record a .orig-component.tar file to be unpacked in your upstream branch.

--patches-applied
Denote the Debian branch already has the patches applied.

Without this git-dpm will check there are no changes in the Debian branch
outside patch management before applying the patches; with this, it will
instead check there are no differences after applying the patches.

--create-no-patches
Do not create/override debian/patches directory. You will have to call
update-patches yourself. Useful if you are importing historical data and
keep the original patches in the Debian branch.

--record-patch-category
Add a Patch-Category: field to each imported patch that is in a subdirectory
of debian/patches. This causes update-patches to store it in the same
subdirectory.

--record-patch-name
Add a Patch-Name: field to each imported patch with its name. This causes
update-patches to store it under its original name.

prepare
Make sure upstream branch and upstream orig.tar ball are there and up to date.
(Best called after a clone or a pull).

status [branch]

Check the status of the current project (or of the project belonging to the
argument branch if that is given). Returns with non-zero exit code if something to
do is detected.

checkout-patched

Checkout the patched branch (patched|patched-whatever) after making sure it exists
and is one recorded in the debian/.git-dpm file.

If the patched branch references an old state (i.e. one that is already ancestor of
the current Debian branch), it is changed to the recorded current one.

Otherwise you can reset it to the last recorded state with the --force option.

update-patches [options] [branch-name]

After calling merge-patched-into-debian if necessary, update the contents of
debian/patches to the current state of the patched branch.

Also record in debian/.git-dpm which state of the patched branch the patches
directory belongs to.

If a branch-name is given, that branch is processed. Otherwise the name is derived
from the currently checked out branch as usual.

Options:

--redo Do something, even if it seems like there is nothing to do.

--allow-revert, --ignore-deletions, --dot-git-files=*
passed on to merge-patched-into-debian

--amend
Do not create a new commit, but amend the last one in the Debian branch.
(I.e. call merge-patched-into-debian with --amend and amend the updates
patches into the last commit even if that was not created by
merge-patched-into-debian).

-m message
Use message as commit message. (If used together with --amend, do not reuse
old commit message, author or author date but replace the old commit with a
new commit with that message).

--keep-branch
do not remove an existing patched branch (usually that is removed and can be
recreated with checkout-patched to avoid stale copies lurking around.

dch [options] -- dch-options
After calling update-patches if necessary, run devscripts' dch with the specified
options and then do a git commit with a commit message containing changes to the
debian/changelog file.

Options:

--amend
Replace the commit currently the head of the Debian branch
(master|something) instead of creating a new one on top. The commit message
will also include changes done to debian/changelog in the previous commit
(unless reverted by the new edit).

--ignore-patches
Do not call update-patches but simply ignore the current state of the
patched branch (patched|patched-something).

--keep-branch, --allow-revert, --allow-nonlinear, --ignore-deletions,
--dot-git-files=*
Passed to update-patches, if called.

--latest-only|--latest|-l
Only include changes between the current working directory before calling
dch and after calling it (and not since the last commit or the last commit
not replaced).

-e | -v | -a | --all | -s | -n | --no-verify | -u | --untracked-files | -q |
--quiet | --cleanup=... | --author=...
passed to git commit.

merge-patched-into-debian [options] [branch-name]
Usually update-patches runs this for you if deemed necessary.

This command is the core of git-dpm, but you usually do not call it directly. It
is called by update-patches and things calling update-patches like dch when
necessary.

It replaces all files (with only the exceptions described below) in the current
Debian branch (master|whatever) with those found in the patched branch
(patched|patched-whatever).

Only the debian directory and files in the root directory starting with ".git" are
kept from the Debian branch (so .gitignore, .gitattributes, ... will stay). And
all files that were found in the last recorded patched branch and deleted in the
current Debian branch will also be deleted in the new one.

Additionally the debian/.git-dpm file will be updated so the current patched branch
is recorded and is marked as belonging to the last recorded upstream branch.

If there is no branch-name given on the command line the base name of the branches
to operate on is computed from the currently checked out branch as usual. Otherwise
this argument is used.

Options:

--allow-revert
Usually reverting to an old state of the patched branch is not allowed, to
avoid mistakes (like having only pulled the Debian branch and forgot to run
checkout-patched). This option changes that so you can for example drop the
last patch in your stack.

