-Keeping in sync with the most recent branch can be done in several ways,
-but the most convenient and reliable way is using B<rsync>, available at
-ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync/ . (You can also get the most recent
-branch by FTP.)
-
-If you choose to keep in sync using rsync, there are two approaches
-to doing so:
-
-=over 4
-
-=item rsync'ing the source tree
-
-Presuming you are in the directory where your perl source resides
-and you have rsync installed and available, you can "upgrade" to
-the bleadperl using:
-
- # rsync -avz rsync://public.activestate.com/perl-current/ .
-
-This takes care of updating every single item in the source tree to
-the latest applied patch level, creating files that are new (to your
-distribution) and setting date/time stamps of existing files to
-reflect the bleadperl status.
-
-Note that this will not delete any files that were in '.' before
-the rsync. Once you are sure that the rsync is running correctly,
-run it with the --delete and the --dry-run options like this:
-
- # rsync -avz --delete --dry-run rsync://public.activestate.com/perl-current/ .
-
-This will I<simulate> an rsync run that also deletes files not
-present in the bleadperl master copy. Observe the results from
-this run closely. If you are sure that the actual run would delete
-no files precious to you, you could remove the '--dry-run' option.
-
-You can than check what patch was the latest that was applied by
-looking in the file B<.patch>, which will show the number of the
-latest patch.
-
-If you have more than one machine to keep in sync, and not all of
-them have access to the WAN (so you are not able to rsync all the
-source trees to the real source), there are some ways to get around
-this problem.
-
-=over 4
-
-=item Using rsync over the LAN
-
-Set up a local rsync server which makes the rsynced source tree
-available to the LAN and sync the other machines against this
-directory.
-
-From http://rsync.samba.org/README.html :
-
- "Rsync uses rsh or ssh for communication. It does not need to be
- setuid and requires no special privileges for installation. It
- does not require an inetd entry or a daemon. You must, however,
- have a working rsh or ssh system. Using ssh is recommended for
- its security features."
-
-=item Using pushing over the NFS
-
-Having the other systems mounted over the NFS, you can take an
-active pushing approach by checking the just updated tree against
-the other not-yet synced trees. An example would be
-
- #!/usr/bin/perl -w
-
- use strict;
- use File::Copy;
-
- my %MF = map {
- m/(\S+)/;
- $1 => [ (stat $1)[2, 7, 9] ]; # mode, size, mtime
- } `cat MANIFEST`;
-
- my %remote = map { $_ => "/$_/pro/3gl/CPAN/perl-5.7.1" } qw(host1 host2);
-
- foreach my $host (keys %remote) {
- unless (-d $remote{$host}) {
- print STDERR "Cannot Xsync for host $host\n";
- next;
- }
- foreach my $file (keys %MF) {
- my $rfile = "$remote{$host}/$file";
- my ($mode, $size, $mtime) = (stat $rfile)[2, 7, 9];
- defined $size or ($mode, $size, $mtime) = (0, 0, 0);
- $size == $MF{$file}[1] && $mtime == $MF{$file}[2] and next;
- printf "%4s %-34s %8d %9d %8d %9d\n",
- $host, $file, $MF{$file}[1], $MF{$file}[2], $size, $mtime;
- unlink $rfile;
- copy ($file, $rfile);
- utime time, $MF{$file}[2], $rfile;
- chmod $MF{$file}[0], $rfile;
- }
- }
-
-though this is not perfect. It could be improved with checking
-file checksums before updating. Not all NFS systems support
-reliable utime support (when used over the NFS).
-
-=back
-
-=item rsync'ing the patches
-
-The source tree is maintained by the pumpking who applies patches to
-the files in the tree. These patches are either created by the
-pumpking himself using C<diff -c> after updating the file manually or
-by applying patches sent in by posters on the perl5-porters list.
-These patches are also saved and rsync'able, so you can apply them
-yourself to the source files.
-
-Presuming you are in a directory where your patches reside, you can
-get them in sync with
-
- # rsync -avz rsync://public.activestate.com/perl-current-diffs/ .
-
-This makes sure the latest available patch is downloaded to your
-patch directory.
-
-It's then up to you to apply these patches, using something like
-
- # last="`cat ../perl-current/.patch`.gz"
- # rsync -avz rsync://public.activestate.com/perl-current-diffs/ .
- # find . -name '*.gz' -newer $last -exec gzcat {} \; >blead.patch
- # cd ../perl-current
- # patch -p1 -N <../perl-current-diffs/blead.patch
-
-or, since this is only a hint towards how it works, use CPAN-patchaperl
-from Andreas König to have better control over the patching process.
-
-=back
-
-=head2 Why rsync the source tree
-
-=over 4
-
-=item It's easier to rsync the source tree
-
-Since you don't have to apply the patches yourself, you are sure all
-files in the source tree are in the right state.
-
-=item It's more reliable
-
-While both the rsync-able source and patch areas are automatically
-updated every few minutes, keep in mind that applying patches may
-sometimes mean careful hand-holding, especially if your version of
-the C<patch> program does not understand how to deal with new files,
-files with 8-bit characters, or files without trailing newlines.
-
-=back
-
-=head2 Why rsync the patches
-
-=over 4
-
-=item It's easier to rsync the patches
-
-If you have more than one machine that you want to keep in track with
-bleadperl, it's easier to rsync the patches only once and then apply
-them to all the source trees on the different machines.
