commit e9d34b9d430a8ca6a630cbed333a516bc0b32972
parent 45438f51a3021272da3c0479a1402cdb33557661
Author: Erik Letson <hmagellan@hmagellan.com>
Date: Sun, 9 Aug 2020 11:48:25 -0500
Added README info about project
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+suckless-gf-dwm - Gentoo-Friendly Patches for Suckless's dwm
+
+== What Is This? ==
+
+ This repository contains a host of patches that can be applied to dwm, the dynamic window manager from suckless.org. These
+patches have been modified to work with Gentoo's dwm package, and are specifically compatible with the 'savedconfig' USE flag. Each
+patch in this repository has its own directory. Each of these directories contains the actual patch file itself (ending in '.patch',
+for Portage compatibility reasons), and a file called USAGE that informs the user on any manual changes that should or might be
+applied in order to use the patch. Be sure to read USAGE carefully before applying the patch, and follow the instructions therein!
+
+ This project exists because of a problem with the default way that Suckless programs work in a Gentoo environment. Gentoo's
+package manager, Portage, offers a built-in utility for patching programs, and this utility works nicely with the patches for dwm
+that can be found on suckless.org. Additionally, since Portage is a source-based package manager, it also offers a utility for
+editing config.h files in Suckless programs by using the 'savedconfig' USE flag. This USE flag, when enabled, will create a directory
+in /etc/portage/savedconfig that contains a header file (this file is located in /etc/portage/savedconfig/x11-wm/dwm/ in dwm's case).
+This header file can be edited just like the one that you would edit if you were working with a git repository or other copy of the
+dwm code directly. Edits made to this file are applied as a diff to config.def.h at emerge time, thus providing a very simple and
+convenient way of incorporating Suckless's recommended modification methodology in a Portage-friendly fashion. There is a problem
+with this, however; because of the way that Portage patches programs as part of ebuilds, most of the time any patches that make
+changes to config.def.h themselves will be totally incompatible with a custom savedconfig header file, and emerge will fail if you
+try to apply such a patch while 'savedconfig' is enabled. The solution to this dilemma is to modify the patches in such a way as to
+make them never make any changes to config.def.h, and thus make them compatible with 'savedconfig' and friendly to Gentoo. Any
+changes that the patch originally tried to make to config.def.h could either be applied manually to the savedconfig header file by
+the user, or potentially included in another file as part of the patching process, depending on what the changes do.
+
+ A side-goal of this repository is to make each target patch (see below) support the current stable version of x11-wm/dwm as
+offered by Gentoo tree (currently dwm version 6.2). This could potentially result in substantial changes being made to individual
+patches, or perhaps the total rewrite of patches altogether. Compatibility changes will be noted in individual patches' USAGE files.
+
+ These patches are ALL compatible with Portage and savedconfig. Effort has also been taken to ensure the patches are themselves
+cross-compatible; that is, that they do not conflict with each other. Despite this effort, lack of conflict between patches is not
+guaranteed at this time. If any specific patches are incompatible with each other, the conflict will be note in the patches' USAGE
+files. Normally, this should serve to document most incompatiblities, but in the case of the user applying a great many patches all
+at once, it is possible that novel conflicts may occur. Beware of this should you try to emerge with a huge number of patches!
+
+== Target Patches ==
+
+ suckless-gf-dwm targets the patches located at the following locations:
+
+ (1). https://dwm.suckless.org/patches/
+
+== License ==
+
+ suckless-gf-dwm is released under the MIT/X Consortium License, the same license that dwm itself is under:
+ (https://git.suckless.org/dwm/file/LICENSE.html)
+
+ See the LICENSE file for details.
+
+== Maintainer ==
+
+ suckless-gf-dwm is maintained by Erik Letson <hmagellan@hmagellan.com>. Please direct any questions or patches to that email.
