Wanna patch?

[ninetydegrees]

We've had lots of lovely themes submitted in the last few days - thank you, designers! - and I thought it would be a good opportunity to ask if anybody wants to try and patch one but has never dared to or simply doesn't know where to start. Don't worry if you've never done that before or never written any code. I've been in your very shoes. :) I know it looks scary and complicated and impossible but I promise it won't look that way once you've done it. If you're on Windows, I can walk you through the process from start to finish. If you're on a Mac or Linux, I'm sure someone else will volunteer to help you (and the process isn't that different so I may be able to help as well or ask the right people questions). If you'd like to give it a try, simply comment. You can also PM me.

Comments

[ninetydegrees]

Yeah a fellow Windows user!

Shall I go request a Dreamhacks account?

Yep! The request form is right here.

You also need to download two free programs: PuTTY (take the "A Windows installer for everything except PuTTYtel" installer) and WinSCP (take the "Installation package" file) to be able to manage your Dreamhack and manipulate files. Installing them can wait till you have your Dreamhack.

BTW, I've written a guide for Windows people but it can be pretty overwhelming so feel free to ignore it and ask me questions (or read it and ask questions anyway!). I've got a crappy connection at the moment so comments or e-mails are best.

[suncat]

I'm back! I knew if I didn't finish beating that current layout into shape before moving on to other projects, it would be haunting me. I will try to post it here in dreamscapes, and get more feedback.

I've gotten a Dreamhacks account, and WinSCP. I already had PuTTY, from previous remote online development work. I'll read more of your guide as time permits. I've also been reading what you shared above with others to get more of an idea how this type of patching works. And it told me a lot about cleaning up my layout and theme—thanks!

So, what, specifically, should I do next?

[suncat]

Eep! I just realized—should new layouts be posted to dreamwidthlayouts? Is dreamscapes only for themes but not for whole new layouts? Gah! I'm confuuuuuused.

[ninetydegrees]

No the official community is dreamscapes so everything should be submitted there.

[ninetydegrees]

The next step is settings things up for development on DW: PuTTY, WinSCP then both then Dreamhack.

1 -- PuTTY


Set hack.dreamwidth.net as the host
Set dh-suncat as your username
Save the session of course if you don't want to type everything again.
Click on open and enter the password you've got in the welcome e-mail.

If you get a pop up message asking you about a key click yes.

Once you're logged in type passwd to reset it to something easier.

2 -- WinSCP

Install WInSCP. I think it'll ask you to choose between two modes: Commander and Explorer. Commander works as an FTP client if you're familiar with that: your files on one site, the remote files on the other. I think Explorer suits our needs better since we don't really need to access our computer files but it's up to you.

Set data in WinSCP: host name, username and password (the new one!) and save settings too.

3 -- PuTTY

Back up and protect your config files by following the steps outlined in http://wiki.dwscoalition.org/notes/Dreamhack_getting_started#Back_up_your_configs and http://wiki.dwscoalition.org/notes/Dreamhack_getting_started#Protect_your_configs_from_updates

=> Config files should now be edited in /dw/cvs/local/etc and you have clean copies in /config-backup.

Then you have to create the files mentioned in http://wiki.dwscoalition.org/notes/Dev_Maintenance#Scripting - dwu, dws and dwdb - and make them executable in PuTTY using the chmod command. But first, do you have a better text editor than Notepad? I use Notepad++ for example (http://sourceforge.net/projects/notepad-plus/files/). You have to set it as your default editor in WinSCP by going to Preferences/Editor/Add/External editor and upping it up to make it your default.

Ok I'll think I'll stop there for now so that you tell me if you're ok with everything so far or if you have questions.

[suncat]

Okay! Did #1 when I first got the Dreamhack account. Worked fine. #2 is done. I got the Commander version; I'm comfortable with FTP clients.

Have done #3. Worked fine. I did create the dwu, dws and dwdb scripts, using the vi editor.

I've just been using Notepad on my local machine. How would Notepad++ help for this work? If I hook it up with WinSCP as you suggest, does that mean I can edit remote files locally, and don't have to use vi anymore? I can use vi, doesn't mean I like to.

[ninetydegrees]

If I hook it up with WinSCP as you suggest, does that mean I can edit remote files locally, and don't have to use vi anymore?

Yep, it can work as Windows's Notepad. Download, install, set as default editor in WinSCP and edit. :)

Ok next step is to create Mercurial queues in /dw/cvs/dw-free and /dw/cvs/dw-nonfree by using hg qinit -c

You may also want to edit your .hgrc files as explained inhttp://wiki.dwscoalition.org/notes/Mercurial_Queues_Walkthrough#Getting_started.

Then you're all set. All that's left is changing the system account password with $LJHOME/bin/upgrading/make_system.pl and you can log in to your Dreamhack, and also creating a Bugzilla account (http://bugs.dwscoalition.org/).

And about all you have to know about patching styles is here: http://wiki.dwscoalition.org/notes/Newbie_Guide_for_People_Patching_Styles

[suncat]

Got some more done. That remote editing by using Notepad++ with WinSCP is really slick!

When you said create the Mercurial queues, I assume you meant simply in dw/cvs/dw-free and dw/cvs/dw-nonfree. There is no directory /dw at root. But there is ~/dw under my account home directory.

But, I did do the hg qinit -c and it seemed to create a directory and copy in files. Almost forgot I had to use the -a option on ls in order to see them. Heh.

Then started reading the #Getting_started section, and it talks about editing file ~/.hgrc. There is no such file on my account. Am I instead supposed to create the file new? Oh wait, I looked again and I see the file hgrc in each of the newly created .hg directories. Is that what should be edited? Or since there was no error message when the Mercurial repository was created, maybe it means nothing needs to be edited?

A bit confused again.

[ninetydegrees]

Yes, that's the one. The dot's a typo then. You edit them to include your Bugzilla username and e-mail. You don't have to but it'll tell you it doesn't have that data for you the first time you create a patch and use defaults or something (I can't remember what it say exactly).