Shengjing Zhu writes ("Re: Bug#812721: gbp could filter out Files-Excluded:
entries when committing to the pristine-tar branch"):
> Here's my thoughts about the workflow with Files-Excluded.
>
> 1. Upstream git history is imported *as is* in upstream branch. If we
> want to maintain a upstream branch without some files, then we already
> lost/mess up with the upstream history. Then why not use uscan git mode to
> import the tarball, which results a single import commit.
>
> So IMHO, the upstream branch should only contain upstream commits.
> Then question comes to how we create the dfsg orig tarball.
>
> 2. gbp used `git-archive` to generate the tarball, if the repo only
> contains upstream git tree.
If you are using a gitish workflow, I don't think the Files-Excluded
should affect only the .orig. Rather, there should be a
dfsg-laundered git tree or branch too.
For examples of how we-the-dgit-maintainers suggest users do these
things, have a look at these workflow docs:
https://manpages.debian.org/stretch/dgit/dgit-maint-merge.7.en.html#HANDLING_DFSG-NON-FREE_MATERIAL
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/ucgi/~ianmdlvl/git-manpage/dgit.git/dgit-maint-debrebase.7
[search in page for "HANDLING DFSG-NON-FREE MATERIAL"]
> I write a POC patch[1] to gbp to teach `gbp export-orig` to read
> d/copyright and filter out files in Files-Excluded when running
> `git-archive`.
Please don't do this. This workflow is not compatible with dgit.
That means the maintainer who uses that, cannot use dgit.
What I really care about is that this means that users cannot get a
sensible git history for packages done this way.
Ian.
