Given the recent discussions on
planet.debian.org I use the opportunity to describe how you can handle upstream history in a
git-dpm workflow.
One of the primary points of git-dpm is that you should be able to just check out the Debian branch, get the
.orig.tar file(s) (for example using pristine-tar, by
git-dpm prepare or by just downloading them) and then calling
dpkg-buildpackage.
Thus the contents of the Debian branch need to be clean from
dpkg-source's point of view, that is do not contain any files the
.orig.tar file(s) contains not nor any modified files.
The easy way
The easiest way to get there is by importing the upstream tarball(s) as a git commit, which one will usually do with
git-dpm import-new-upstream as that also does some of the bookkeeping.
This new git commit will have (by default) the previous upstream commit and any parent you give with
-p as parents. (i.e. with
-p it will be a merge commit) and its content will be the contents of the tarball (with multiple
orig files, it gets more complicated).
The idea is of course that you give the upstream tag/commit belonging to this release tarball with
-p so that it becomes part of your history and so git blame can find those commits.
Thus you get a commit with the exact orig contents (so pristine-tar can more easily create small deltas) and the history combined..
Sometimes there are files in the upstream tarball that you do not want to have in your Debian branch (as you remove them in
debian/rules clean), then when using this method you will have those files in the upstream branch but you delete them in the Debian branch. (This is why
git-dpm merge-patched (the operation to merge a new branch with upstream + patches with your previous
debian/ directory) will look which files relative to the previous upstream branch are deleted and delete them also in the newly merged branch by default).
The complicated way
There is only a way without importing the
.orig.tar file(s), though that is a bit more complicated: The idea is that if your upstream's git repository contains all the files needed for building your Debian package (for example if you call
autoreconf in your Debian package and clean all the generated files in the clean target, or if upstream has a less sophisticated release process and their .tar contains only stuff from the git repository), you can just use the upstream git commit as base for your Debian branch.
Thus you can make upstream's commit/tag your upstream branch, by recording it with
git-dpm new-upstream together with the
.orig.tar it belongs to (Be careful, git-dpm does not check if that branch contains any files different than your
.orig.tar and could not decide if it misses any files you need to build even if it tried to tell).
Once that is merged with the
debian/ directory to create the Debian branch, you run
dpkg-buildpackage, which will call
dpkg-source which compares your working directory with the contents of the
.orig.tar with the patches applied. As it will only see files not there but no files modified or added (if everything was done correctly), one can work directly in the git checkout without needing to import the
.orig.tar files at all (altough the pristine-tar deltas might get a bit bigger).
Ben Goldacre (Bad Science), is running a campaign for all medical trials to be published.
It seems that best current evidence indicates that about half of the trials for treatments currently in use remain unpublished.
That's pretty astounding when you think about it. Given that many of the trials that are published only compare new treatments against placebo, rather than against the best available existing treatment, and often barely show them as being more effective than homeopathy^Wsugar, one has to wonder how dire were the results that are not being published.
If you prefer to have science done in the open, then I'd encourage you to visit www.alltrials.net and sign the petition and/or give them a donation.
The fix is pretty straight-forward: Simply insist that clinical trials have to register before they start in order to be considered valid, and that all registered trials have to report their results. It need not be expensive to do -- a git repo. shared across the industry, containing a file for each trial in a standard format would do the trick probably. I imagine they'll come up with a more expensive solution, but in comparison to the cost of running a decent sized trial, it'll still be pocket change.
(A note from the campaign, sent to existing petition signatories, is what prompted this blog post -- please read it and be inspired to help)
(See 
Antonia came into the room. Where's Alieta? she asked.
We don't know, replied Luda. It was true; we hadn't seen Alieta
in quite some time, and we had no idea where she was.
Antonia left. Varvara eyed me mischievously and said, You could
call her.
How? I asked.
Touch the grandmother clock and you will figure it out.
I touched the clock trepidly. Nothing happened. I opened my mouth
to speak, but the word I had been about to say resonated in my mind
as if spoken through a comb filter. I concentrated. Alieta,
dozens of human-like voices sang over and over in different
harmonies. I let go.
What was that? I demanded.
Clock, Varvara said dismissively.
Come on, let's do laundry, Luda grunted.
We carried our laundry out to the garage, which is where the washer
and dryer lived. Alieta slipped in through one of the open garage
doors, and surreptitiously pulled Varvara over for a whispered
conversation.
Antonia wandered in and squinted in Alieta's general direction.
Luda quickly pulled Varvara in front of her. It's just Varvara,
she announced.
Antonia's eyes glazed over and she went back into the house.
Alieta pursed her lips and studied the wall as if there
might be some reflective object that had alerted her mother
to her presence. Then she grabbed Varvara by the hand, pulled
her over to push the buttons that closed the garage doors,
and dragged her into the house.
I watched the garage doors close. Then I watched the one on
the left reverse direction. I opened my mouth to notify someone
of this, but the doors reversed direction again, and proceeded
to partially open and close as if possessed. I tried to hide
behind Luda, without success.
Now she was watching as well, as reality seemed to to shimmer
and bend. The roof became arched, and there were loud mechanical
noises as our environs transformed. When it finished, the
place where the garage doors had been was now a wall of screens
displaying video as you might encounter in a television store.
More disconcertingly, we were in front of a railing which
overlooked what appeared to be a car dealership showroom.
Luda sucked in her breath. Benjamin Snow, you were into
some serious shit, she muttered.
I ve given a 
The jet lag, the lack of sleep, and the general pace of the week has caught
up with me. I'm feeling decidedly run down today.
Leah volunteered to drive me around a bit today, and it was great to catch
up with her. I decided to check out a white 2004 Forester that I'd found on
Recently, I've been using 
PostgreSQL just released 
Seeing what has been posted recently in planet.d.o, I would like to share as well my thoughts and work-flow, and tell that I do agree with Joey Hess on many of his arguments. Especially when he tells that Debian fetishises upstream tarballs. We re in 2013, at the age of Internet, and more and more upstream authors are using Git, and more and more they don t care about releasing tarballs. I ve seen some upstream authors who simply stopped doing so completely, as a Git tag is really enough. I also fully agree than disk space and network speed isn t much of a problem these days.
When there are tags available, I use the following debian/gbp.conf: