Patchmanager for SailfishOS

 
Patchmanager is a tool for transparently modifying installed files by the patch utility and for managing the special patch files ("Patches") for doing so.
Since version 3.0, Patchmanager does not modify original files on mass storage, it merely alters their content when they are loaded into RAM to be executed.

Information for users

Note that Patchmanager does not install an application icon on the launcher, but creates a new entry in SailfishOS' Settings app.

Only updating from Patchmanager 3.x is supported; if you have Patchmanager 2.x or Prepatch installed, you must unapply all Patches and then uninstall it, before installing Patchmanager 3!
But mind that the "repository separation mechanism" Jolla "enhanced" per SailfishOS 3.4.0 may prevent seamless updating of RPMs from different repositories; if that fails, resort to downloading and then updating per `pkcon install-local`.

In addition to the enhancements Patchmanager 3.0 provided over Patchmanager 2.x, many parts of Patchmanager 3.1 have been overhauled and it is fully adapted to support SailfishOS 4.
The minimal supported SailfishOS release is 3.4.0, on older SailfishOS releases please install Patchmanager 3.0.
Note that the versions of Patchmanager ≥ 3.1 offered here are usually built for the latest SailfshOS GA (general availability) release and may fail to install on older SailfishOS releases; if you are using an older SailfishOS release (≥  3.4.0), please install the corresponding RPM built at SailfishOS:Chum instead or utilise the SailfishOS:Chum GUI application for installing Patchmanager.

Modern Patches for Patchmanager are provided via the Web Catalog, while older Patches were provided as RPMs at OpenRepos and some of them are still maintained.
Mind that many Patches were first released at OpenRepos but later migrated to the Web Catalog.  For these you will find outdated RPMs, hence always search in the Web Catalog first.

Reporting bugs:

• Bugs which occur with Patches offered as RPMs at OpenRepos must be filed at their corresponding Openrepos page.
• For bugs which occur with Patches from the Web Catalog, check if the affected Patch offers a "discussion" or "sources" link on its detailed patch information page in Patchmanager where you can file a bug report, otherwise please file it at the FSO thread "Bugs in Patches for Patchmanager".
• For bugs caused by Patchmanager ≥ 3.1, please use the FSO thread "Bugs in Patchmanager ≥ 3.1.0" for reporting.
  If you already have performed some technical analysis or can even provide a fix for the issue, please use the issue tracker and / or file a pull request at GitHub.

If you want to translate ("localise") Patchmanager to a language you know well or enhance an existing translation, please use Patchmanager's Transifex page.

Donations

If you appreciate our work, please consider a donation to help covering the hosting costs for OpenRepos via https://openrepos.net/donate
OpenRepos is critical infrastructure specifically for Patchmanager, because its Web Catalog of patches is hosted there.
If for some reason you cannot donate to OpenRepos, we also appreciate donating to the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE): https://fsfe.org/donate

Information for patch developers

Patch developers, please utilise the available information at GitHub.

For issues a Patch shows when interacting with Patchmanager ≥ 3.1 or flaws in Patchmanager proper, please use the issue tracker and / or file a pull request at GitHub.

Patchmanager's source code is hosted at GitHub for all versions since its inception in 2014.

History

1. The original "patchmanager for Jolla settings" together with its GUI called "patchmanager" and the adaption for SailfishOS of the "AUSMT" utility at its core were all created by Sfiet_Konstantin in 2014.  Note that "AUSMT" was originally created by the WebOS Internals team (for WebOS, logically).
2. Coderus started maintaining the "AUSMT" utility and created a enhanced, unified app called "Patchmanager 2" in 2016.  Its last release from coderus is v2.3.3, which can be found at the Patchmanager 3.0 page.
   Note that elros34 started maintaining a "pm2-forever" branch in 2020 but a search did not reveal any RPM release of it.
3. In 2018 jakibaki had the innovative idea of applying Patches on-the-fly, which was first implemented in the Prepatch utlility.
   Coderus integrated this into Patchmanager and reworked Patchmanager significantly, resulting in Patchmanager 3.0.
   This new scheme of applying Patches on-the-fly solved a couple of fundamental issues with Pachmanager 2 and also made utilising AUSMT obsolete.
4. Because coderus announced in June 2021 that he ceased to maintain his personal projects, among them Patchmanager 3.0, and significant changes in SailfishOS 4 resulted in Patchmanager 3.0 not working well, a team assembled to revive and maintain Patchmanager: The result are the releases you see on this page.

License:
BSD-3-Clause