ubuntu-packaging-guide-team team mailing list archive

[Andrew Starr-Bochicchio <a.starr.b@xxxxxxxxx>]

Andrew Starr-Bochicchio has proposed merging lp:~andrewsomething/ubuntu-packaging-guide/patches-cleanup into lp:ubuntu-packaging-guide.

Requested reviews:
  Ubuntu Packaging Guide Team (ubuntu-packaging-guide-team)
Related bugs:
  Bug #973884 in Ubuntu Packaging Guide: "What's the relationship between patches-to-packages and udd-patchsys?"
  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-packaging-guide/+bug/973884
  Bug #973887 in Ubuntu Packaging Guide: "patches-to-packages refers/links to non existing loom information"
  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-packaging-guide/+bug/973887
  Bug #1030824 in Ubuntu Packaging Guide: "what does "a/:b/" stand for?"
  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-packaging-guide/+bug/1030824

For more details, see:
https://code.launchpad.net/~andrewsomething/ubuntu-packaging-guide/patches-cleanup/+merge/135286

Tweaks patches-to-packages a little bit and drops udd-patchsys completely.
-- 
https://code.launchpad.net/~andrewsomething/ubuntu-packaging-guide/patches-cleanup/+merge/135286
Your team Ubuntu Packaging Guide Team is requested to review the proposed merge of lp:~andrewsomething/ubuntu-packaging-guide/patches-cleanup into lp:ubuntu-packaging-guide.

=== modified file 'debian/changelog'
--- debian/changelog	2012-11-11 09:53:29 +0000
+++ debian/changelog	2012-11-21 00:21:21 +0000
@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@
    - Modify LANGS variable in Makefile when a language reaches
      threshold (LP: #1067288).
    - Clean up to make PEP8 compliant.
+  * Drop udd-patchsys article. The patches-to-packages article
+    is the recommended workflow (LP: #973884).  
   
   [ Dmitry Shachnev ]
   * Fix search not working (LP: #814679).

=== modified file 'ubuntu-packaging-guide/patches-to-packages.rst'
--- ubuntu-packaging-guide/patches-to-packages.rst	2012-10-19 09:44:44 +0000
+++ ubuntu-packaging-guide/patches-to-packages.rst	2012-11-21 00:21:21 +0000
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
 changes as separate patches, in the form of diff files.
 
 There are a number of different ways of handling patches in Debian packages,
-fortunately we are standardising on one system, `Quilt`_, which is now used by
+fortunately we are standardizing on one system, `Quilt`_, which is now used by
 most packages.
 
 Let's look at an example package, ``kamoso`` in Natty::
@@ -164,20 +164,20 @@
 
 Other patch systems used by packages include ``dpatch`` and ``cdbs
 simple-patchsys``, these work similarly to Quilt by keeping patches in
-debian/patches but have different commands to apply, un-apply or create patches.
-You can use ``edit-patch``, shown in previous chapters, as a reliable way to
-work with all systems.
+``debian/patches`` but have different commands to apply, un-apply or create
+patches. You can find out which patch system is used by a package by using the
+``what-patch`` command (from the ``ubuntu-dev-tools`` package). You can use
+``edit-patch``, shown in `previous chapters`_, as a reliable way to work with
+all systems.
 
 In even older packages changes will be included directly to sources and kept
 in the ``diff.gz`` source file.  This makes it hard to upgrade to new upstream
 versions or differentiate between patches and is best avoided.
 
-Bazaar Loom is a way to keep patches as part of bzr trees, see :doc:`Working
-with Patches via Loom<./udd-patchsys>` for more information.
-
 Do not change a package's patch system without discussing it with the Debian
 maintainer or relevant Ubuntu team.  If there is no existing patch system then
 feel free to add Quilt.
 
