Bug#691250: [debdiff] support source format 3.0 containing executables and symbolic links in debian/

[Helmut Grohne]

Package: devscripts
Version: 2.12.4
Severity: wishlist
File: /usr/bin/debdiff

With the introduction of the 3.0 source format the debian directory may
be shipped as a .debian.tar.gz. This allows adding executable scripts
and symbolic links to the debian directory. See dh-exec for a use case.
Unfortunately debdiff is not up to the task in this case. Changing the
permission of a file is not represented in the resulting .debdiff.

With more and more packages adopting source format 3.0 this problem will
become more common. I suggest upgrading the severity if that happens.

Unfortunately there is no straight forward solution. The diff tool is
not capable of representing permission changes either. This lead to git
introducing its own format[1] for such things. Maybe this format can be
used? The gnu patch utility supports most of them since the 2.7
release[2].

Helmut

[1] man 1 git-diff-tree # /GENERATING
[2] This is not yet available in sid. But having the changes in the
    diffs would make the diffs more useful for reviews right now.