[Quilt-dev] Binary files

[Kaz Kylheku]

I dug up this old thread in the archives:

https://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/quilt-dev/2007-01/msg00001.html

I've just used quilt in a tree where I had to patch some binary files. I 
did it in a quick and dirty way: a pair of scripts encode and decode the 
files to and from base64-encoded .txt files.

This could be automated if quilt had configurable hooks. Push and pop 
operation could run a post-hook to base64-decode the newly updated .txt 
files to their corresponding binaries. And quilt refresh could have a 
pre-hook to refresh the .txt files from the corresponding updated 
binaries.

The hooks are up to the user to write, and are associated with the quilt 
tree somehow. The hooks are always run, regardless of what files are 
affected. The hook scripts have to know where in the tree encoded binary 
files are hiding, and determine whether an update is required.  The 
hooks could receive some useful arguments, like perhaps what files are 
affected by the operation.

This way everything is transparent to the user (he or she hacked it 
however he or she wants), and the impact inside quilt is minimal. "If we 
are in a situation where we have to run a hook, and it is defined, then 
run it".

Cheers ...