Patch installation without version control
Submitted by koko on Fri, 12/07/2007 - 19:01.
Hi,
I would like to use the marine theme in my production-PP-setup. But to achieve this, I need to apply a patch. On this install, I don't have any version control, so I can't apply the patch the normal way. How can I get this done?
The patch was made against the 0.8.x branch of ProjectPier, so you should still be able to apply the patch to the latest release version. You will need to use the command line since things like TortoiseSVN I think require it to be under revision control.
Hoi,
Would it be possible to apply my patch manually?
I guess your question is "what tool can apply a patch without the whole shebang of version control?".
I wondered that too since it seemed to me that not everybody could apply the patches easily (i.e. without installing some kind of version control).
Is there a command line tool that would understand the patch syntax?
Otherwise, to do it manually, I suppose that you could install the patch on a machine that has version control and then copy the patched files to your production installation. That sounds slightly risky but if done correctly, why not?
Tim
I didn't see that the documentation has been updated regarding that exact point:
http://www.projectpier.org/node/390
Sorry about that!
Tim
if you want, i can send you the patched files. just send me your contact info.
How can you apply a patch when your install is on a shared host? Download the install to my Mac, try this command then copy it back to my host and pray it works? That's ridiculous. It's a PHP based install, why post patches at all? Leave them in the CVS and post the changed files so those of us who aren't programmers can just get the files we need so PP will work right?
Sure, I could download my install, try applying the patch, screw it up then waste hours reconfiguring everything? Can't a publicly accessible directory/repository be set up so users can get the most recent .php files and patch the install quickly (after backing up the existing files)?
I'm having the timezone problem (i'm in -5.00 and it's showing my milestone set for 3/7 as due today when it's only 3/6 where I live. I know enough PHP to poke around and make little changes but it isn't clear where the GMT is set so I don't know where to change it on my own. I saw 3 patches posted addressing this issue as .patch files??? Would is be SO hard to post the .php files? I can understand developers dealing in patches but it's too much to ask for users to learn how to deal with applying patches when they just want the timezone to work right.
Thanks,
Aaron
The thing is that patches are not really meant to be used by users at this point. The way I see it, patches are posted in the issue tracker for other people (developers or people ready to use the patch system) to try and test it, if it's fine, it gets committed to the trunk and would later be part of an official release.
I can see your point that you would like to have access to the new patches right away. But if you do, the downside is that you need to get used to the patches.
In the reasons why patches are used, I can see at least these ones:
- it IS a lot easier to post a patch file than to post the corrected php files. If you develop something and correct files here and there, you can create a patch which will include all your modifications. If you want to post the php files, you need to cherrypick what files you modified, put them together, package them. And on the other side, to apply the modified files, it's a pain...
- it's a common tool
- patches allow people to get the modifications somebody has done without erasing what they have already. If I modify line 15 of thisFile.php and you modify line 25 of thisFile.php, the patch allows me to get your modification on top of mine, while the php file would erase my change. For developers, it's pretty important.
Anyway, to sum it up, I think that you don't take into account the fact that the patches are pretty much done by developers for developers at this point. They're not plugins.
Ultimately, if a patch for a bug does fix the bug, it will be integrated in a release for all users.
And if you want to download the trunk before an official release, you can always check out the SVN repository. You'll have the latest php files.
Regards,
Tim