How to create and submit a patch

A patch is exactly what the word says: a small piece of code used to repair a breach. It is normally a plain text file containing only the differences between the current version of the code and the fixed version.

We are always happy to receive patches containing bug fixes and features. To make things easier for us please submit patches only to the issue tracker.

Please use either of the following methods to generate your patch.

Generating a patch

Against subversion

The preferred way of creating a patch is to create it against current SVN. This ensures that the patch works with the latest edition of the source code and makes it easier for the developers to apply the patch.

To generate the patch you need to check out a copy of the source code from subversion. More information on how to do this can be found in the Subversion Manual. After you have made the changes to the source code and made sure it compiles and works as expected, you can create the patch file using the command

svn diff > oxine.patch

After generating the patch please examine the resulting .patch file to make sure it contains only the intended changes.

Against a subversion-snapshot

If you do not have access to subversion you can generate the patch against the latest subversion-snapshot.

To generate the patch you will need two copies of the source code: one that is unmodified and one containing your changes to the source. Start by downloading the the latest subversion-snapshot, extract it and make a copy of the entire source directory. After you have made your changes to one of the source directories and made sure it compiles and works as expected, you can create the patch file using the command

diff -Naur /path/to/unmodified/source /path/to/modified/source > oxine.patch

After generating the patch please examine the resulting .patch file to make sure it contains only the intended changes.

Against the latest release

If you do not have access to SVN you can generate the patch against the latest release.

To generate the patch you will need two copies of the source code: one that is unmodified and one containing your changes to the source. Start by downloading the source code of the latest release, extract it and make a copy of the entire source directory. After you have made your changes to one of the source directories and made sure it compiles and works as expected, you can create the patch file using the command

diff -Naur /path/to/unmodified/source /path/to/modified/source > oxine.patch

After generating the patch please examine the resulting .patch file to make sure it contains only the intended changes.

Submitting the patch

Please submit your patch only to the issue tracker. Please add a short description of the patch to let the developers know what the patch does.