--no-ignore-deletions (default)
Files deleted currently in the Debian branch relative to the recorded
patched branch will still be deleted in the new Debian branch and not taken
from the new patched branch. This is the default unless a different default
was set with
git config dpm.BRANCHNAME.dpmIgnoreDeletions true.

--ignore-deletions
Disable the behavior described in --no-ignore-deletions.

--dot-git-files=method
Specify how files starting with .git outside debian/ are handled. Those are
handles specially as .gitattributes and .gitignore might be different in the
Debian branch without being part of any patch. (The whole debian/ directory
is always taken from the Debian branch, so files there are not affected).

Possible methods are:

automatic (default)
Any .git* files that are added, modified or removed in the current
Debian branch compared to the old upstream branch are set to this
state, everything else is taken as found in the new patched branch.

debian All .git* files are taken from the Debian branch. Files with a name
like that from the patched branch are ignored.

upstream
Files starting with .git are not given special handling. They are
taken from the patched branch, unless they are deleted in the Debian
branch and the default --no-ignore-deletions is active. (i.e. just
like any other file outside debian/).

--keep-branch
do not remove an existing patched branch (usually that is removed and can be
recreated with checkout-patched to avoid stale copies lurking around).

--amend
Replace the last commit on your Debian branch (as git commit --amend would
do). With the exception that every parent that is an ancestor of or equal
to the new patched branch or the recorded patched branch is omitted. (That
is, you lose not only the commit on the Debian branch, but also a previous
state of the patched branch if your last commit also merged the patched
branch).

-m message
Commit message to use for the new commit created. (If used together with
--amend, this disables reusing the old author and date).

import-new-upstream [options] .orig.tar
Import the contents of the given tarfile (as with import-tar) and record this
branch (as with new-upstream).

This is roughly equivalent to:
git-dpm import-tar -p upstream filename
git checkout -b upstream
git-dpm new-upstream filename

--detached
Don't make the new upstream branch an ancestor of the old upstream branch
(unless you re-add that with -p).

-p commit-id|--parent commit-id
Give import-tar additional parents of the new commit to create.

For example if you track upstream's git repository in some branch, you can
name that here to make it part of the history of your Debian branch.

--allow-no-parent
If dpm.importWithoutParent is set to false via git config, git-dpm will not
allow import-new-upstream to be run without this option or at least on -p
option.

--rebase-patched
After recording the new upstream branch, rebase the patched branch to the
new upstream branch.

--no-rebase-patched
Do not call rebase-patched after recording the new upstream branch. (This
is currently the default, but that may change in the future).

-m message
Commit message to use for the new commit to the Debian branch recording the
new file and upstream branch.

--component package_version.orig-component.tar.gz
Unpack the specified filename into the component directory and record it so
that prepare and status know to check for it.

--init

None of the branches yet exists, create them.

As the branches to operate on are derived from HEAD if no --branch option is
given, you either need HEAD point to an not yet existing branch (like
directly after git init) or you need you give a name with --branch.
Otherwise one of the branches already exists and you only get an error
message.

--branch debianbranch
Don't derive the Debian branch name from current HEAD but use debianbranch
instead. (And upstream branch name and patched branch name derived from
that as usual).

--pristine-tar-commit | --ptc
Call pristine-tar commit for all imported tarballs not yet found in the
pristine-tar branch.

--no-pristine-tar-commit
Do not call pristine-tar commit for all imported tarballs even if configured
to do so by
git config dpm.pristineTarCommit true or by
git config branch.debianbranch.dpmPristineTarCommit true.

--ignore-deletions, --dot-git-files=
Passed to merge-patched, if called (only done if there were no patches
previously).

--upstream-author author
Used as the --author argument to git-dpm import-tar.

--upstream-date date
Used as the --date argument to git-dpm import-tar (especially auto is
supported to extract a date from the tar file).

import-tar [options] .tar-file
Create a new commit containing the contents of the given file. The commit will not
have any parents, unless you give -p options.

-p commit-id|--parent commit-id
Add the given commit as parent. (Can be specified multiple times).

--branch branchname
Create new branch branchname if it does not already exist or replace
branchname with a commit created from the tarball with the current
branchname head as parent.

