Re: [CentOS] rpm - diff and patch updating
- Original Message > From: R P Herrold > To: CentOS mailing list > Sent: Tue, June 15, 2010 4:14:03 PM > Subject: [CentOS] rpm - diff and patch updating > > On Tue, 15 Jun 2010, Frank Cox wrote: > I just found the slickest tool > to compare files. > > meld > > "yum install meld" will > get it for you from the epel repository. I did not know that Mr. Spock > had brought that back from Vulcan; next think you know the secret of the > nerve pinch will be revealed > ;) huh, am i seeing things correctly! Russ has a sense of humor? have to put that in my log books, :-D ___ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
Re: [CentOS] rpm - diff and patch updating
On Tue, 2010-06-15 at 12:17 -0400, R P Herrold wrote: > The point is to see where changes are happening, and to be > able to cherry pick in a migration toward the latest [but > being able to spot the deltas from the prior version], which, > as I understood it, was your goal I just found the slickest tool to compare files. meld "yum install meld" will get it for you from the epel repository. It even does 3-way compares, which is just exactly what I need for this project. -- MELVILLE THEATRE ~ Melville Sask ~ http://www.melvilletheatre.com ___ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
Re: [CentOS] rpm - diff and patch updating
On Tue, 2010-06-15 at 13:06 -0400, Todd Denniston wrote: > Where did the original SRPM come from? rpmfusion. > What was it of/for? vice-2.1-3.src.rpm > Does the original source repository/group exist anymore? > ... someone else may have already been here with the product you are > looking at. I emailed Hans to ask if he was planning to update to version 2.2 and he replied that he's a bit short of time. So I have decided to take a stab at it myself and see what develops. > Does the person who is building the new SRPM That would be me. > understand _why_ the old patches were created, i.e., > what did it fix? That's part of what I'm working on figuring out. > Does the person who is building the new SRPM understand in each patch > case that either _what_ the > patch 'fixed' has not been fixed in the upstream, or was fixed but not > in the same way, i.e., > contact upstream and ask if the reasons for the patches has gone away > so you don't need to patch for > it anymore? Most of the patches seem to have been there for quite some period of time. I initially tried creating and compiling a srpm/rpm that didn't include the patches to see what would happen. It compiled and installed, but didn't actually work. Therefore, at least some of the patches are still required. > Would the upstream be interested in integrating the patches, or > similar functionality changes, for you? > Would the upstream be interested in integrating the spec file for you? That I don't know, but once it's whipped into shape I could ask them, I suppose. -- MELVILLE THEATRE ~ Melville Sask ~ http://www.melvilletheatre.com ___ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
Re: [CentOS] rpm - diff and patch updating
Frank Cox wrote, On 06/15/2010 11:51 AM: > On Tue, 2010-06-15 at 02:44 -0700, John Doe wrote: >> I am afraid patch is not able to auto-magicaly adapt an old patch to a >> heavily modified file... > > That's what I was afraid of. I was hoping, however, that there might be > some way to verify that everything in the patch has now been done in the > new version. My best idea on that score is to inspect the contents of > the old diff and the new diff to make sure that they are the same length > and refer to the same stuff. > > I guess I'll just have to bite the bullet and rewrite some parts of this > thing manually to match the old patch files. My major concern is that > I'll get lost in the woods and miss something; hopefully comparing the > old patch files to a new diff will allow me to check that. > Frank, Some questions that you should probably think about for yourself, and might help those of us on the list help some more. Where did the original SRPM come from? What was it of/for? Does the original source repository/group exist anymore? ... someone else may have already been here with the product you are looking at. Does the person who is building the new SRPM understand _why_ the old patches were created, i.e., what did it fix? Does the person who is building the new SRPM understand in each patch case that either _what_ the patch 'fixed' has not been fixed in the upstream, or was fixed but not in the same way, i.e., contact upstream and ask if the reasons for the patches has gone away so you don't need to patch for it anymore? Would the upstream be interested in integrating the patches, or similar functionality changes, for you? Would the upstream be interested in integrating the spec file for you? -- Todd Denniston Crane Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC Crane) Harnessing the Power of Technology for the Warfighter ___ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
Re: [CentOS] rpm - diff and patch updating
On Tue, 2010-06-15 at 12:17 -0400, R P Herrold wrote: > The point is to see where changes are happening, and to be > able to cherry pick in a migration toward the latest [but > being able to spot the deltas from the prior version], which, > as I understood it, was your goal I can see that. However, I think 95% of the resulting diff would be irrelevant to what I'm trying to do, and it would become even easier to get lost in the weeds... > I did not suggest applying that resulting diff, as a patch > without review, but rather as a means to get visibility as to > what changes were being 'upstreamed' The current patch files number about a half-dozen of varying sizes. They seem to be arranged by functionality, i.e. patch 1 modifies the location of the data directories, patch 2 modifies the variable names in in parts of the screen handling, and so on. A single monolithic diff of the entire tree would lose this functional separation of the patches, and it would be a lot more maintainable and understandable into the future if I could retain that instead. -- MELVILLE THEATRE ~ Melville Sask ~ http://www.melvilletheatre.com ___ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
Re: [CentOS] rpm - diff and patch updating
