Patch systems for Debian source packages

This page stemmed from the following discussion on debian-devel in January 2008: <alpine.DEB.1.00.0801250818360.5187@wr-linux02>.

Note: The patch format itself is now a formal DEP, DEP-3: Patch Tagging Guidelines.

Supported and obsolete patch systems

Patch system	Status	Location of the patches	How to deactivate a patch	Accepts `diff -u` output	Advantage
3.0 (quilt)	supported since dpkg 1.14.17	`debian/patches` in .debian.tar.gz file	Rename to include a non-word non-hyphen character	Yes	Native to dpkg as 3.0 (quilt) format
quilt	supported	`debian/patches`	Remove its name from `debian/patches/series`	Yes	Suitable for generating patches on any size codebase. Advanced VCS-like features.
cdbs simple-patchsys	obsolete	`debian/patches`	Remove its `.diff` or `.patch` suffix	Yes	Simple
2.0 a.k.a. wig&pen	obsolete (use 3.0 quilt)	`debian/patches` in .debian.tar.gz file	Rename to include a non-word non-hyphen character	Yes	Native to dpkg as 2.0 format
dpatch	obsolete	`debian/patches`	Remove its name from `debian/patches/00list`	Header needs to be added	Can do scripting
dbs	obsolete	`debian/patches`	Remove it from the directory	Yes	Patches applied in ASCIIbetical order, no series file. Tarball-in-tarball (if you're in to that).

FixMe: rename page to DebianPatches? The address "debian/*" seems not to fit the wiki hierarchy.