Operating the Patch Automated Reintegration Tool

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The Patch Reintegration Tool is located in directory

<moodleroot>/report/patches/__command_line_tool/patch_reintegrator

It might be a good idea to keep it in development instance on your own computer, and remove it from production servers.

Step 0: Preliminary Patch Markup

All patchs that need to be identified should be marked from start to end. The default markup is identical to the patterns used by the Patch Report :

Patch start : // PATCH : Some reason Patch end : // /PATCH

Patch comments should be alone on their code line:

avoid having this

  foreach($loops as $loop){ // PATCH : starting change here
    ....
  }

but integrate loop start in patch section like this:

  // PATCH : starting change here
  foreach($loops as $loop){ 
    ....
  }

Some config keys define the sart and end pattern of the detector:

  //start pattern consider a full line patch mark pattern 
  $CFG->patchstartpattern = "\\s*\/\/\/?\\s*PATCH [^\\n]*\\n+";

  //end pattern consider a full line patch mark pattern 
  $CFG->patchendpattern = "\\n*\\s*\/\/\/?\\s*\/PATCH\\s*";

You might change the patterns to cope with your marking syntax.

Step 1: Setting up code bases

The first step is to setup copies ready for processing in the right place. the default tool configuration uses the "test" subdirectory with three subvolumes :

• customized : is the location where your actual moodle code should come.
• target : is the location where the upgraded standard download of Moodle should be dropped
• merged : will be the location where the mix of both will be produced. You shall let it empty.

Note 1: drop the top level of Moodle in those dirs, that is, config.php will be in "customized" or "target". Note 2: some options of the configuration file allow to patch directly the source version (customized). This setting is rather for patching directly the moodle "in place". It is not recommended as experience shows that the probablility of having unresolved patch relocation is about 10% for a jump of several minor releases (f.e. jumping from 1.9.7 to 1.9.18, or 2.3.0 to 2.3.4).

Step 2: Processing

Run the processor by invoking the main.php script from CLI command line:

   >php main.php

You may obtain command line syntax for options asking for help:

  >php main.php -h