On Tue, 2010-06-15 at 08:55 -0400, R P Herrold wrote: > > First, am I going about this the right way? > > no -- Usually one unrolls the old tree, applies the patches to > the old; and then unrolls the new in a directory 'next to' the > first, and diffs from a point above the top of each What would that gain me? Following this procedure would get me a big diff showing the differences between the old (patched) version and the new (unpatched) version. But that would contain a list of all of the stuff in the new version which probably doesn't need to be changed, and revert the patches from the previous patched version. In other words, unless I'm looking at this backward somehow, I don't see the point. > This produces a new patch set, which may already have some of > what the older patches formerly needed to do (or a wholly > different approach, when two forks diverge) It would also revert the old patch set, wouldn't it? > > And if so, is there a way > > to automate the process as described in the previous paragraph? > > Early automation of a partially understood technology > seems like a premature optimization ;) Ah but having the computer tell me that I forgot to include the change made to line X in the old patch in my newly rewritten file would be a lot easier (and probably more reliable) than the Mark I Eyeball method. -- MELVILLE THEATRE ~ Melville Sask ~ http://www.melvilletheatre.com ___ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
Re: [CentOS] rpm - diff and patch updating
On Tue, 2010-06-15 at 02:44 -0700, John Doe wrote: > I am afraid patch is not able to auto-magicaly adapt an old patch to a > heavily modified file... That's what I was afraid of. I was hoping, however, that there might be some way to verify that everything in the patch has now been done in the new version. My best idea on that score is to inspect the contents of the old diff and the new diff to make sure that they are the same length and refer to the same stuff. > Did your manual experimentation involved any "fuzzy logic", pattern > recognition > or code interpretation...? I didn't think so, but perhaps my idea of "fuzzy" is different than the computer's. It's simply a matter of finding a reference to dancing zebras and changing it to waltzing giraffes. In the one patch that I have re-created so far, the two lines that need to be changed appeared to be the same in both the old and new version of the program, but their positions in the file are different -- the change is now on line 165 instead of line 142 and so on. > Maybe check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patch_(Unix)#Advanced_diffs The original patch files appear to already be unified diffs. I guess I'll just have to bite the bullet and rewrite some parts of this thing manually to match the old patch files. My major concern is that I'll get lost in the woods and miss something; hopefully comparing the old patch files to a new diff will allow me to check that. -- MELVILLE THEATRE ~ Melville Sask ~ http://www.melvilletheatre.com ___ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
Re: [CentOS] rpm - diff and patch updating
Frank Cox wrote: > I am attempting to create a rpm of the latest version of a program. The > rpm for the previous version contains a number of patch files that make > numerous changes various files in the tar.gz as downloaded from the > project's website so it will work properly on Linux. > > The latest version of the program has changed enough stuff that some of > the patches now fail to apply. "1 out of 1 hunk FAILED" and so on. > Upon comparing the previous version's files to the latest version, I see > that the problem is that some of the files that need to be patched have > had some stuff moved around a bit, just enough to (apparently) cause > patch to fail. > > By way of experimentation, I manually changed one of the files in the > new version to match what the patch says it should be, then created a > new patch file from that and it applies and appears to work fine. (I > patched the previous version's file, compared the result to the original > and made the same change in the new version's file.) > > This method seems to work fine when the change is only one or two lines, > but some of the patches are somewhat more involved than that. > > It seems to me that there may be an automated way to handle this matter > by somehow patching a into b, then compare a and b and make > corresponding changes in c. Basically the same process that I just > tried manually on a small patch file, without all of the labour and > chance of a screw-up that would be involved in manually comparing the > old files and rewriting the new file. > > I have two questions: > > First, am I going about this the right way? And if so, is there a way > to automate the process as described in the previous paragraph? > > Second, what is the proper convention for handling this in a rpm? The > obvious solution seems to be to create new patch files and throw the old > ones away, then build the rpm from that. Some of these patches appear > to go back several versions, though, so is there a better or more proper > way to handle this than just throwing them out and making a whole new > set of patches? > > I have learned a lot more about patch and diff tonight than I ever > needed to know before. Very cool stuff, and very useful. You probably can't automate this - but note that many of the patches included in RHEL/CentOS RPMs are to backport fixes from newer versions of the code without bringing in new/different features. So, if you start with newer base code you may not need many/most of the patches at all. -- Les Mikesell lesmikes...@gmail.com ___ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
Re: [CentOS] rpm - diff and patch updating
From: Frank Cox > ... some of the files that need to be patched have > had some stuff moved around a bit, just enough > to (apparently) cause patch to fail... > ... By way of experimentation, I manually changed one of the files > ... is there a way to automate the process... I am afraid patch is not able to auto-magicaly adapt an old patch to a heavily modified file... Did your manual experimentation involved any "fuzzy logic", pattern recognition or code interpretation...? Maybe check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patch_(Unix)#Advanced_diffs JD ___ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
