[Axiom-developer] Re: Savannah patches

[root]

Bill,

I do all of my work in a separate copy. I generally do this to make
sure that I know what changes I've made and that I don't commit
non-working copies.

tla get axiom--something--1
   which gets the latest patch, lets call it patch-10. This is pristine

cp -pr axiom--something--1--patch-10 axiom
   which gives me a place to work
   NOTE THAT I DON'T WORK IN --patch-10 but in a copy

loop

  cd axiom
     do all my work in the copy, not the original

  diff -r --brief axiom--something--1--patch-10 axiom
     HAND PATCH the files that differ back into axiom--something--1--patch-10

     I hand patch so that I have to review each and every change.
     Sometimes I've made changes I dont' want to commit either because
     they are debugging (e.g. printf) or unrelated.

  rm -rf axiom
     remove the working copy

  cp -pr axiom--something--1--patch-10 axiom
     get a working copy with all my new patches

  cd axiom ; make
     rebuild the copy to make sure it works

until done

at this point axiom--something--1--patch-10 is the same as axiom 
and it has been tested. Now I can commit and move on:

cd axiom--something--1--patch-10
tla make-log
tla commit

rm -rf axiom--something--1--patch-10 
   remove --patch-10 because I've finished with it

tla get axiom--something--1 
   this is --patch-11 so I have the latest version

make
   and test to make sure I didn't commit garbage
   

assuming the tests work I can now use --patch-11 and fix the next problem

I've learned from past experience that 
  (a) I make mistakes and need to check myself a lot
  (b) I don't trust automated merge tools
  (c) I need to minimize commits that are broken

It is a tedious process but it works for me.

Tim