-m message
Do not start an editor for the commit message, but use the argument instead.

--date date
Date of the commit to create.

If the value is auto then the newest date of any file or directory in the
tarball is used.

--author author
Author of the commit to create. It has to be in the usual git format
author <email>.

new-upstream [options] .orig.tar [commit]

If you changed the upstream branch (upstream|upstream-whatever), git-dpm needs to
know which tarball this branch now corresponds to and you have to rebase your
patched branch (patched|patched-whatever) to the new upstream branch.

If there is a second argument, this command first replaces your upstream branch
with the specified commit.

Then the new upstream branch is recorded in your Debian branch's debian/.git-dpm
file.

If you specified --rebase-patched (or short --rebase), git-dpm rebase-patched will
be called to rebase your patched branch on top of the new upstream branch.

After this (and if the branch then looks like what you want), you still need to
call git-dpm merge-patched-into-debian (or directly git-dpm update-patches).

WARNING to avoid any misunderstandings: You have to change the upstream branch
before using this command. It's your responsibility to ensure the contents of the
tarball match those of the upstream branch.

--rebase-patched
Automatically call git-dpm rebase-patched.

--new-tarball-only
Don't refuse operation if the tarball changes but the upstream branch did
not. (This is only sensible if the tarball changed without changing its
contents, see the warning above).

-m message
Commit message to use for the new commit to the Debian branch recording the
new file and upstream branch.

--amend
Replace the last commit instead of creating a new one on top.

--component filename
Record filename as needed component source file (i.e. a
sourcename_upstreamversion.orig-component.tar.compression file). It's your
responsible to have that file's contents already as part of your upstream
branch (in a component subdirectory).

(Recorded files will be looked for by status and prepare. The list of
recorded component source files is removed when a new upstream branch or
upstream .orig source file is recorded).

--ignore-deletions, --ot-git-files=
Passed to merge-patched, if called (which is only done if there were no
patches previously, so the new upstream branch is merged in directly).

rebase-patched
Try to rebase your current patched branch (patched|patched-whatever) to your
current current upstream branch (upstream|upstream-whatever).

If those branches do not yet exist as git branches, they are (re)created from the
information recorded in debian/.git-dpm first.

This is only a convenience wrapper around git rebase that first tries to determine
what exactly is to rebase. If there are any conflicts, git rebase will ask you to
resolve them and tell rebase to continue.

After this is finished (and if the branch then looks like what you want), you still
need merge-patched-into-debian (or directly update-patches).

tag [ options ] [ version ]
Add tags to the upstream, patched and Debian branches. If no version is given, it
is taken from debian/changelog.

Options:

--refresh
Overwrite the tags if they are already there and differ (except upstream).

--refresh-upstream
Overwrite the upstream if that is there and differs.

--allow-stale-patches
Don't error out if patches are not up to date. This is only useful if you
are importing historical data and want to tag it.

--named
Use the package name as part of the names of the generated tags. (use git
config dpm.tagsNamed true to make this the default)

--with-name name
Like --named but give the name to use.

--debian-tag tag-name

--patched-tag tag-name

--upstream-tag tag-name
Specify the names of the tags to generate. %p is replaced with the package
name, %v with the version (without epoch), %u with the upstream version, %e
with the epoch, %% with a single %.

The defaults are '%p-debian%e-%v', '%p-patched%e-%v' and '%p-upstream%e-%u'
with --named and 'debian%e-%v', 'patched%e-%v' and 'upstream%e-%u' without.

(Use git config to set the values dpm.debianTag, dpm.patchedTag and
dpm.upstreamTag to change the defaults of those values).

ref-tag [ options ] commit [ version ]
Like tag, but create tags for commit, i.e. commit will get the Debian tag and the
other tags are placed where the debian/.git-dpm file of that commit points to.

So it is mostly equivalent to:
git checkout -b temp commit
git-dpm tag [options] [version]
git checkout previous-head
git branch -D temp

Options like tag.

apply-patch [ options... ] [ filename ]
Switch to the patched branch (assuming it is up to date, use checkout-patched first
to make sure or get an warning), and apply the patch given as argument or from
stdin.

--author author <email>
Override the author to be recorded.

