[[upstream-git]]
=== Upstream git repository

For Debian packaging with the *git-buildpackage* package, the *upstream* branch on the remote repository *origin* is normally used to track the content of the released upstream tarball.

The upstream git repository can also be tracked by naming its remote repository as *upstream* instead of the default *origin*.  Then you can easily cherry-pick recent upstream changes into the Debian revision by cherry-picking with the *gitk* command and using the *gbp-pq* command.

TIP: The ``*gbp import-orig --upstream-vcs-tag*'' command can create a nice packaging history by making a merge commit into the *upstream* branch from the specified tag on the upstream git repository.

CAUTION: The content of the released upstream tarball may not match exactly with the corresponding content of the upstream git repository.  It may contain some auto-generated files or miss some files.  (Autotools, distutils, ...)

