Making a patch

Once you have made a change to a document and checked your work, the next step is to submit your change to the DocumentationTeam.

Note: It is generally a better idea to make several small changes and send them individually than it is to make one big change.

Preparing a patch is easy. You can make a patch for a single file or a group of files that have been modified.

1. Go to the top level of the branch you are working on.

2. Issue the bzr update command. This updates your working copy with changes from the repository. Check for conflicts and resolve them.

3. Issue the bzr status command. This shows the status of files. Ensure that all conflicts are resolved.

4. Issue the command bzr diff > diffname.txt If you wish to include your own name and a narrative for your change, you should create a bundle rather than a patch. To do this, issue these commands instead of the command at step 4 above:

   $ bzr commit -m "your narrative here"
   $ bzr bundle > diffname.txt

This creates the file diffname.txt, which contains the differences between the working copy and repository revisions of the modified files.

You should send the patch/bundle to the team mailing list or attach it to a relevant bug report. If you have a mentor, copy them into the email and ask them to review it.

For more information about working with bzr, see the bzr website.

After you get used to DocBook, bzr and the DocumentationTeam, you are very likely to be offered an account so that you can write to the repository as well.