[pkg-go] gbp: how to import upstream tarball without tag?

[Martín Ferrari]

Hi,

On 02/09/15 12:39, Dmitry Smirnov wrote:

>> If upstream does not tag their releases, you will need to find the
>> commit manually and tag it (if you want to keep git history in sync).
> 
> Sorry, I'm not quite sure how exactly can I do that... You mean I should 
> configure a remote (git remote add github https://github.com/repo/repo) then
> 
> 	git fetch github
> 	git rebase github/master
> 
> then what? Merge to "upstream" branch and tag there manually?

My usual setup and workflow is like this:

* My debian packaging branch is called debian/sid (following DEP-14
convention)
* I have a remote for the upstream repo.
* I have a branch that just follows that repo:

$ git fetch github
$ git checkout -b upstream github/master

* When I want to upgrade the debian package, I just merge changes:

$ git fetch github
$ git checkout debian/sid
$ git merge github/<tag> (if upstream tags releases)
$ git merge upstream (if not)
$ git tag upstream/<tag> upstream (if there is no tag, I create it manually)

* If upstream does not provide tags/tarballs, I tag the version and then
generate a tarball from it, using a snippet I include in debian/rules
(see many of the packages I uploaded to pkg-go)

* With or without upstream tarball, I use pristine-tar to include it in git:

$ pristine-tar commit <tarball>
>> Otherwise you can just use gbp import-orig and ignore upstream's git
>> history, but I prefer the other approach when possible.
> 
> I couldn't care less about upstream history and actually for the sake of 
> importing mock-up tarball I want to entirely ignore upstream history.
> 
> But how can I do "gbp import-orig" without tarball?

I think you are mixing two things here: upstream tags and upstream
tarballs. You can live without tags, but not without tarballs!

If there is no upstream tarball, you need to create it yourself, for
example, like I mentioned before.

If upstream does not provide tarballs, I would recommend following their
history even more, all the process is simpler.

There is a very well documented and tidy process for doing all this,
although it is probably way too complicated for most people. Still, it
is a good read to have an idea of how to do things:
http://blog.mycre.ws/articles/git-packaging-workflow-for-py-lmdb/

Another read: DEP-14, which documents some best-practices for debian/git
packaging: http://dep.debian.net/deps/dep14/

-- 
Martín Ferrari (Tincho)