-
-In case you try to keep in pace on 5 different machines, for which
-only one of them has access to the WAN, rsync'ing all the source
-trees should than be done 5 times over the NFS. Having
-rsync'ed the patches only once, I can apply them to all the source
-trees automatically. Need you say more ;-)
-
-=item It's a good reference
-
-If you do not only like to have the most recent development branch,
-but also like to B<fix> bugs, or extend features, you want to dive
-into the sources. If you are a seasoned perl core diver, you don't
-need no manuals, tips, roadmaps, perlguts.pod or other aids to find
-your way around. But if you are a starter, the patches may help you
-in finding where you should start and how to change the bits that
-bug you.
-
-The file B<Changes> is updated on occasions the pumpking sees as his
-own little sync points. On those occasions, he releases a tar-ball of
-the current source tree (i.e. perl@7582.tar.gz), which will be an
-excellent point to start with when choosing to use the 'rsync the
-patches' scheme. Starting with perl@7582, which means a set of source
-files on which the latest applied patch is number 7582, you apply all
-succeeding patches available from then on (7583, 7584, ...).
-
-You can use the patches later as a kind of search archive.
-
-=over 4
-
-=item Finding a start point
-
-If you want to fix/change the behaviour of function/feature Foo, just
-scan the patches for patches that mention Foo either in the subject,
-the comments, or the body of the fix. A good chance the patch shows
-you the files that are affected by that patch which are very likely
-to be the starting point of your journey into the guts of perl.
-
-=item Finding how to fix a bug
-
-If you've found I<where> the function/feature Foo misbehaves, but you
-don't know how to fix it (but you do know the change you want to
-make), you can, again, peruse the patches for similar changes and
-look how others apply the fix.
-
-=item Finding the source of misbehaviour
-
-When you keep in sync with bleadperl, the pumpking would love to
-I<see> that the community efforts really work. So after each of his
-sync points, you are to 'make test' to check if everything is still
-in working order. If it is, you do 'make ok', which will send an OK
-report to perlbug@perl.org. (If you do not have access to a mailer
-from the system you just finished successfully 'make test', you can
-do 'make okfile', which creates the file C<perl.ok>, which you can
-than take to your favourite mailer and mail yourself).
-
-But of course, as always, things will not always lead to a success
-path, and one or more test do not pass the 'make test'. Before
-sending in a bug report (using 'make nok' or 'make nokfile'), check
-the mailing list if someone else has reported the bug already and if
-so, confirm it by replying to that message. If not, you might want to
-trace the source of that misbehaviour B<before> sending in the bug,
-which will help all the other porters in finding the solution.
-
-Here the saved patches come in very handy. You can check the list of
-patches to see which patch changed what file and what change caused
-the misbehaviour. If you note that in the bug report, it saves the
-one trying to solve it, looking for that point.
-
-=back
-
-If searching the patches is too bothersome, you might consider using
-perl's bugtron to find more information about discussions and
-ramblings on posted bugs.
-
-If you want to get the best of both worlds, rsync both the source
-tree for convenience, reliability and ease and rsync the patches
-for reference.
-
-=back
-
-=head2 Working with the source
-
-Because you cannot use the Perforce client, you cannot easily generate
-diffs against the repository, nor will merges occur when you update
-via rsync. If you edit a file locally and then rsync against the
-latest source, changes made in the remote copy will I<overwrite> your
-local versions!
-
-The best way to deal with this is to maintain a tree of symlinks to
-the rsync'd source. Then, when you want to edit a file, you remove
-the symlink, copy the real file into the other tree, and edit it. You
-can then diff your edited file against the original to generate a
-patch, and you can safely update the original tree.
-
-Perl's F<Configure> script can generate this tree of symlinks for you.
-The following example assumes that you have used rsync to pull a copy
-of the Perl source into the F<perl-rsync> directory. In the directory
-above that one, you can execute the following commands:
-
- mkdir perl-dev
- cd perl-dev
- ../perl-rsync/Configure -Dmksymlinks -Dusedevel -D"optimize=-g"
-
-This will start the Perl configuration process. After a few prompts,
-you should see something like this:
-
- Symbolic links are supported.
-
- Checking how to test for symbolic links...
- Your builtin 'test -h' may be broken.
- Trying external '/usr/bin/test -h'.
- You can test for symbolic links with '/usr/bin/test -h'.
-
- Creating the symbolic links...
- (First creating the subdirectories...)
- (Then creating the symlinks...)
-
-The specifics may vary based on your operating system, of course.
-After you see this, you can abort the F<Configure> script, and you
-will see that the directory you are in has a tree of symlinks to the
-F<perl-rsync> directories and files.
-
-If you plan to do a lot of work with the Perl source, here are some
-Bourne shell script functions that can make your life easier:
-
- function edit {
- if [ -L $1 ]; then
- mv $1 $1.orig
- cp $1.orig $1
- vi $1
- else
- /bin/vi $1
- fi
- }
-
- function unedit {
- if [ -L $1.orig ]; then
- rm $1
- mv $1.orig $1
- fi
- }
-
-Replace "vi" with your favorite flavor of editor.
-
-Here is another function which will quickly generate a patch for the
-files which have been edited in your symlink tree:
-
- mkpatchorig() {
- local diffopts
- for f in `find . -name '*.orig' | sed s,^\./,,`
- do
- case `echo $f | sed 's,.orig$,,;s,.*\.,,'` in
- c) diffopts=-p ;;
- pod) diffopts='-F^=' ;;
- *) diffopts= ;;
- esac
- diff -du $diffopts $f `echo $f | sed 's,.orig$,,'`
- done
- }
-
-This function produces patches which include enough context to make
-your changes obvious. This makes it easier for the Perl pumpking(s)
-to review them when you send them to the perl5-porters list, and that
-means they're more likely to get applied.
-
-This function assumed a GNU diff, and may require some tweaking for
-other diff variants.
-