32 lines
1.2 KiB
Markdown
32 lines
1.2 KiB
Markdown
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---
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title: To patch or not to patch
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date: 2025-02-24
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permalink: daily/2025/02/24/patch
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tags:
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- software-development
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cta: ~
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snippet: |
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To patch or not to patch.
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---
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[Applying patch files][0] is a common way to customise and extend open source software, and how we used to submit changes to Drupal before issue forks and merge requests were added to Drupal.org.
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Some software, such as dwm and st from suckless.org are released as minimal versions that you patch to add features to.
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If you find a line of code that you want to add, edit or delete, a patch file describes the changes so you can re-apply them whenever the source file changes.
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Patching offers unlimited customisation and flexibility.
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Whatever changes you want to make, you can.
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The downside is you need to maintain any patches you've written.
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If a change is made that causes your patch to no longer apply, you'll need to update the patch.
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There are some patches I commonly apply to Drupal projects, but I'll try to either contribute the changes back to the Drupal so I no longer need the patch or make the change in a custom module.
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Sometimes, though, [patching is the only option][1].
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[0]: {{site.url}}/daily/2025/01/13/patches
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[1]: {{site.url}}/daily/2025/01/14/patching-drupal
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