 .. _`Quilt`: http://wiki.debian.org/UsingQuilt
 .. _`bug 815854`: https://bugs.launchpad.net/bzr-builddeb/+bug/815854
+.. _`previous chapters`: ./fixing-a-bug.html#work-on-a-fix

=== removed file 'ubuntu-packaging-guide/udd-patchsys.rst'
--- ubuntu-packaging-guide/udd-patchsys.rst	2012-03-20 22:02:49 +0000
+++ ubuntu-packaging-guide/udd-patchsys.rst	1970-01-01 00:00:00 +0000
@@ -1,179 +0,0 @@
-======================
- Working with Patches
-======================
-
-Many existing packages that have changes from upstream express those changes
-using a patch system, of which there are several to choose from.  Usually,
-when you make an additional change to a package, you'll want to add a patch
-file to the patch system being used, rather than editing the source code in
-place.  Note however that it is considered bad practice to add a patch system
-to a package that does not already have one.  In that case, either coordinate
-with the Debian maintainer, or edit the files in place.  You can find out if
-your package has a patch system by using the ``what-patch`` command (from the
-``ubuntu-dev-tools`` package).
-
-While Debian has several patch systems, Quilt_ is becoming the most popular.
-Quilt acts something like a version control system itself, and in the context
-of UDD, this can be both a good thing and a bad thing.  With Bazaar 2.5 and
-``bzr-builddeb`` 2.8.1 (in Ubuntu 12.04 Precise), handling source packages
-with quilt patches has become much easier.
-
-There are two main tasks where you'll have to be aware of quilt patches, when
-developing your own patch to the upstream code, and when merging new versions
-of the package from Debian where either the Debian or Ubuntu (or both) have
-quilt patches in the source branch.
-
-Here are some guidelines for working with quilt patches in UDD in these two
-scenarios.  Some of these techniques are works-in-progress, so you should
-adapt them to your own workflow, and keep watching for improvements from the
-Bazaar teams.
-
-
-Patches are applied in source branches
-======================================
-
-One important thing to keep in mind: all source branches reflect the tree
-after a ``quilt push -a``.  In other words, when you branch a source branch
-from Launchpad, you get the tree with all patches applied, ready for you to
-jump right into hacking.  You do not need to ``quilt push -a`` manually, and
-in fact, you'll get a tree with lots of distracting modifications if you push
-or pop all the changes.  Or to put it another way, once you have a branch,
-jump right in!
-
-
-Merging from Debian with quilt patches
-======================================
-
-With newer versions of Bazaar as mentioned above, merging new Debian versions
-to Ubuntu versions should be quite easy now, even when one or both packages
-have quilt patches.  Just use ``bzr merge`` as you normally would.  Under the
-hood, Bazaar will first un-apply all the patches, then do the merge, then if
-there are no conflicts, it will re-apply the patches leaving you again with a
-source branch in the ``quilt push -a`` state.
-
-For example, if we want to merge the Debian version of the ``aptitude``
-package with the Ubuntu version, we would do something like this::
-
-    $ bzr init-repo aptitude
-    $ cd aptitude
-    $ bzr branch ubuntu:aptitude precise
-    $ bzr branch debianlp:aptitude wheezy
-    $ cd precise
-    $ bzr merge ../wheezy
-
-If there are merge conflicts, the quilt patches will remain un-applied so that
-you can resolve the conflicts more easily.  You would use a combination of bzr
-and quilt commands to resolve the conflicts, until all the quilt patches are
-applied again.  Then you're ready to commit, push, and build as you normally
-would.
-
-
-Develop your patch
-==================
-
-There is a strong preference to fixing packages using a patch system like
-quilt, rather than modifying the source code directly.  This is because with a
-patch system, it's easier to communicate those changes to Debian or upstream
-(where UDD isn't used), and to remove patches when upstream fixes the bug the
-patch addresses (possibly in a completely different way).
-
-Let's say there's a bug in the ``dbus`` package that you want to fix.  You
-start the way you normally would with any package in UDD::
-
-    $ bzr init-repo dbus
-    $ cd dbus
-    $ bzr branch ubuntu:dbus precise
-    $ bzr branch precise bug-12345
-    $ cd bug-12345
-
-Maybe the bug is pretty simple; there's a typo in the ``README`` file.  Just