--defaultauthor author <email>
If no author could be determined from the commit, use this.

--date date
Date to record this patch originally be from if non found.

--dpatch
Parse patch as dpatch patch (Only works for dpatch patches actually being a
patch, might silently fail for others).

--cdbs Parse patch as cdbs simple-patchsys.mk patch (Only works for dpatch patches
actually being a patch, might silently fail for others).

--edit Start an editor before doing the commit (In case you are too lazy to amend).

--record-name
Add a Patch-Name: field to tell update-patches to export it with the same
name again.

--name name
Add a Patch-Name: field to tell update-patches to use name as filename to
store this patch into (relative to debian/patches).

--category name
Add a Patch-Category: field to tell update-patches to always export this
patch into a subdirectory name of debian/patches.

cherry-pick [ options... ] commit
Recreate the patched branch and cherry-pick the given commit. Then merge that back
into the Debian branch and update the debian/patches directory (i.e. mostly
equivalent to checkout-patched, git's cherry-pick, and update-patches).

--merge-only
Only merge the patched branch back into the Debian branch but do not update
the patches directory (You'll need to run update-patches later to get this
done).

-e | --edit
Passed to git's cherry-pick: edit the commit message picked.

-s | --signoff
Passed to git's cherry-pick: add a Signed-off-by header

-x Passed to git's cherry-pick: add a line describing what was picked

-m num | --mainline num
Passed to git's cherry-pick: allow picking a merge by specifying the parent
to look at.

--repick
Don't abort if the specified commit is already contained.

--allow-nonlinear, --ignore-deletions, --dot-git-files=
Passed to update-patches, if called.

passed to merge-patched-into-debian and update-patches.

--keep-branch
do not remove the patched branch when it is no longer needed.

--amend
passed to merge-patched-into-debian: amend the last commit in the Debian
branch.

import-dsc
Import a Debian source package from a .dsc file. This can be used to create a new
project or to import a source package into an existing project.

While a possible old state of a project is recorded as parent commit, the state of
the old Debian branch is not taken into account. Especially all file deletions and
.gitignore files and the like need to be reapplied/re-added afterwards.
(Assumption is that new source package versions from outside might change stuff
significantly, so old information might more likely be outdated. And reapplying it
is easier then reverting such changes.)

First step is importing the .orig.tar file and possible .orig-component.tar files.
You can either specify a branch to use. Otherwise import-dsc will look if the
previous state of this project already has the needed file so the old upstream
branch can be reused. If there is non, the file will be imported as a new commit,
by default with a possible previous upstream branch as parent.

Then import-dsc will try to import the source package in the state as dpkg-source
-x would create it. (That is applying the .diff and making debian/rules executable
for 1.0 format packages and replacing the debian directory with the contents of a
.debian.tar and applying possible debian/patches/series for 3.0 format packages).
This is later referred to as verbatim import.

If it is a 1.0 source format package, import-dsc then looks for a set of supported
patch systems and tries to apply those patches. Those are then merged with the
verbatim state into the new Debian branch.

Then a debian/.git-dpm file is created and a possible old state of the project
added as parent.

Note that dpkg-source is not used to extract packages, but they are extracted
manually. Especially git-apply is used instead of patch. While this generally
works (and git-dpm has some magic to work around some of git-apply's shortcomings),
unclean patches might sometimes need a -C0 option and then in same cases be applied
at different positions than where patch would apply them.

General options:

-b | --branch branch-name
Don't look at the current HEAD, but import the package into the git-dpm
project branchname or create a new project (if that branch does not yet
exist).

--verbatim branch-name
After import-dsc has completed successfully, branch-name will contain the
verbatim import of the .dsc file. If a branch of that name already exists,
the new verbatim commit will also have the old as parent. (This also causes
the verbatim commit not being amended with other changes, which can result
in more commits).

--use-changelog
Parse debian/changelog of the imported package. Use the description as
commit messages and the author and time as default for patches and import
commits without that information. (Warning: may still contain some rough
edges).

Options about creating the upstream branch:

--upstream-to-use commit
Do not import the .orig.tar nor try to reuse an old import, but always use
the commit specified.

