Quilt is a tool for managing patches applied to source code. It allows the user to import and remove patches, navigate through a series of patches, modify patches, create new patches, merge patches, and export patches in various formats. Quilt modifies source code in-place while keeping backups of changed files. It manages patches through a stack, where patches lower in the stack are applied before those above. Basic operations include moving patches up and down the stack, adding new patches, refreshing patches, and querying information about the patch series.

1. Quick Introduction to Quilt
Jean Delvare
Level 3 Support Engineer
SUSE
Based on work from Petr Tesařík

2. 2
Introduction
Quilt lets you manage a series of patches on top of a working
directory. You can:
• Import and remove patches
• Navigate through the series
• Modify patches
• Create new patches anywhere
• Merge patches together
• Export patches in various ways and formats
• And more...

3. 3
Quilt Patch Series
original source tree + Patch #1
+ Patch #2
+ Patch #3
…
+ Patch #n
Patch series
(stack)
patched source tree
Note: quilt modifies the source tree in place,
but it keeps a backup copy of every file it touches.

4. 4
Partially Applied Patch Series
original source tree + Patch #1
+ Patch #2 Top of stack
+ Patch #3
…
+ Patch #n
Patch series
(stack)
partially patched tree
Only first two patches are applied.

5. 5
Basic Operations
• Move the top of the patch stack
‒ quilt push [number|patchname|-a]
quilt pop [number|patchname|-a]
• Start a new patch after the topmost patch
quilt new patchname
• Add files to the current patch
quilt add file …
quilt edit file …
• Refresh the current patch
quilt refresh

6. 6
Querying the Patch Series
• Get the current/preceding/following patch
quilt top
quilt previous
quilt next
• List all/applied/unapplied patches in the series
quilt series [-v]
quilt applied
quilt unapplied
• Which patches modify a given file
quilt patches filename
quilt annotate filename

7. 7
Other Commands
• See the diff output (not refreshing the patch)
quilt diff
• Print/modify the patch header
quilt header
quilt header -e
• Rename the current patch
quilt rename newname
• Remove a patch
‒ quilt delete [-r] [patchname|-n]

8. 8
Import and Export
• Import a single patch
quilt import [-P patchname] patchfile
• Set up quilt metadata from an RPM specfile
quilt setup specfile
• Send a patch series per email
quilt mail --send --to recipient
• Prepare emails in an mbox file
quilt mail --mbox file --to recipient
• Convert a quilt series to git commits
‒ git quiltimport [--patches directory]

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10. This document could include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors.
Changes are periodically made to the information herein. These changes may be
incorporated in new editions of this document. SUSE may make improvements in
or changes to the software described in this document at any time.
Copyright © 2011 Novell, Inc. All rights reserved.
All SUSE marks referenced in this presentation are trademarks or registered trademarks of
Novell, Inc. in the United States. All third-party trademarks are the property of their respective
owners.

11. Quick Introduction to Quilt
Jean Delvare
Level 3 Support Engineer
SUSE
Based on work from Petr Tesařík