Source Package
A source package contains all the information needed to build a .deb
(BinaryPackage).
There are three components.
- a
<a href="dotdsc.html">.dsc</a>file. This is a text file that describes the source package, and has information such as the ?Section of the package. It also references the other two parts and contains their size and md5sums for checking. - a
.orig.tar.gztarball that is the upstream version of the software. - a
.diff.gzthat is applied to the unpacked.orig.tar.gz. It contains all of the debian specific changes made to the package. This includes all of the meta information in thedebian/directory that tells the tools about the package and how to build it.
For a Native package it is different, there is no .diff.gz file, as
there are no Debian-specific changes, as the whole package is Debian-specific.
Also the tarball is named differently, there is no orig in the name, as it
is not modified.
If you wish someone to work with your package (not just install it) you must
provide them with the source package (all three bits above), rather than a
.deb BinaryPackage. This is because they need to see the source to
understand what is going on. Usually just providing a link to the
.dsc is sufficient, as they provide all the information needed,
and tools like dget can be used to download all the parts.