It is your responsibility that this branch is similar enough to the
.orig.tar file plus possible .orig-component.tar in their respective
directories. (As usual, similar enough means: Does not miss any files that
your patches touch or your build process requires (or recreates unless
debian/rules clean removes them again). Every file different than in
.orig.tar or not existing there you must delete in the resulting Debian
branch. No patch may touch those files.)

Use with care. Nothing will warn you even if you use the contents of a
totally wrong upstream version.

--detached-upstream
If importing a .orig.tar as new commit, do not make an possible commit for
an old upstream version parent.

--upstream-parent commit
Add commit as (additional) parent if importing a new upstream version.

(This can for example be used to make upstream's git history part of your
package's history and thus help git when cherry-picking stuff).

--allow-no-parent
If dpm.importWithoutParent is set to false via git config, git-dpm will not
allow import-dsc to be run without this option or at least on
--upstream-parent option.

--pristine-tar-commit |--ptc
Call pristine-tar commit for all tarballs imported after the rest of the
import-dsc command was successful.

--upstream-author author
Used as the --author argument to git-dpm import-tar.

--upstream-date date
Used as the --date argument to git-dpm import-tar (especially auto is
supported to extract a date from the tar file).

Options about applying patches:

-f | --force-commit-reuse
Only look at parent and tree and no longer at the description when trying to
reuse commits importing patches from previous package versions.

-Cnum | --patch-context num
Passed as -Cnum to git-apply. Specifies the number of context lines that
must match.

--dpatch-allow-empty
Do not error out if a dpatch file does not change anything when treated as
patch.

As dpatch files can be arbitrary scripts, git-dpm has some problems
detecting if they are really patches. (It can only cope with patches). If
a script that is not a patch is treated as patch that usually results in
patch not modify anything, thus those are forbidden without this option.

--patch-system mode
Specify what patch system is used for source format 1.0 packages.

auto (this is the default)
Try to determine what patch system is used by looking at debian/rules
(and debian/control).

none Those are not the patches you are looking for.

history
Don't try to find any patches in the .diff (like none). If if the
project already exists and the upstream tarball is the same, create
the patched state of the new one by using the patches of the old one
and adding a patch of top bringing it to the new state.

If you import multiple revisions of some package, where each new
revision added at most a single change to upstream, this option
allows you to almost automatically create a proper set of patches
(ideally only missing descriptions).

If there are same changes and reverts those will be visible in the
patches created, so this mode is not very useful in that case.

quilt Extract and apply a debian/patches/series quilt like series on top of
possible upstream changes found in the .diff file.

quilt-first
As the quilt mode, but apply the patches to an unmodified upstream
first and then cherry-pick the changes found in the .diff file.

As this is not the order in which patches are applied in a normal
unpack/build cycle, this will fail if those changes are not distinct
enough (for example when patches depend on changes done in the
.diff).

But if the .diff only contains unrelated changes which varies with
each version, this gives a much nicer history, as the commits for the
patches can more easily be reused.

quilt-applied
As the quilt-first mode, but assume the patches are already applied
in the .diff, so apply them on top of an unmodified upstream and then
add a commit bringing it to the state in the .diff. (Or not if that
patch would be empty).

dpatch | dpatch-first | dpatch-applied
Like the quilt resp. quilt-first resp. quilt-applied modes, but
instead look for dpatch-style patches in debian/patches/00list.

Note that only patches are supported and not dpatch running other
commands.

simple | simple-first | simple-applied
Like the quilt resp. quilt-first resp. quilt-applied modes, but
instead assume debian/patches/ contains patches suitable for cdbs's
simple-patchsys.mk.

--patch-author "name <email>"
Set the author for all git commits importing patches.

--patch-default-author "name <email>"
Set an author for all patches not containing author information (or where
git-dpm cannot determine it).

--edit-patches
For every patch imported, start an editor for the commit message.

--record-patch-category
Add a Patch-Category: field to each imported patch that is in a subdirectory
of debian/patches. This causes update-patches to store it in the same
subdirectory.

--record-patch-name
Add a Patch-Name: field to each imported patch with its name. This causes
update-patches to store it under its original name.

record-dsc [options] commit .dsc-file
Store a pristine .dsc file in a dscs branch after storing the files it contains
using pristine-tar.

