Issue with keeping debian subdir within the package itself is that it's totally useless unless maintained. When a new release is issued just tagging the code won't be enough anymore because debian changelog expect to be updated with the release version. So tagging vdsm-4.17.14 without having 4.17.14 in the changelog will cause the package to fail the build (while rpm just issue a error in rpmlint... )
having a separate repo decouple the distribution packaging from the package itself and make it easier to handle at release time.
While I have very little stake in this, I have to say that looking at this from the side, it looks strange that RPM is supported as a primary build target for all projects while DEB needs a separate repo. Maybe the build scripts should be made smarter and work around Debians limitations (For example let the makefile dynamically generate the changelog form the tags)? -- Barak Korren bkorren@redhat.com RHEV-CI Team