Re: [boost] Post-git forking process

Subject: Re: [boost] Post-git forking process
From: Beman Dawes (bdawes_at_[hidden])
Date: 2013-11-22 15:38:51

On Fri, Nov 22, 2013 at 2:41 PM, Sohail Somani <sohail_at_[hidden]>wrote:

> Hey all,
>
> Often, I find bugs in Boost that I need to patch manually before the next
> release. What I used to do before was keep a copy of Boost in my source
> tree which made this easier: just patch it directly. This made it easy to
> modify, but annoying to post patches and honestly, they just got lost most
> of the time.
>
> With Git, it should become easier to contribute said patches as well as
> pull in whichever particular changes I need. However when I attempted such
> a fork recently, I was a bit lost. As I understood it, the process should
> have been:
>
> 1. Create a fork of https://github.com/boostorg/boost and use this fork
> in my project
>
> 2. Create a fork of the library/libraries I wanted to patch
>
> 3. Update the submodules in my boostorg/boost fork to point to my forked
> libraries
>
> 4. Post a pull request for the respective libraries. Once the changes have
> been accepted, point back to the official boostorg repo
>
> I failed terribly, no doubt due to PEBKAC. Is there a chance that someone
> could write a tutorial or a how-to guide for the recommended process of
> forking Boost with Git? The main thing I need is the ability to have a
> patched version of Boost that I can use while the patches are being
> reviewed/accepted/rejected.
>

Sohail,

We certainly need such docs, and I'll put something together. But I'm not a
Git expert and have never been through the pull request process for a
sub-module. So let's ask for some help to make sure your approach is
optimal.

Git experts: Is the approach Sohail outlines above optimal?  If not, what
would you suggest?

--Beman