[OPEN-ILS-DEV] Documentation question: restoring customizations after upgrade

[Jason Etheridge]

On Wed, Jan 13, 2010 at 8:44 AM, Soulliere, Robert
<robert.soulliere at mohawkcollege.ca> wrote:
> In reviewing at the upgrading instructions, I would like to add information
> on restoring customizations made to a local Evergreen system after
> completing the upgrade and would like to find the best procedures to
> accomplishing this?
>
> Is it possible to safely use diff/patch commands on the entire /openils
> directory or to accomplish this in a few commands?

Hey Robert, ignoring the possibility of substantial code changes that
prevent a patch from applying cleanly, one potential gotcha would be
the staff client files in /openils/var/web/xul/.

The source files contain paths like '/xul/server/' that get changed
during the build process to '/xul/BUILD/server/', and if your patch is
based on files where BUILD = FOO, and you're trying to patch files
where BUILD = BAR, you'll suffer some pain.  One possibility is to use
the same BUILD id all the time, and just use symlinks to allow or
disallow local staff clients as needed.  Another option is patch the
source files before you compile Evergreen.

For example, let's say you're using the stock 1.4.0.7 client off the
website.  That client will be looking for files in
/xul/rel_1_4_0_7/server/ on your server.  You could build your server
files like so:

  make STAFF_CLIENT_BUILD_ID='current' install

giving them a build id of "current".  Then you create a symlink like this:

  ln -s /openils/var/web/xul/current/ /openils/var/web/xul/rel_1_4_0_7

Then later, if a 1.4.0.8 comes out, your upgraded and patched files
can go into current/ again, and you create a symlink for rel_1_4_0_8
to current if you need a new local client.

By default, when you install Evergreen, the staff client server files
will get a build id based on a date/timestamp, which has some uses,
but I always go for named/meaningful build id's myself.

-- 
Jason Etheridge
 | VP, Tactical Development
 | Equinox Software, Inc. / The Evergreen Experts
 | phone:  1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)
 | email:  jason at esilibrary.com
 | web:  http://www.esilibrary.com

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