[Buildroot] [PATCH] support/scripts/apply-patches: use "git apply" as a fallback when applying patches

[Thomas Petazzoni]

Hello,

On Fri, 11 Jan 2019 05:35:13 +0200, Baruch Siach wrote:

> > Switching everybody to unconditionally use "git apply" seems a bit
> > risky, so instead we take a different route: if applying the patch
> > with "patch" fails, then we try with "git apply".  
> 
> This makes git a host dependency. Should we add host-git, or list git
> with host requirements?

It does not really make git a mandatory dependency. Indeed, "git apply"
is only tried if "patch" fails.

So, before my patch, if a patch failed to apply because "patch" failed,
then it aborted the build.

With my patch, if a patch fails to apply because "patch" failed, then
we will try "git apply". If "git apply" is not available, it will fail,
just like it used to be.

So my proposal doesn't *require* git, it only tries harder to apply
patches by using "git apply" if available.

Setups that used to work today without "git" installed will continue to
work with no change.

Best regards,

Thomas
-- 
Thomas Petazzoni, CTO, Bootlin
Embedded Linux and Kernel engineering
https://bootlin.com