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CONTRIBUTING: allow fetching unaccepted changes if the URL is stable #401863

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alyssais merged 1 commit into from
May 10, 2025
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CONTRIBUTING: allow fetching unaccepted changes if the URL is stable #401863

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5 changes: 3 additions & 2 deletions pkgs/README.md
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -508,7 +508,7 @@ In the interest of keeping our maintenance burden and the size of Nixpkgs to a m
patches = [
(fetchpatch {
name = "fix-check-for-using-shared-freetype-lib.patch";
url = "http://git.ghostscript.com/?p=ghostpdl.git;a=patch;h=8f5d285";
url = "https://cgit.ghostscript.com/cgi-bin/cgit.cgi/ghostpdl.git/patch/?id=8f5d28536e4518716fdfe974e580194c8f57871d";
hash = "sha256-uRcxaCjd+WAuGrXOmGfFeu79cUILwkRdBu48mwcBE7g=";
})
];
Expand All @@ -517,12 +517,13 @@ In the interest of keeping our maintenance burden and the size of Nixpkgs to a m

If a patch is available online but does not cleanly apply, it can be modified in some fixed ways by using additional optional arguments for `fetchpatch`. Check [the `fetchpatch` reference](https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/unstable/#fetchpatch) for details.

When adding patches in this manner you should be reasonably sure that the used URL is stable. Patches referencing open pull requests will change when the PR is updated and code forges (such as GitHub) usually garbage collect commits that are no longer reachable due to rebases/amends.

### Vendoring patches

In the following cases, a `.patch` file _should_ be added to Nixpkgs repository, instead of retrieved:

- solves problems unique to packaging in Nixpkgs
- is already proposed upstream but not merged yet
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@phanirithvij phanirithvij May 11, 2025

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- - is already proposed upstream but not merged yet

isn't that the case when we should vendor?

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@eclairevoyant eclairevoyant May 11, 2025

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it can be misleading. people read it to mean "if it's not even proposed upstream don't vendor" even though that's not what it says of course

- cannot be fetched easily
- has a high chance to disappear in the future due to unstable or unreliable URLs

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