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Using quilt in Debian source packages.

General information

documentation

Basic concepts

quilt works with some directories : it creates a .pc/ and a patches/ directory.

Those directories can be created when you do

  • $ quilt import some_package.diff.gz

Using quilt with Debian source packages

Situation: you have downloaded a Debian source package which uses quilt and want to fix a bug and then submit a patch to the maintainers.

Using .quiltrc configuration file

Place a .quiltrc configuration file in your home directory with the following lines.

QUILT_PATCHES=debian/patches
QUILT_NO_DIFF_INDEX=1
QUILT_NO_DIFF_TIMESTAMPS=1
QUILT_REFRESH_ARGS="-p ab"
QUILT_DIFF_ARGS="--color=auto" # If you want some color when using `quilt diff`.
QUILT_PATCH_OPTS="--reject-format=unified"
QUILT_COLORS="diff_hdr=1;32:diff_add=1;34:diff_rem=1;31:diff_hunk=1;33:diff_ctx=35:diff_cctx=33"

Environment variables

Alternatively, you can set environment variables yourself.

Add these lines to your shell's init scripts (~/.bashrc), and restart your shell to apply the changes. Or, run them in your shell before using quilt.

export QUILT_PATCHES=debian/patches
export QUILT_REFRESH_ARGS="-p ab --no-timestamps --no-index"

Encapsulated

To apply quilt options only when inside a Debian source package, you can setup your ~/.quiltrc something like this:

d=. ; while [ ! -d $d/debian -a `readlink -e $d` != / ]; do d=$d/..; done
if [ -d $d/debian ] && [ -z $QUILT_PATCHES ]; then
        # if in Debian packaging tree with unset $QUILT_PATCHES
        QUILT_PATCHES="debian/patches"

        if ! [ -d $d/debian/patches ]; then mkdir $d/debian/patches; fi
fi

Basic quilt tasks

Making a new patch

apt-get source decides whether to apply the patches based on the format of the package.

For some packages, you will have to apply the patches as specified here. For others, they will be automatically applied.

First step: apply existing patches to the source

quilt push -a

to "push" all existing patches onto the source tree (when you build a package, this is done by the build scripts)

Creating a new patch

quilt new myPatch.diff # this is the patch name

adding a file

quilt add README # Where 'README' is the name of the file you want to modify.

You have to do that for all files you modify before you change them.

One quilt patch can change multiple files

Now make changes to the source

Now, make your changes to the files added to the patch: edit it, or replace it with an already modified file stored in a different directory.

Updating a patch with changes made to its files

quilt refresh #you can do this as often as you like

Add description to the header

quilt header -e --dep3 #edits the header in $EDITOR starting with the DEP-3 header template

Finish your editing

quilt pop -a

This un-applies all patches so that the source returns to the downloaded condition

Editing an existing patch

quilt supports multiple patches, but you are only ever change one of them.

This is the patch last pushed.

To edit an existing patch, start by pushing it

quilt push myPatch.diff

Now edit it, and when ready save it

quilt refresh myPatch.diff

Command line completion may save you some typing

Refresh a patch that failed to apply

If the patch failed to apply (usually when updating to a new upstream release) when you quilt push like the example below,

$ quilt push
Applying patch CVE-2018-1000544_part1.patch
patching file lib/zip/entry.rb
Hunk #1 FAILED at 147.
1 out of 1 hunk FAILED -- rejects in file lib/zip/entry.rb
patching file test/data/absolutepath.zip
patching file test/entry_test.rb
Patch CVE-2018-1000544_part1.patch does not apply (enforce with -f)

$ quilt push -f
Applying patch CVE-2018-1000544_part1.patch
patching file lib/zip/entry.rb
Hunk #1 FAILED at 147.
1 out of 1 hunk FAILED -- saving rejects to file lib/zip/entry.rb.rej
patching file test/data/absolutepath.zip
patching file test/entry_test.rb
Applied patch CVE-2018-1000544_part1.patch (forced; needs refresh)

Now you should inspect the *.rej files (lib/zip/entry.rb.rej in this example) and adapt lib/zip/entry.rb to include the desired change.

If the change has been incorporated upstream, you can remove the change from your patch. For example:

$ quilt refresh 
Diff failed on file 'test/data/absolutepath.zip', aborting
# In this case the change to absolutepath.zip has already been performed upstream.

# So let's remove the file from the patch:
$ quilt remove test/data/absolutepath.zip 
File test/data/absolutepath.zip removed from patch CVE-2018-1000544_part1.patch
$ quilt refresh 

Update the header comments of the patch on the top of the stack

quilt header -e

Now that we've saved our changes, remove all patches and return the source to its original state

quilt pop -a

Forwarding Patches to Upstream

Non Debian-specific patches, such as patches for bug fixes and feature enhancements, need to be forwarded upstream: How to forward patches to upstream


CategoryPackaging