[development] Getting rid of core hacks for drupal upgrade to happen. Need tips on the process.

[Steven Jones]

Hi,

I was going to suggest Hacked! but it's D6 only at the moment,
although it could probably be ported to D5 fairly simply. It was a
kind of 'can this be done' module, so is quite rough.

Regards
Steven Jones
ComputerMinds ltd - Perfect Drupal Websites

Phone : 024 7666 7277
Mobile : 07702 131 576
Twitter : darthsteven
http://www.computerminds.co.uk



On 1 April 2010 16:33, Angela Byron <drupal-devel at webchick.net> wrote:
> Check out the Hacked! module, which can tell you which (and with Diff
> module, how) core/contrib modules have been modified:
> http://drupal.org/project/hacked. Still some rough edges, but a great place
> to invest time in sprucing it up, since it's really useful.
>
> On 1-Apr-10, at 8:34 AM, Dipen wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>>  I have started working on a large code base built using drupal 5.2 and
>> now there is a requirement to upgrade it to 5.22 and eventually 6. The
>> problem is that lot of core files (modules, include folder) was hacked over
>> a period of last 1 year to make drupal work according to req, and things
>> were obviously not done drupal way. I am working on identifying changes that
>> were made to core and then would attempt on implementing those changes from
>> a custom module, reverting the core to 5.2 clean state. The job would have
>> been easier if source control management was used from start in the project,
>> but that did not happen and hacks were made before SCM started recording
>> them and hence I can not rely on svn history. What I am doing right now is
>> the following:
>>
>> 1> I have downloaded drupal 5.2 for reference.
>> 2> Have trunk of tainted project checked out.
>> 3> Diffing module files one by one ( against 5.2 download in step 1, so
>> diffing hacked node.module against 5.2 node.module) and recording changes to
>> find out what changes were intended when the developer hacked the core (eg.
>> node module file)
>>
>> For 3 to happen, I can write a script to get diff of all files in say
>> includes folder, but that would give me just the diff file and it would be
>> hard to study why were the changes done. But I am sure I can use it as a
>> starting tool to find out which files have changed in core when measured
>> against cleand drupal 5.2 and then focus on those files.
>>
>> I wanted suggestions and tips on:
>>
>> 1> Apart from svn history, diffing files one by one, does any one have
>> suggestions to find out changes between hacked and clean file? Maybe at a
>> folder level? Like diff the whole include folder or diff the whole modules
>> folder. (I know about beyond compare, anything else?)
>>
>> 2> Any tips, experiences, suggestions on the process of removing core
>> hacks and implementing them outside of core.
>>
>> 3> Any suggestions on the whole approach? If it can be made more
>> efficient.
>>
>> I would like opinion of anyone who has dealt with core hacks and removed
>> them to clear upgrade path.
>>
>> Thanks
>> Dipen
>
>