Software Engineering Stack Exchange
Software Engineering Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [software-patches]

17 questions
28
votes
6 answers

Why could citing bug IDs in patch notes be considered a bad practice?

Based on a comment and subsequent upvotes from Bug reopen vs. new: Citing bug IDs in patch notes is just.. very unfriendly. – Krelp It appears at least some people feel that referencing bug IDs in patch notes is not a good idea. I'm a fairly…
Travis Northcutt
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14
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4 answers

Patching open source software when upgrading is not an option?

I recently ran into a rather annoying (confirmed) bug in an open source software package that I have integrated into my application. According to the public issue tracker this bug has been resolved in the latest release of the…
maple_shaft
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12
votes
2 answers

Deploy C#/C++ binaries incrementally by patching the difference

My company has a huge C++/C# software system composed of 1800 binaries. The technology range goes from old school native C++/MFC, then C++/CLI, up to .NET Framework and .NET Core 6. Almost all possible project types within these technologies exist…
sɐunıɔןɐqɐp
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12
votes
6 answers

Whose responsibility is a bug fix patch?

A situation that has arisen several times in open source projects goes like this: I notice a bug in our deployment, and figure out a quick hack patch. (For example, simply commenting out code that we don't actually need.) I spend a little bit of…
Steve Bennett
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8
votes
1 answer

How do software patches and updates work?

So, how exactly do software patches work. If there is a certain bug in the source code of a program, how is this source code changed when one installs a patch? After the patch has been installed how is the program 'automatically' rebuilt?
aml90
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5
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3 answers

Do software patches ever modify an existing file or do they replace the whole thing?

Imagine a modern PC game for example. I'm using this example because typically the executable file is fairly large, and especially in modern games the resource files are also pretty big. Patching a resource file is fairly simple because depending on…
leylandski
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4
votes
1 answer

Best practices for releasing patches that affect multiple development stories

My team uses a Kanban style approach to development where feature and bug fix stories filter through to Production as and when they are ready. We currently are using SVN as our VCS and take a feature branching approach to developing each story. A…
Ben
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4
votes
1 answer

Pair programming via mailing list

I've started work on a large, open-source project recently. This project uses a mailing list for development, thus all patches must be mailed to this mailing list. This marks a change from my previous work where I used Gerrit or GitHub pull…
stephenfin
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4
votes
2 answers

Update strategy for a software framework once it has been deployed

I need to update a software framework once it has been deployed. The framework we are creating is made up of .NET 4.0 libraries (in Visual Studio). This common set of code libraries will be available for 2 .NET Windows services, a standalone .NET…
jwatts1980
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4
votes
1 answer

How does a binary delta update work?

Both Android and iOS seem to support their application having a binary delta update. But how does it work? I build a binary program, neither of the distribution sites have the source code - how does the update process know what is changed?
Ted Wong
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3
votes
4 answers

Delivery terminology and order of magnitude

What is the standard way of describing how software products are released and the proportionate order of magnitude to which the changes relative to the software product are conveyed? Is Release Update Patch Bug Fix redundant? or Is…
Peter Turner
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3
votes
0 answers

TFS Branching an incomplete version

I am working on an application and it is at a point where I need to wait for an API to be delivered to complete it. It's almost there but not quite finished. My manager has told me he wants me to start working on 1.1 while we wait. When the API…
Lotok
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3
votes
1 answer

Does a patch for an opensource project inherit the same license?

I have submitted a patch for a GPL'd project and now a third-party wants to include this patch in a product. They have asked me what license my patch uses. Does my patch have to adopt the GPL license? Or I can choose an alternative one?
ziu
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1
vote
1 answer

Windows Installer: Software updates and hot-fixes

I am looking for a way for providing customers with hot-fixes and patches of my product. The patch could contain one or more hot-fixes, and customer should be able to check/uncheck any of hot-fix(es) from a list during the update installation. Every…
Alex
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1
vote
1 answer

Keeping up with upstream changes while adding small fixes or even major changes

Often I need to apply some small fixes (to make them run on my environment) or even change some parts of the software (to tailor it to my needs) to software from outside. However this obviously creates problem with updating said software, even when…
neo
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