The source of this package is managed by using a hgpkg managed mercurial repository at https://fortytwo.ch/hg/pkg-zeromq. (hgpkg is currently included in the debian/ directoriy here and not separately packaged, since it's not widely used yet.) Typically, you'd start by: $ wget TODO get upstream tarball $ hg clone https://fortytwo.ch/hg/pkg-zeromq zeromq $ debian/hgpkg build Description: the repository contains an "upstream" and a "default" branch; "upstream" is directly imported from upstream's svn, and the default branch contains the directory as it is to be packed by dpkg-source. So far, the upstream source is unpatched. Upstream is at: http://www.zeromq.org/ Import a new upstream version: $ debian/hgpkg import ( is the upstream tarball to be imported; the upstream version is extracted from the tarball filename. The import will switch to the upstream branch, import, and switch back, and leave the uncommitted merge on the default branch.) -> now examine the merge, correct packaging issues, edit debian/changelog if necessary. $ hg ci -m "new package version" $ debian/hgpkg build -> if the package is good: $ debian/hgpkg markdeb (arguably a mercurial bug: you'll get a merge conflict in .hgtags during upstream import which you'll have to correct manually.)