Fixing source-code bugs using MacPorts facilities.

[Ian Wadham]

Thanks very much for your help, Ken.

> On 26 Jul 2020, at 3:31 am, Ken Cunningham <ken.cunningham.webuse at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Here is my process (courtesy of advice from many others on this list including Chris and Michael and others). And this is not yet ideal, as no doubt it could be further improved. This is for anything beyond trivial one-tweak patches, by the way — I might not do this for a trivial source fix.
> 
> 
> Set up your local ports repository like you have, copy the current portfile directory into it, etc.
> 
> Go to the port’s directory in the new repo, and 
> 
> sudo port -v build
> 
> when it errors, open a new terminal window, navigate to the same directory you’re in now, and then
> 
> cd work
> sudo chmod -R a+rw .

This seems to go to the heart of the matter, so to speak.

> cd into the source directory, whatever it’s called, then set it up as a temporary git repo:
> 
> git init
> git add .
> git commit -m “init” > /dev/null

And I have git to fall back on if there is an editing glitch or if I wish to do multiple fixes to my source.

> now you’re ready to do your work.
> 
> edit your source files as needed.
> 
> 
> You now have two terminal windows open. One is the port directory, one is the source directory.
> 
> In the port directory, try your build again:
> 
> sudo port -v build
> 
> if you get errors, in your source directory, edit the files, then rebuild again. Keep going until you get it to build.
> 
> Now you have changes in your new source git tree to save, so save those into a diff file that you can use later:
> 
> git diff —no-prefix > ~/patches-for-my-fixed-port.diff
> 
> then see if your port will destroot, and then install.
> 
> sudo port -v destroot
> 
> sudo port -v -k install
> 
> (note the -k — that keeps it from blowing out your source directory if it succeeds).

The above all worked very well, but only once… :-(

If I test the app I have installed and find there is still some problem, I need to edit the source and go back to the build step. But “build” just says "--->  Computing dependencies for kpat”  and exits, even if I use “sudo port -f build”. It does not see that the source has changed.

I’m looking for something with an effect like “make” or “cmake", which senses that something has changed and starts a new build. That’s why I was having to keep changing the name of my patch-file before. I then had to edit the portfile and re-run portindex.

I also tried “sudo port clean”, but that wiped my source files as well as the build-files… :-D

Using “sudo port -k clean” also wipes the source files. Using “rm -rf work/build” sent the "build” command back to “Computing dependencies" and exiting, but the source files were still down in “work” and included an edit I had done before deleting “work/build/“.

Maybe there is some key file in work/build/ that I can delete or edit or execute, to trigger a new build with the latest source-code edits.

KPat is based on building with “cmake” to generate a Makefile and then “make” to do the build. Back in the day I would run CMake once and then keep running a make-test-edit cycle to do KDE development work.

Cheers,
Ian W.

> If all is well, you’re close to done. from your port directory
> 
> sudo port clean
> sudo port uninstall THEPORT
> 
> cd files
> mv  ~/patches-for-my-fixed-port.diff .
> cd ..
> bbedit Portfile
> 
> add your new patch
> 
> patchfiles-append  patches-for-my-fixed-port.diff
> 
> 
> and then try your build — hopefully it goes right through to installing, and all your patches worked.
> 
> You’re done. Open your PR, have a latte, wait for someone to tell you how wonderful you are (yeah, right!).
> 
> Ken