What happened to latest versions of GNU Patch?

[Antonio Diaz Diaz]

Hello Karl.

Karl Berry wrote:
>     > I expect to have the patched and cleaned version of patch 
>
> Thanks for all your work.  Did you just start working on it because you
> were interested, or had problems you needed to solve, or heard from the
> previous maintainer, or ... ?

It all begun on 5-Feb-2006 with this message from Claudio 
http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/private/gnu-prog-discuss/2006q1/001046.html

I offered myself to contact the maintainers of three packages (ed, less 
and patch), or even fix myself the issues Claudio found on them (mainly 
DESTDIR support) if any of them couldn't be contacted.

Eventually we contacted the maintainers of ed and less, but we had no 
success contacting the patch maintainer. So, I began patching and 
cleaning it.


>     I would like to replace it at least with `mkstemp'.
>
> As Claudio suggests, the mkstemp gnulib module is probably the right
> thing to use.  You could write address@hidden if questions/problems.

Another possibility is to use `tmpfile'. It is an ISO C-89 function, so 
I think it is OK to use it.


>     > Freshmeat before releasing the final (stable) version. Is this OK?
>
> We're talking about GNU patch here?  In that case, it is ok to announce
> it on freshmeat, but it is more important to upload it to alpha.gnu.org
> and announce it on bug-gnu-utils (I don't think patch has its own
> mailing list).

Is it possible to delete files from alpha.gnu.org when they are no 
longer neccesary? I normally release two or three test versions before 
every stable version, and I don't like old test versions floating around 
after the stable one has been released.

By the way. Just now I have found the file patch-2.5.9.tar.gz (date 
1-Jun-2004) in the directory ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/diffutils/ after 
spending more than ten hours patching and cleaning patch-2.5.4 (the 
latest stable release). :-(

In fact, I am discovering some interesting facts. I copy this from the 
patch-2.5.9 Changelog (in reverse order):

1999-10-11  Christopher R. Gabriel  <address@hidden>
        * configure.in (VERSION): Version 2.5.5 released.
2002-05-28  Paul Eggert  <address@hidden>
        * NEWS, configure.ac (AC_INIT): Version 2.5.6 released.
        The code already assumes C89 or better, so remove K&R stuff.
2002-05-30  Paul Eggert  <address@hidden>
        * NEWS, configure.ac (AC_INIT): Version 2.5.7 released.
2002-06-02  Paul Eggert  <address@hidden>
        * NEWS, configure.ac (AC_INIT): Version 2.5.8 released.
2003-05-20  Paul Eggert  <address@hidden>
        * NEWS, configure.ac (AC_INIT): Version 2.5.9 released.

It seems I have wasted some time because no one has announced GNU patch 
releases for the last seven years. See 
http://directory.fsf.org/GNU/patch.html

I guess This finishes my relation with GNU patch.


> Also, I see that Paul Eggert is listed by --version as an author.  I
> suggest writing address@hidden and pointing them at your version
> before releasing it anywhere.  That will reach Paul, along with Jim
> Meyering who also worked on it, I believe, and other interested parties.

OK. I send copy of this message to address@hidden


Best regards,
Antonio.