On Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 11:36 AM, James <wirel...@tampabay.rr.com> wrote: > Hello, > > A better method to review code? > > I find myself having to audit the code inside > of ebuilds in order to understand how a given > piece of code has been changed. > > So what I do is go to the /usr/portage/distfiles > and then use vi to look at the file listing; > move up and down to select the file of interest > and then enter the file (yes from inside of vi). > Not very elegant, but does not require unpacking the > files.
I do the same with Midnight Commander. > If I want to unpack the sources and modify > some code, what would be the recommended semantics? > Maybe make a dir under /usr/local and open the packages > as James-overlay(package), modify the code, install it > and test? (What do the "Titans of code" do?) It has to be unpacked at some point... For one-off changes to source you can do something like: ebuild /path/to/the.ebuild unpack go to your portage tmpdir and edit stuff ebuild /path/to/the.ebuild install Keep in mind that your changes will disappear out of the tmpdir when it's done. If you want it to persist, make a patch and use the /etc/portage/patches mechanism to auto-apply it to future emerges of that package. If you're modifying ebuilds themselves then I would put it in your local overlay.
