Re: [bug-patch] Regression in symbolic link handling

[Jean Delvare]

On Wed, 18 Feb 2015 11:57:26 +0000, Tim Waugh wrote:
> On Wed, 2015-02-18 at 12:49 +0100, Jean Delvare wrote:
> [...]
> > rpm-4.12.0.1
> > rpm-4.12.0.1/beecrypt-4.1.2
> > rpm-4.12.0.1/beecrypt -> beecrypt-4.1.2
> > rpm-4.12.0.1/db-4.8.30
> > rpm-4.12.0.1/db -> db-4.8.30
> [...]
> > If we can no longer patch files through symbolic links, that means we
> > have to include the version number in all paths in such patches, and
> > update the patch whenever the version number changes. That would be a
> > maintenance pain as you can imagine, which is why we would like to
> > avoid it.
> 
> Or use -p, like this:
> 
> pushd rpm-$rpm_version/beecrypt-$beecrypt_version
> # apply beecrypt patches
> patch -p2 -i ...
> popd
> 
> pushd rpm-$rpm_version/db-$db_version
> # apply db patches
> patch -p2 -i ...
> popd

I suppose that would work, however we are heavily using quilt to
maintain our packages and with your proposal, "quilt setup" will create
separate patch series for the different subdirectories. This means it
is no longer possible to apply all patches with a single "quilt push
-a". Instead one would have to change directories and repeat the process
several times. Navigating through the patch series would be more
difficult, especially if some patches depend on each other. Also if a
single patch touches several subdirectories (or the main working
directory and one subdirectory) then your trick no longer works.

Your approach would require some changes to the way we work, so this
only qualifies as a workaround IMHO. I'll discuss this with the
maintainer of the rpm package, maybe we can use that temporarily until
the patch utility is fixed to properly handle symbolic links again, but
for the mid term I think we need a real fix.

Thanks,
-- 
Jean Delvare
SUSE L3 Support