Best way to maintain patches to a 3rd party library?

Hello,

I have a source library that I need to periodically import (and then patch)
for use by my code base.

The SVN Book seems to reccomend a "vendor branch" scheme where you keep a
patched branch of the "vendor drops". This would work, except that I loose
any history of the library development. (The vendor also uses SVN and gives
read-only access to their repo.)

The other option seems to be using a pegged svn:external to the vendor's
repo, but then I need to keep my patches separate and apply them to that
folder every time I get a new wc or update the pegged version.

Is there a way to get the best of both worlds? That is, keep access
to the library's
commit history (like an external), but also version/track my patches (like a
vendor drop)?

In other words, is there a way to have a "patched vendor branch" based on an
svn:external repo?

(Have I explained clearly what I'm asking about?)

Thanks
Received on 2011-01-05 00:35:43 CET