-fix the typo in your favorite editor, then do a ``bzr stat`` to prove that the
-file has been edited::
-
-    $ bzr stat
-    modified:
-      README
-
-Now, in order to get this fix into a quilt patch, we need to generate a diff,
-but we need the resulting patch to have a format that is consumable by quilt.
-The way to do that is to use the ``--prefix`` (or ``-p``) option to ``bzr
-diff``::
-
-    $ bzr diff -p "a/:b/" > ../bug-12345.patch
-
-What this actually does is to produce a *level 1* diff, which is required by
-the quilt command we're going to use below.  Normally, ``bzr diff`` produces
-*level 0* diffs which are more easily read by humans, but this won't work with
-quilt (despite the implication in the quilt documentation).
-
-The above command generates the patch and stores it in a file one level up
-from the working tree.  Note that here we're using the ``a`` and ``b``
-directory prefixes for the diff, but the actual names don't really matter.
-
-Now all you need to do is to import the patch into your quilt patches.  If you
-named the file above with the same name you want into your quilt stack, then
-just do this::
-
-    $ quilt import ../bug-12345.patch
-    $ bzr add debian/patches/bug-12345.patch
-
-You need the last line to inform Bazaar about the new quilt patch file.  You
-can see that the quilt patch's name is the same as the file name you generated
-above.  Of course, you can change this by using the ``-P`` option to ``quilt
-import``.
-
-One important thing to notice is that if you do the commands ``bzr stat`` and
-a ``quilt applied`` , you'll see that the ``README`` file is still modified,
-but the ``bug-12345.patch`` is not yet applied.  If you try to apply the newly
-imported quilt patch (with ``quilt push``), it will fail because you're
-applying a patch on top of the already patched file.
-
-One way around this is to revert the change to ``README`` before doing the
-``quilt push``.  However, if you think you may want to continue to develop the
-patch, and thus do not want to throw away your in-tree changes, use ``bzr
-shelve`` to save the change in the working tree to the side, then do ``quilt
-push``.  Either way, once you've pushed your top quilt patch, you can just
-edit the tree in place, and do ``quilt refresh`` commands to update the top
-quilt patch.
-
-
-Gotchas
-=======
-
-One thing to keep in mind is that quilt uses a hidden ``.pc`` directory to
-record its status.  This directory is under version control in all source
-branches.  *Watch out* for changes to the ``.pc`` directory that are unrelated
-(or more accurately, uninteresting) to your patch.  This can happen because
-the UDD source branch importer `currently includes any existing .pc
-directory`_ in the imported branch.  This can cause conflicts, or other
-unwanted or unknown changes because you've essentially got two conflicting
-version control systems competing for the same thing (i.e. bzr and quilt).
-For now, the best recommendation is to revert any changes to the ``.pc``
-directory in your branch.
-
-
-edit-patch
-==========
-
-``edit-patch`` is a nice little wrapper script that comes as part of the
-``ubuntu-dev-tools`` package.  It pretty much hides the nasty details of
-dealing with the patch system specifically.  For example, while the above
-works well if your package is using quilt already, you'll have to adjust the
-workflow, perhaps significantly, to work with `a different patch system`_.  In
-theory ``edit-patch`` should solve this, but there are currently two blockers.
-
-  * By default, ``bzr diff`` produces a ``-p0`` patch, but ``edit-patch``
-    defers to the underlying patch system's default.  For quilt, this is
-    ``-p1``.  ``quilt import`` takes a ``-p`` argument to specify the prefix
-    level, but this isn't yet exposed in ``edit-patch``.  If you use the
-    ``--prefix`` argument to the ``bzr diff`` command as shown above, you
-    should be okay.
-  * By default, ``edit-patch`` requires a path to an existing patch file, but
-    it's more convenient to pipe the output of ``bzr diff`` to the stdin of
-    ``edit-patch``, as shown above.  The alternative would be to save the diff
-    in a temporary file, and then point ``edit-patch`` to this temporary file.
-
-
-.. _quilt: http://www.wzdftpd.net/blog/index.php?2008/02/05/3-quilt-a-patch-management-system-how-to-survive-with-many-patches
-.. _`currently includes any existing .pc directory`: https://bugs.launchpad.net/udd/+bug/672740
-.. _`a different patch system`: http://wiki.debian.org/debian/patches