Re: per-topic patches (was: Re: suggestions for url2pkg and pkglint (was: Re: libreswan 4.7 for wip))

[Andrew Cagney <andrew.cagney%gmail.com@localhost>]

> So, I've been saying for ages now that we should move to per-topic
> patches. The sticking point, AIUI, is that with per-file patches you
> can regenerate the patchset by re-diffing all the files against their
> corresponding *.orig files. That breaks as soon as more than one patch
> touches the same file -- you lose too much information when the
> patches are applied.

A SOP (to add a TLA) is to specify a backup name derived from the
patch name.  It means, in theory, things can be re-constructed but it
is still a mess.  Another solution I've encountered is to import
everything into a local temporary git repo (but I think that was
abandoned).

> I don't know what the answer is. Partly it's "the status quo isn't
> actually awful so nobody's all that motivated to work on it".

Add a simple marker to indicate patch sets are being used?  That way
there's an opportunity to gain experience and better understand the
problem.