Extracting changes from Debian sources

[mike808@users.sourceforge.net]

I'm new to the Debian flavor of distros, but I'm really liking my Xandros.
Especially for folks that are looking at Lycoris and Lindows, although
I have not looked at the new Lycoris build 71 yet.

My question is below, but first some background.

I've put stable (woody), testing (sarge), and unstable (sid) entries in my 
/etc/apt/sources.list.

However, I've found a post that documents the following preferences file:
> Package: *
> Pin: release l=Xandros Networks
> Pin-Priority: 991
> 
> Package: *
> Pin: release o=Xandros Corporation
> Pin-Priority: 991
> 
> Package: *
> Pin: release a=stable
> Pin-Priority: 777
> 
> Package: *
> Pin: release a=testing
> Pin-Priority: 444
> 
> Package: *
> Pin: release a=unstable
> Pin-Priority: 333

And I *think* I understand what's happening when I do an
  apt-get upgrade -t testing
It tells apt to upgrade from the testing branch, but the 991 pin-priority
for the Xandros packages will still prevent any Xandros packages from
being overwritten. Effectively, an "upgrade everything *but* stuff Xandros
has hacked on".

What I want to do (and my question) is how do I examine a .deb package
and determine that "release o=" or "release l=" settings for the pin?

In addition, once I have one of these hacked-by-xandros, how can I
download and extract the source .deb to see what their patches are?

I'm pretty sure to get the source, 'apt-get source package-name' is
all I need. How do I find, say, the source package Xandros is using
for 'nedit'?

I can grab the .deb using 'apt-get --reinstall -d install nedit' and
it will pull it down into /var/cache/apt/archives.

Then, 'dpkg-deb -I nedit.deb' will tell me all about it. Is 'release o='
the "Maintainer" from that 'dpkg-deb -I' command? Or is it from the Origin
field from the 'Release' file in the sources?

In this case, I cannot locate Xandros' publication of the sources for
the (I think) modified .deb packaging for nedit. Am I missing something here?
Their package is 'nedit_1:5.2-1.1.xandros2_i386.deb'.

How do I tell if they've modified the package from woody?
If they didn't modify it, why the special naming?

Mike808/

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