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

Mind 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 disable / deacivate ("unapply") all Patches and then remove ("uninstall") it, before installing Patchmanager 3!

When updating from Patchmanager 3.0, mind that the "repository separation mechanism" Jolla "enhanced" with SailfishOS 3.4.0 may prevent seamless updating of RPMs from different repositories; so if that fails, resort to downloading and then updating via Filemanager or `pkcon install-local`.  There is no need to disable / deactivate ("unapply") all Patches or removing Patchmanager, though.

Furthermore, the Patchmanager RPMs ≥ 3.2.9 offered here at OpenRepos are tagged with a different vendor ("meego", in order to use a single vendor for all distribution channels) than before, which constitutes a vendor change; this prevents updating, hence then one must also manually reinstall Patchmanager by downloading and updating via Filemanager or `pkcon install-local`.  There is also no need to disable all Patches or removing Patchmanager in this case.

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 ≥ 3.2 offered here are usually built for the latest SailfishOS GA ("general availability") release and may fail to install on older SailfishOS releases with an "unmet dependency: nothing provides <xyz>" message; if you are using an older SailfishOS release (≥ 3.4.0), then please resort to using the SailfishOS:Chum community repository, e.g., by the SailfishOS:Chum GUI application.

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 read Patchmanager's corresponding Wiki page Translations ("i18n", "l10n").

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