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Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!eff!news.byu.edu!ux1!fcom.cc.utah.edu!cs.weber.edu!terry
From: terry@cs.weber.edu (A Wizard of Earth C)
Subject: Over 30 386BSD patches
Message-ID: <1992Sep12.092717.19890@fcom.cc.utah.edu>
Sender: news@fcom.cc.utah.edu
Organization: Weber State University (Ogden, UT)
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 92 09:27:17 GMT
Lines: 152
I have recently (3:30 am) completed work on a patch kit system which
enforces order when applying patches, includes the ability to generate
multiple source file and replacement binary file patches, and contains over
30 patches which have either been posted in comp.unix.bsd or in some cases
never posted before (ie: some of my own).
Using the patch kit, it is possible to apply all the patches, deapply
the patches, and generate new patches which know about being dependant on
having previous patches. This should allow users with source distributions
to have a fully "up to date" kernel relatively painlessly, assuming you start
from virgin sources.
I will be uploading the patch kit itself to agate.berkeley.edu
tomorrow (well, today, actually). To the best of my knowledge, it has all
known patches to 386BSD which are publicaly available.
The following is the README file:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PATCH KIT FOR 386BSD
Terry Lambert
Beta version 0.1
12 Sep 92
1. What is the patch kit for 386bsd?
This kit contains a tool called "patches" which provides a means
applying incremental patches to 386bsd, directories necessary to
support the tool, and a large number of compressed, ready to
install patches.
2. What are the assumptions made in the patch kit?
The patch kit assumes that you are starting with a "virgin" 386bsd
installation -- that is, a source distribution with absolutely no
patches installed.
3. What does the patch kit do for me?
The patch kit gives you the ability to incrementally install the
patches provided as "current" patches, as well as any new patches
distributed in "patchkit format" in the future.
The main advantage to using the patch kit is the ability to add
patches incrementally, rather than haphazardly. Until now, the
patches to 386bsd have often required that no other patches be
installed on the files being patched. This means that you have
had to choose between two patches to the same file rather than
being able to have both at the same time. This is because the
patches have not been incremental. In the few cases where you
were told to "install patch xyz, then install this patch", there
hasn't been any real way to locate or uniquely identify the
prerequisite patches. It's ridiculous to get an NFS patch that
you have been needing for a long time, but then not being able
to use it because of a missing patch you didn't think you needed.
In addition, even though it has been possible to distribute new
files, it hasn't been possible to distribute new binary files
(patching old binaries is not currently supported, however
replacing them or adding new ones is).
4. How do I install the patch kit?
a) cd /
b) Download the file "patchkit-0.1.tar" from your
favorite archive.
c) tar xvf patchkit-0.1.tar
d) cd patch/bin
e) mkpatchdirs
This will create the directory "patch" with subdirectories "bin",
"ready", "inbound", "outbound", "installed", and "tmp".
The subdirectories contain:
bin patches The program to install and remove patches
mkpatchdirs The empty directory creation script
mkpatch [restricted release] The script to create
new patches.
inbound Compressed tar files, one per patch
outbound [restricted release] Patches created by
you packed for upload to an archive site
ready [empty] Directory to contain unpacked
patches which used to be in inbound. The
patches in this directory have not been
installed yet.
installed [empty] Directory to conating patches that
have been installed and may now be
deinstalled.
tmp A work directory for use by the patches and
mkpatch programs.
Note: Since the patch directory is current directory relative, you
may install it on a secondary disk or remotely mounted partition
without problems. The location which will be used if step (a) is
followd above is /patch.
5. How do I use the patch kit?
Any new patches from an archive should be in compressed tar format.
Simply place them in the inbound directory (see #4 above) and they
will be immediately available for installation.
When you wish to install or deinstall patches, you should:
cd /patch/bin
patches
The program will scan for patches in the inbound directory and
offer to unpack them. Generally, you should always say "yes" (or
hit the return key, since it's the default) when asked if new
patches should be unpacked.
The program will then display statistics on the available patches;
hit return to get the main menu. On line help is available for the
menu AND FOR EACH PATCH TO TELL YOU WHAT IT DOES.
6. END OF DOCUMENT
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Terry Lambert
terry_lambert@gateway.novell.com
terry@icarus.weber.edu
---
Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present
or previous employers.
--
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"I have an 8 user poetic license" - me
Get the 386bsd FAQ from agate.berkeley.edu:/pub/386BSD/386bsd-0.1/unofficial
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