From owner-freebsd-current Sat Nov 18 16:45:42 1995 Return-Path: owner-current Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.6.12/8.6.6) id QAA29445 for current-outgoing; Sat, 18 Nov 1995 16:45:42 -0800 Received: from rocky.sri.MT.net (rocky.sri.MT.net [204.182.243.10]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.6.12/8.6.6) with ESMTP id QAA29439 for ; Sat, 18 Nov 1995 16:45:37 -0800 Received: (from nate@localhost) by rocky.sri.MT.net (8.6.12/8.6.12) id RAA15180; Sat, 18 Nov 1995 17:47:57 -0700 Date: Sat, 18 Nov 1995 17:47:57 -0700 From: Nate Williams Message-Id: <199511190047.RAA15180@rocky.sri.MT.net> To: "Garrett A. Wollman" Cc: Peter Wemm , current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: cvs commit: src/sys/pci if_de.c In-Reply-To: <9511182218.AA32059@halloran-eldar.lcs.mit.edu> References: <199511172220.JAA25889@godzilla.zeta.org.au> <9511182218.AA32059@halloran-eldar.lcs.mit.edu> Sender: owner-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk > > I think if we're going to distribute "patches", then we can't go past CTM > > for safety. You can guarantee that it will apply in it's entireity or > > not at all... > > Unfortunately, this highlights a fundamental brokenness of CTM for > distributing this sort of material: if the user has changed the file, > the delta won't apply, even if the patch is to a different part of the > file and therefore applies cleanly. Not Good. While I'm not arguing that CTM *is* the best solution, after a very long and thoughtful Jordan had a *LONG* time ago (patchkit days), I don't think it's possible to build a 'simple' system which can get around the above problem. The amount of complexity required to build a system which can detect problems such as this is beyond the scope of this project, IMHO. (But, someone feel free to prove me wrong. *grin*) Basically, I think anyone capable of modifying their own local sources are capable of hand applying patches, in either CTM deltas or diff form. Nate