Creating a patch

About this task

The following process shows you high-level steps for creating a patch.

Procedure

  1. Create a task (or several tasks) and assign it to the appropriate developer(s) for the patch release.
  2. Give the project information and new release values to the developers.

    Developers will need to copy a new development project from the baseline release, set their current task, diagnose and fix the problem, unit test, then complete the current task.

    Note: Be sure that developers who are fixing problems set the release value on their projects before checking out files. They also will need to set the current task so that objects they check out will be associated with the correct task automatically. If they forget these steps, they will have to perform several manual steps to ensure that the correct objects are included in the patch.

    Also, developers should not complete any other work in the patch projects. This is so that other checked out versions are not tagged with the patch release value and included in the patch accidentally.
  3. Create a system testing project for each project being patched.

    You can follow the same steps to create the system testing project with the following exception:

    Copy only the projects to be included in the patch.

    Creating a system testing project is discussed in Creating the system testing projects.

    Note: You do not need an integration prep patch project.
  4. See Building with specific tasks.
  5. Set up a test area.

    To set up a test area for the patch, you can install a copy of the released software to an installation area (e.g., patch_test_1.2), then copy the products built for the patch into the area. (Ideally, you should install the patch the same way your customers will install it.)

    If you have a special utility for installing patches, use it instead.

  6. System testing proceeds; if defects are found, start the cycle again at 1 (however, do not repeat 2 and 3).
  7. When the patch passes your quality standards, make it available to customers.
  8. Check in your new projects and create a baseline that contains the new projects as well as the other projects in the hierarchy.

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