I stumbled across some files with the name *.patch. I then searched the entire GIT tree and found these:
<snip>
Some of the python/perl patches are used by the build system IIRC, however most of the others are cruft. Right away I would remove all of the patches that reside in the main GIT tree (not the packaging tree) under any distro-specific (e.g. "debian/", "ubuntu/", etc.) folders, as they are obviously not needed any more.
Tim