Backport wireless-tools

debhelper

This one is as simple as Backport dar, except that there is a missing build dependency from stable: debhelper 5. debhelper was already backported so you just have to install it:

aptitude install debhelper/sarge-backports

Beware though that when using dh_gconf (eg for Gnome packages), there is a bug. What's its status now?

Trick 1: Uploaders

To see your backports in your Debian QA page (eg [1]), add your e-mail in the debian/control files as well:

Uploaders: Sylvain Beucler <beuc@beuc.net>

(source: [2])

Build

Then, the package builds cleanly:

dch -i
debuild -us -uc

Trick 2: changelog entries in .changes

You may want to includes the last 2 changelog entries in his your .changes files (yours + the last upstream one, instead of just yours). This is nice, because you know what improvements you can get just by reading the mail notification:

debuild -us -uc -v27+28pre16-1

Currently you need to manually specify the version, I don't know of an automated way to do so, even though it's shouldn't be hard to do.

Upload

One way to share your backport is to upload it at mentors.debian.net.

dput mentors dar_2.3.0-5~bpo.1_i386.changes

You need to give the -sa option to debuild so it includes the source tarball; otherwise, mentors.debian.net will reject your upload.

kaol also suggested to so a source-only package, since your sponsor will rebuild the package anyway:

debuild -S
dput mentors wireless-tools_28-1~bpo.1_source.changes

For the same reason, there's no issue with uploading an orig.tar.gz file even if there's already one at bpo.