[Gnewsense-dev] linux-2.6

[dww]

Sam

I was trying to compare the files in linux-2.6 between parkes and
squeeze to learn more about what is different in that case.

For squeeze I went to
https://packages.debian.org/source/squeeze/linux-2.6
and there were two source files at the bottom of the page.
linux-2.6_2.6.32.orig.tar.gz and linux-2.6_2.6.32-48squeeze4.diff.gz.

The former contained the source files from upstream as usual. However
the latter was the debian directory though in the form of a diff file
rather than the source which seems the usual case for most packages. So
the latter contained content like:

--- linux-2.6-2.6.32.orig/debian/templates/image.plain.bug/include-usb
+++ linux-2.6-2.6.32/debian/templates/image.plain.bug/include-usb
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+add_usb() {
+  echo '** USB devices:' >&3
+  lsusb >&3 2>/dev/null || echo 'not available' >&3
+  echo >&3
+}
+
+ask_usb() {
+  # This information shouldn't vary much between kernel versions, so
+  # include it anyway.
+  test $same_system = nop || add_usb 
+}

Questions:

1. Why did they use the diff file format rather than regular source in a
tar ball?
Wheezy did it in the usual way with files linux_3.2.54.orig.tar.xz and
linux_3.2.54-2.debian.tar.xz
2. Is there a tool (and command line) to convert the diff file to actual
source (debian directory and subdirectories)?

Thanks
Dennis