The first argument is an tag or commit storing the git-dpm project in the state
belonging to the .dsc file and the second argument is the .dsc file itself. The
files it references are expected in the same directory as the file itself (if they
are needed).

Some checks are done to make sure the file and its contents are named properly and
match the commit in question, but only cursory to avoid obvious mistakes (for
example only the version is checked, but .debian.tar is not unpacked to check the
files are really the same, for example).

Options:

--create-branch
Create a new dscs branch.

--allow-unsigned
Allow recording a unsigned .dsc file. This usually defeats the point of
storing them at all.

the debian/.git-dpm file

       You should not need to know about the contents if this file except for debugging git-dpm.

       The file contains 8 lines, but future version may contain more.

       The first line is hint what this file is about and ignored.

       Then there are 4 git commit ids for the recorded states:

              First the state of the patched branch when the patches in debian/patches were  last
              updated.

              Then  the  state  of  the  patched  branch  when it was last merged into the Debian
              branch.

              Then the state upstream branch when the patched branch was last merged.

              Finally the upstream branch.

       The following 3 lines are the filename, the sha1 checksum and the size of the  origtarball
       belonging to the recorded upstream branch.

SHORTCUTS

       Most commands also have shorter aliases, to avoid typing:

        update-patches:    up, u-p, ci
        prepare: prep
        checkout-patched:  co, c-p
        rebase-patched:    r-p
        new-upstream-branch:    new-upstream, n-u
        apply-patch:  a-p
        import-tar:   i-t
        import-new-upstream:    i-n-u, inu

BRANCHES

the upstream branch (upstream|upstream-whatever)
This branch contains the upstream sources. It contents need to be equal enough to
the contents in your upstream tarball.

Equal enough means that dpkg-source should see no difference between your patched
tree and and original tarball unpackaged, the patched applied and debian/rules
clean run. Usually it is easiest to just store the verbatim contents of your orig
tarball here. Then you can also use it for pristine tar.

This branch may contain a debian/ subdirectory, which will usually be just ignored.

You can either publish that branch or make it only implicitly visible via the
debian/.git-dpm file in the Debian branch.

While it usually makes sense that newer upstream branches contain older ones, this
is not needed. You should be able to switch from one created yourself or by some
foreign-vcs importing tool generated one to an native upstream branch or vice versa
without problems. Note that since the Debian branch has the patched branch as
ancestor and the patched branch the upstream branch, your upstream branches are
part of the history of your Debian branch. Which has the advantage that you can
recreate the exact state of your branches from your history directly (like git
checkout -b oldstate myoldtagorshaofdebianbranchcommit ; git-dpm prepare ; git
checkout unstable-oldstate) but the disadvantage that to remove those histories
from your repository you have to do some manual work.

the patched branch (patched|patched-whatever)
This branch contains your patches to the upstream source. (which of course means
it is based on your upstream branch).

Every commit will be stored as a single patch in the resulting package.

To help git generate a linear patch series, this should ideal be a linear chain of
commits, whose description are helpful for other people.

As this branch is regularly rebase d, you should not publish it. Instead you can
recreate this branch using git-dpm checkout-patched using the information stored in
debian/.git-dpm.

You are not allowed to change the contents of the debian/ subdirectory in this
branch. Renaming files or deleting files usually causes unnecessary large patches.

the Debian branch (master|whatever)
This is the primary branch.

This branch contains the debian/ directory and has the patched branch merged in.

Every change not in debian/, .git* or deleting files must be done in the patched
branch.

alternative branch names
You can specify alternate branch names for upstream and patched branches of a
specific Debian branch, or force a branch to be a Debian branch that would normally
be considered e.g. upstream branch of another branch by adding dpmUpstreamBranch
and dpmPatchedBranch configure items for the Debian branch in question (you need
both, only one is treated as error).

The following example is a no-op for all practical purposes:
git config branch.master.dpmUpstreamBranch upstream
git config branch.master.dpmPatchedBranch patched

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright © 2009,2010 Bernhard R. Link
       This  is  free  software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not
       even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

REPORTING BUGS AND ISSUES

       You can report bugs or feature suggestions to git-dpm-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org or  to
       me.    Please   send   questions  to  git-dpm-user@lists.alioth.debian.org  or  to  me  at
       brlink@debian.org.