Strategy for tracking 3rd party source.

[jbi130]

I need to track some 3rd party source code, in this case the Linux
kernel and then manage our local modifications to the kernel (don't
worry, GPL is being respected).  I've run into an issue where an
import updates files on the HEAD and I'm not sure if I want this to
happen.

For example, I import a kernel with the vendor tag of KERNEL_ORG and a
release tag of LINUX_2_6_12.  I add my local changes and commit them.
All is well.

There are 2 projects that pull the HEAD from this module into their
projects, this works pretty well.  The problem arises when I import a
new version of the kernel, say LINUX_2_6_13.  Its possible that it
could be a while (couple of days) before HEAD is working again - not
an ideal situation for the projects that depend on this module.

What I am thinking of doing is reserving HEAD for the 3rd party source
and then making a branch, MYBRANCH.  The other projects can then pull
from MYBRANCH (our internal HEAD so to speak), I can then do the
import, merge the changes into MYBRANCH and commit the working code
into MYBRANCH after its working.  That way MYBRANCH is always usable.

Is this a reasonable approach?  Is there a better way?

Thanks for any comments/suggestions/insight..

-- Jason