Maybe it is a ridiculous question but I want to know exactly what is an upstream program? here in this documentation and other debian packaging documentation mentioned upstream program.
I want a definition to create upstream from my application.
For example is my web application which is written in java is an upstream?
Think of upstream and downstream as if you're standing in the middle of a river. "Upstream" is where the water flows from, "downstream" is where it flows to.
In very few words, an "upstream" program (or library) is when it is retrieved from the developers, as opposed to "downstream" which means you retrieve it from your distribution of choice - such as Debian. You can package an upstream program to make it available "downstream", which is what the Debian manual entry explains.
Someone explained this even better, here: https://serverfault.com/questions/195952/what-does-upstream-and-downstream-mean and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upstream_%28software_development%29
See the Wikipedia for that query http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upstream_(software_development)
