[Nix-dev] Keeping nixpkgs up to date

[Michael Raskin]

>A program that takes v1.deb and v2.deb can output the list of patches added
>and removed, as well as whether the meta-data for the package (scripts/* ?)
>was changed.

This means that we switch to debian releases as our upstream?

>For both of these packages it is fairly easy to generate a fully patched
>source directory which can be diffed.  Alternatively the patches are also
>kept in a structured manner and can be extracted.

The patches monitor needs are patchs to the Nix expressions to fetch
fresher tarball.

>I can see a need for adding a bit more meta-data into nixpkgs when
>"upstream" is no longer the author of the software, but "upstream" is a
>collection of distributions as well.  For example, the latest .deb or .rpm
>that has been "processed" or "consumed" so that only new patches relative
>to those bases should be considered by the monitor.

I doubt that switching between Debian patched versions and Fedora 
patched versions at random moments is a good idea. For various reasons…