Bug#845659: debpatch: New script, "Apply a debdiff to a Debian source package"

[Ximin Luo]

Package: devscripts
Version: 2.16.10
Severity: wishlist
Tags: patch

Dear Maintainer,

As part of the Reproducible Builds effort, I've written a tool called
debpatch(1), see the branch here:

https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/collab-maint/devscripts.git/commit/?h=pu/debpatch

To quote the README entry I added:

- debpatch: Apply unified diffs of two Debian source packages, such as those
  generated by debdiff, to a target Debian source package. Any changes to
  debian/changelog are dealt with specially, to avoid the conflicts that
  changelog diffs typically produce when applied naively. May be used to check
  that old patches still apply to newer versions of those packages.
  [python3-unidiff, quilt]

In the broader context, we have a lot of unapplied patches for R-B and we're not
sure if they still work - whether they apply, or make the newer version of a
package reproducible once applied. This tool automates the process of applying
old patches to newer package versions, and I'm also writing R-B specific scripts
that will use this tool to do continuous integration on our old patches, and
alert the right people if anything fails.

X

-- Package-specific info:

--- /etc/devscripts.conf ---

--- ~/.devscripts ---
Not present

-- System Information:
Debian Release: stretch/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (990, 'testing'), (500, 'unstable-debug'), (500, 'testing-debug'), (500, 'stable'), (300, 'unstable'), (200, 'experimental'), (1, 'experimental-debug')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 4.6.0-1-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.utf8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages devscripts depends on:
ii  dpkg-dev     1.18.13
ii  libc6        2.24-5
ii  perl         5.24.1~rc3-3
pn  python3:any  <none>

Versions of packages devscripts recommends:
ii  apt                         1.3.1
ii  at                          3.1.20-1
ii  curl                        7.50.1-1
ii  dctrl-tools                 2.24-2
ii  debian-keyring              2016.09.04
ii  dput                        0.10.3
ii  equivs                      2.0.9+nmu1
ii  fakeroot                    1.21-2
ii  file                        1:5.29-1
ii  gnupg                       2.1.15-4
ii  gnupg2                      2.1.15-4
ii  libdistro-info-perl         0.14
ii  libencode-locale-perl       1.05-1
ii  liblwp-protocol-https-perl  6.06-2
ii  libsoap-lite-perl           1.20-1
ii  liburi-perl                 1.71-1
ii  libwww-perl                 6.15-1
ii  licensecheck                3.0.24-1
ii  lintian                     2.5.49
ii  man-db                      2.7.5-1
ii  patch                       2.7.5-1
ii  patchutils                  0.3.4-2
ii  python3-debian              0.1.29
ii  python3-magic               1:5.29-1
ii  python3-unidiff             0.5.2-1
ii  sensible-utils              0.0.9
ii  strace                      4.13-0.1
ii  unzip                       6.0-20
ii  wdiff                       1.2.2-1+b1
ii  wget                        1.18-4
ii  xz-utils                    5.2.2-1.2

Versions of packages devscripts suggests:
ii  adequate                     0.15.1
pn  autopkgtest                  <none>
pn  bls-standalone               <none>
ii  bsd-mailx [mailx]            8.1.2-0.20160123cvs-3
ii  build-essential              12.2
pn  check-all-the-things         <none>
pn  cvs-buildpackage             <none>
pn  devscripts-el                <none>
ii  diffoscope                   62
ii  disorderfs                   0.5.1-1
pn  dose-extra                   <none>
pn  duck                         <none>
pn  faketime                     <none>
ii  gnuplot                      5.0.5+dfsg1-2
ii  gpgv                         2.1.15-4
pn  how-can-i-help               <none>
ii  libauthen-sasl-perl          2.1600-1
ii  libfile-desktopentry-perl    0.22-1
pn  libnet-smtps-perl            <none>
pn  libterm-size-perl            <none>
ii  libtimedate-perl             2.3000-2
ii  libyaml-syck-perl            1.29-1+b2
ii  mozilla-devscripts           0.47
ii  mutt                         1.7.1-2
ii  openssh-client [ssh-client]  1:7.3p1-1
ii  piuparts                     0.72
ii  quilt                        0.63-5
pn  ratt                         <none>
pn  reprotest                    <none>
ii  s-nail [mailx]               14.8.14-1
pn  svn-buildpackage             <none>
pn  w3m                          <none>

-- no debconf information