Drupal Patching Workflow

Inside your drupal 8 git repo

1. Get the latest updates to all the remote branches

   git fetch --all
   
   • We are fetching instead of pulling so we don't clobber our working directory with a merge... yet.
   • The --all makes sure all branches are fetched, not just the tracking branch.

2. Make a new branch for the issue you are working on.

   git checkout origin/8.0.x -b 21345-twig-views-rss
   • The -b creates a new branch to work from.
   • The branch name is comprised of the issue number 21345 followed by a meaningful name of sorts twig-views-rss.

3. Apply the Patch to your git

   curl http://drupal.org/files/patch-name-21345-2.patch | git apply --index

   Shortcut: alias cape='curl `pbpaste` | git apply -v --index'

   • curl followed by the patch URL will print the patch contents to standard output.
   • The pipe | will pump the standard output into the git apply command.
   • --index will do the equivent to a git add -A . and the changes are staged.
   • The alias is great if you copied the URL into your clipboard, then you just type cape and the patch will swoop in to the rescue.

4. Add and Commit the patch

   git commit -m "21345-2"
   • The name of the commit message doesn't mean a lot here, but I usually put in the comment number of the patch, so I know which comment was commited.

Test and/or fix ...

1. Add files and Commit changes

   git add -A . && git commit -m "21345-3 fixed some unicorns... etc"
   • The -A flag makes sure that additions, modifications and file deletions get staged.
   • && Allows for two commands to run right after eachother on one line.

2. Rebase to make sure you have the latest from core

   git fetch --all && git rebase origin/8.0.x
   • We're explicitly telling the rebase to pull from the origin/8.0.x just incase my local 8.0.x is dirty or not up to date.

3. Make an interdiff (diff between last two commits)

   git show > interdiff.txt
   • git show is equivilent to git diff HEAD~1..HEAD except it has commit messages/notes in it.
   • This is saved as a .txt file to prevent testbot from trying to test it against head (which wouldn't apply)
   • Another filename format for interdiffs: interdiff-NNNNN-X-Y.txt is more explict, where NNNNN is the issue number and X-Y are the patch comment #s the diff is between.
   • The greater than symbol > will take the output and send it to a file of which we name after it.

4. Make a new patch

   git diff origin/8.0.x > name-of-patch-21345-3.patch
   • Again we're explicitly making the patch against origin/8.0.x instead of 8.0.x incase my local branch is unclean.
   • The filename has both the issue number #21345 and the next comment #3 for the comment we are about to post.

Hurray! Now sit and watch testbot for a few hours till it goes green:)