Re: [Quilt-dev] [PATCH 1/4] Ensure quilt(1) documents the correct patches directory

[Jean Delvare]

On Saturday 25 February 2012 12:24:47 am Raphael Hertzog wrote:
> On Fri, 24 Feb 2012, Jean Delvare wrote:
> > > Is QUILT_PATCHES mainly used to provide a default value or to
> > >  override the default value?
> >
> > I don't remember ever setting QUILT_PATCHES myself, so I am not
> > necessarily the best person to answer this question. I can only
> > imagine use cases.
> 
> My use case has mainly been the one of Debian packages where we
>  clearly override the value in some specific cases.
> 
> My ~/.quiltrc has this:
> for where in ./ ../ ../../ ../../../ ../../../../ ../../../../../; do

How clean :p

>         if [ -e ${where}debian/rules -a -d ${where}debian/patches ];
>  then export QUILT_PATCHES=debian/patches
>                 break
>         fi
> done

OK, so you aren't changing QUILT_PATCHES on the fly. You have 
directories where you use QUILT_PATCHES=debian/patches and others where 
you do not.

> > My rationale is: what sense does it make to temporarily override
> > the values in .pc/.quilt_patches? If the value is wrong for any
> > reason, the proper fix is to edit the file. If the value is correct
> > then I see no legitimate reason to override it. Can you come up
> > with a scenario where it would make sense?
> 
> You can consider .pc/.quilt_patches as a "cache" for QUILT_PATCHES.
> If QUILT_PATCHES is set to another value, it would update the file.

Or bail out with an error if some patches are already applied. I think 
it only makes sense to let the user change QUILT_PATCHES or QUILT_SERIES 
when no patches are applied. I'll see if I can convert this assertion 
into a patch.

> (This is not the current implementation but in that scenario it
> would make sense)
> 
> I'm not sure if users should know about .pc/.quilt_patches...

I don't think they should know about the implementation details. However 
they should know that QUILT_PC can be set, and also that the locations 
of patches and series is cached.

> > debian/quilt.make is setting QUILT_PATCHES, but I think it predates
> > the introduction of .pc/.quilt_patches.
> 
> Yes.
> 
> > > The only answer that can satisfy everybody is to have 2 variables
> > > for the 2 use cases. I'm not sure if it's really needed though.
> >
> > Agreed, but first someone needs to convince me that overriding the
> > value in .pc/.quilt_patches makes any sense.
> 
> I don't see any convincing use case either, except the problem that
>  raised this discussion. :-)

OK.

-- 
Jean Delvare
Suse L3