Patching application sources

treepalm58 · 01-25-2006, 12:30 AM

Hi there,

I am new to Linux. I am trying SuSE Linux 10.0 which I found appealing and easy to install and configure. I have tried some configurations myself and it worked well by learning from the forums. My question is how to patch a source patch file, and when to patch, before make and install or after?

Thanks for any help

gilead · 01-25-2006, 12:48 AM

Applying a patch to a source file is done before make. Since it involves changing the sources so that the final executable behaves differently, it can't be done after the make.

There is a utility called patch that takes a patch file (a partial kernel patch is below) in diff format and applies the changes to your original sources. Have a look at `man patch` for more info.

Here is a simple example that the patch utility will use to remove the line 'EXTRAVERSION = .5' from your original sources and insert the line 'EXTRAVERSION = .6'

Code:

diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index ea6f2f9..8c6fcb0 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 VERSION = 2
 PATCHLEVEL = 6
 SUBLEVEL = 14
-EXTRAVERSION = .5
+EXTRAVERSION = .6
 NAME=Affluent Albatross

 # *DOCUMENTATION*

After patching, you can run `./configure && make && make install` or whatever your particular app needs. Alternatively, you can edit the file by hand with a text editor (vi, etc.) and then `./configure && make && make install`

treepalm58 · 01-25-2006, 01:53 AM

Hi gilead
Thanx for the information. I am asking this because I applied the patch and it worked ok for the patch, but it did not make as expected. Then I applied the make and install before patching and worked. Seems the patch itself has errors. thank you for the information