Re: How is a patch applied to CVS?

[Kaz Kylheku]

On Mon, 6 Jan 2003, Mazza, Glen R., ,CPMS wrote:

> Simple question (I've checked the Cedarqvist manual, it's probably there but
> can't seem to find it!):  How is a patch file committed into CVS to update
> the most recent version?

There is no support built into CVS for doing this. You check out a
working copy, use the patch tool to turn the patch into local
modifications, and then verify and commit the changes.

It probably will behoove you to keep track of the patch levels in a
branch. That way the patch will always be applied against an exact copy
of the baseline from which it was made by the third party developers.

To integrate it into your locally modified verison of the software, you
merge from that branch.

The moral is that it's better to let CVS do the merging, than the patch
tool. It's better at it, having more information. Patch can only do a
two-way merge, having no access to the ancestral version. It bails on
anything difficult, throwing hunks into .rej files.