Checking for Collisions Before Installing a Hotfix

This article will walk through the basic steps that can be used to check for code collisions between a new fix pack or hotfix and custom plugins.

NOTE: This procedure requires that the patches being installed include the source code. This option is available for Patching Tool v. 19 - v. 22. Starting with Patching Tool 3.0.20 and Liferay DXP 7.3, source code is only available in the Liferay DXP GitHub repository (more information: DXP Source Code Access)

Affected Products

Patching Tool v. 19 -  v. 22

Resolution

In this example, we will be checking the Portal-64 hotfix for collisions against the previously installed Portal-45 hotfix.

1. Stop the server running the portal.
2. Run ./patching-tool.sh store to check the current patch level. If no store is found, it can be added by running ./patching-tool.sh store add {label}. Replace {label} with an appropriate label for the current patch level such as "Portal-45".
3. Place the Portal-64 FixPack in the patching-tool/patches directory.
4. Verify that Portal-64 is ready to be installed by running ./patching-tool.sh info.

   NOTE: If a warning occurs that shows a loss in fixes with this new patch level, please, contact the Support Team by opening a new Help Center ticket.

5. Without installing the new patch, add it to the store by running ./patching-tool.sh store add {new-label}. This will allow us to check for collisions against the old patch level.
6. To list the differences between the last patch level and the new one, run ./patching-tool.sh diff files collisions {label}. Be sure to replace {label} with the first label used in step 2.
7. To locate the plugins that contain the files listed in step 6, run ./patching-tool.sh list-collisions.
8. Run ./patching-tool.sh diff source collisions {label} to view the differences in the code between the files used in the custom plugins that will be modified by the new patch.

   NOTE: If any Liferay plugins are listed as having collisions, please open a new Help Center ticket with the Support Team.

9. After updating the custom plugins to work with the new code, install the new patch by running ./patching-tool.sh install.
10. The currently installed plugin libraries can be updated by running ./patching-tool.sh update-plugins.
11. Start the portal server.
12. Deploy the new versions of the custom plugins.
13. Test the custom plugins to ensure no issue occur.