1. Research. If you don't know where the project's website and/or code repository are, google it. If that fails, you might find something on sites like packages.debian.org... source code tar/zip files, web links to investigate, author/maintainer emails, etc. If in doubt, ask here on LM.
2a. If it's on Github, great! Scroll down to the README and read it.
- For bugs/suggestions, create an Issue (unless the developer is using a different issue tracker)
- For changes, you can fork the project and creating a Pull Request (assuming you're comfortable with GIT. If not, see 3a below.)
2b. Most other code-repository sites like Assembla are similar... the change submission process can vary widely, and they won't necessarily be using GIT.
2c. Is it on rusty old sold-out Sourceforge?
- You can create Issues, but make sure the developer is actually using Sourceforge's issue tracker.
- You can't submit changes directly (unless the developer gives you commit access)... so probably better submit a patch the old-fashioned way....
3a. If you found a GIT or SVN repository but no way to submit your changes directly (or GIT confuses the hell out of you)...
- Clone the repository to your disk (follow the directions)
- Make your changes
- Create a patch using 'git diff' or 'svn diff' or whatever. Proceed to step 4...
3b. If there's no code repository, only a source tar/zip file...?
- If you want to revive a dead project, create your own repository on Github or whatever.
- Or create a patch manually using 'diff'. You kinda have to know what you're doing, but it goes something like this....
Code: Select all
$ tar zxvf wsynth-dssi_0.1.3.orig.tar.gz
drwxr-xr-x free/free 0 2005-11-13 19:08 wsynth-dssi-0.1.3.orig/
...
$ cp -a wsynth-dssi-0.1.3.orig wsynth-dssi-0.1.3
$ cd wsynth-dssi-0.1.3
CHANGE & TEST
$ make distclean
$ cd ..
$ diff -ru wsynth-dssi-0.1.3.orig wsynth-dssi-0.1.3 >/tmp/wsynth-dssi-0.1.3-tnovelli20131018.patchBTW, patch files look something like this:
Code: Select all
diff -ru wsynth-dssi-0.1.3.orig/src/xsynth_data.c wsynth-dssi-0.1.3/src/xsynth_data.c
--- wsynth-dssi-0.1.3.orig/src/xsynth_data.c 2005-10-19 15:56:29.000000000 -0400
+++ wsynth-dssi-0.1.3/src/xsynth_data.c 2013-10-15 10:53:29.000000000 -0400
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@
if (!fgets(buf, 256, file)) return 0;
} while (is_comment(buf));
- if (sscanf(buf, " xsynth-dssi patch format %d begin", &format) != 1 ||
+ if (sscanf(buf, " wsynth-dssi patch format %d begin", &format) != 1 ||
format < 0 || format > 1)
return 0;
@@ -173,7 +173,7 @@
return 0;
if (!fgets(buf, 256, file)) return 0;
- if (sscanf(buf, " xsynth-dssi patch %3s", buf2) != 1) return 0;
+ if (sscanf(buf, " wsynth-dssi patch %3s", buf2) != 1) return 0;
if (strcmp(buf2, "end")) return 0;
memcpy(patch, &tmp, sizeof(xsynth_patch_t));
