Patch Howto

The purpose of this document is to show you what a patch is and how you can create, apply, download, and submit a patch.

Contents

> 1. Terms
> 2. Applying a patch
> 3. Creating and submitting a patch
> 4. Downloading a patch

Terms

> The following are some common terms used in this document:

> Patch

>   A patch is an update to the sourcecode of a program (here Eggdrop). Be careful, every patch is designed for a special Eggdrop version and cannot be applied on every bot!

Applying a patch

To apply a patch to an Eggdrop, you have to first obtain the Eggdrop source code. You should always keep a tar.gz archive with the source of your current Eggdrop on your shell. In the next step, you have to change to your source directory (i.e.: /home/user/eggdrop1.6.18/) and type the following command:

> patch -p1 < ../path.to.the/patch

Once this is complete, execute the following command:

> find . -name "*.rej" -print

If it returns a list with filenames ending with .rej extension, then the patch didn't apply properly. Ensure that the patch is intended for your version and that you have the original source. You should also try to re-download the patch to ensure that the patch is not corrupted.

If you get an error such as this:

>     |Index: Makefile.in
>     |===================================================================
>     |RCS file: /usr/local/cvsroot/eggdrop1.6/Makefile.in,v
>     |retrieving revision 1.38
>     |diff -u -r1.38 Makefile.in
>     |--- Makefile.in	17 Jun 2004 05:43:28 -0000	1.38
>     |+++ Makefile.in	23 Jul 2004 21:58:23 -0000
>     --------------------------
>     File to patch:

Then you should try using a different '-p' option. Try -p0 first, and then -p2, -p3, etc.

If the patch applied properly, the only thing left to do is to recompile your Eggdrop and install the new modules and binaries.

Creating and submitting a patch

If you fixed a bug and/or changed something in Eggdrop's source code, it would be really nice to let the dev team know about it, so we can possibly apply it to next release of Eggdrop.

There are several steps to submit a patch to the eggdev team:

> 1. Create a directory with original source tree and one with modified source tree.

> 2. Run the following:

>    >     diff -urN eggdrop1.6.original eggdrop1.6.modified > patchname.patch

>    DO NOT add any other diff options.

> 3. Send an e-mail to patches@eggheads.org with the patch attached. The body should contain a detailed description of what you changed and why you changed it. Don't forget to include the Eggdrop version for which your patch was created.

>    It helps if you include the major release number that the patch is for in the subject line. For the 1.6.x series, the subject line should look like this:

>    > PATCH1.6: my-patch-filename.patch

>    You should also include the nick/handle/name you would like to be used in the UPDATES1.6 file (if applicable).

> Never modify src/patch.h or one of the UPDATES files. We will do it. If your patch includes changes related to autotools (./configure, etc), do NOT run autoconf, autoheader, etc; we will do this as well.

> Also, please don't add credit lines all over the source when patching. Patch contributors will receive credit in UPDATES1.6 and ChangeLog.

> CVS diff's are also perfectly fine (and actually, prefered, as the patch will be against the most current version of Eggdrop). To create a CVS diff, simply make the changes in your currently checked-out copy of the Eggdrop source, and then run:

> >     cvs diff -R -uN > patchname.patch

Downloading a patch

Many patches for eggdrop1.6.x can be found at the following location:

> ftp://ftp.eggheads.org/pub/eggdrop/patches/1.6/

Copyright © 1997 Robey Pointer
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