DocumentationCommerceImplementation Playbook
Contributed by Anton Evers, Sr. Technical Architect, Adobe
Contributed by Anton Evers

Best practices for distributing Adobe Commerce patches at scale

Last update: Fri Sep 29 2023 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

CREATED FOR:

  • Experienced
  • Developer

If you manage multiple Adobe Commerce installations, patching can be a complex process. Centralized patching is an essential part of global reference architecture and a best practice for enterprises. It helps you apply the right patches on all your Adobe Commerce installations. This topic explains how to achieve centralized patch distribution for all types of Adobe Commerce patches.

NOTE
The following content was originally published in the Distributing Adobe Commerce Patches at Scale post on the Adobe Tech Blog. It’s been modified to focus on the steps and code samples for implementing a centralized patching strategy. See the original post for more details about the different types of patches described here.

Affected products and versions

All supported versions of:

  • Adobe Commerce on cloud infrastructure
  • Adobe Commerce on premises

Strategy

Since there are many different types of patches and many ways to apply them, how do you know which patch is applied first? The more patches you have, the greater the chance that they will apply to the same file or to the same line of code. Patches are applied in the following order:

  1. Security patches are part of the static code base of an Adobe Commerce release.

  2. Composer patches through composer install and composer update plugins such as cweagans/composer-patches.

  3. All required patches included in the Cloud Patches for Commerce package.

  4. Selected quality patches included in the Quality Patches Tool.

  5. Custom patches and Adobe Commerce Support patches in the /m2-hotfixes directory in alphabetical order by patch name.

    note important
    IMPORTANT
    The more patches you apply, the more complex your code becomes. Complex code can make upgrading to a new version of Adobe commerce more difficult and increase your total cost of ownership.

If you are responsible for maintaining multiple installations of Adobe Commerce, ensuring that all instances have the same set of patches installed can be challenging. Each installation has its own git repository, /m2-hotfixes directory, and composer.json file. The only guarantee that you have is that the security patches and required patches for cloud users are all installed as part of your main Adobe Commerce version.

Currently, there is no single centralized solution for this problem, but Composer offers a way to bridge the gap. The cweagans/composer-patches package allows you to apply patches from dependencies. You can create a Composer package that installs all your patches, then require that package in all of your projects.

That covers security patches, required patches, and Composer patches, but what about quality patches and the contents of the /m2-hotfixes directory?

Apply quality patches and hotfixes

You can install quality patches on both cloud infrastructure and on-premises installations using the vendor/bin/magento-patches apply command. You must ensure that the vendor/bin/magento-patches apply command runs after composer install operations.

NOTE
On cloud infrastructure, you can also install quality patches by listing them in your project’s .magento.env.yaml file. The example described here requires using the vendor/bin/magento-patches apply command.

You can specify the patches to apply in the composer.json file of a custom Composer component package, then create a plugin package that runs the command after composer install operations.

To summarize, this centralized patching example requires you to create two custom Composer packages:

  • Component package: centralized-patcher

    • Defines the list of quality patches and m2-hotfixes to install
    • Requires the centralized-patcher-composer-plugin package, which runs the vendor/bin/magento-patches apply command after composer install operations

  • Plugin package: centralized-patcher-composer-plugin

    • Defines a CentralizedPatcher PHP class that reads the quality patches list from the centralized-patcher package
    • Runs the vendor/bin/magento-patches apply command to install the list of quality patches after composer install operations

centralized-patcher

You can create a Composer component package (centralized-patcher) to centrally manage all quality patches and /m2-hotfixes across all of your Adobe Commerce installations.

The component package must:

  • Copy the contents of the /m2-hotfixes directory into all your installations during deployment.
  • Define the list of quality patches to install.
  • Run the vendor/bin/magento-patches command to install the same list of quality patches across all installations (using the centralized-patcher-composer-plugin plugin package as a dependency).

To create the centralized-patcher component package:

  1. Create a composer.json file with the following contents:

    note note
    NOTE
    The require attribute in the following example shows a require dependency on the plugin package that you must create later this example.
    code language-json 
    {
 "name": "magento-services/centralized-patcher",
 "version": "0.0.1",
 "description": "Centralized patcher for patching multiple web stores from a central place",
 "type": "magento2-component",
 "license": [
     "OSL-3.0",
     "AFL-3.0"
 ],
 "require": {
     "magento-services/centralized-patcher-composer-plugin": "~0.0.1"
 },
 "require-dev": {
     "composer/composer": "^2.0"
 },
 "extra": {
     "map": [
     ],
}

  2. Create an /m2-hotfixes directory inside your package and add it to the map attribute in your composer.json file. The map attribute contains files to copy from this package into the root of the target project that you want to patch.

    code language-json 
    {
 ...
 "extra": {
     "map": [
         [
             "/m2-hotfixes",
             "/m2-hotfixes"
         ]
     ],
}
    note note
    NOTE
    The centralized-patcher package copies the contents of the /m2-hotfixes directory into the m2-hotfixes directory of the target project on composer install. Since the cloud deployment scripts apply m2-hotfixes after composer install, all hotfixes are installed by the deployment mechanism.

  3. Define the quality patches to install in the quality-patches attribute.

    code language-json 
    {
...
 "extra": {
     "map": [
         [
             "/m2-hotfixes",
             "/m2-hotfixes"
         ]
     ],
     "quality-patches": [
         "MDVA-30106",
         "MDVA-12304"
     ]
}

The quality-patches attribute in the preceding code sample contains two patches from the full patch list as an example. These quality patches are installed on every project that requires the centralized-patcher package using the vendor/bin/magento-patches apply command.

For testing purposes, you can create an example patch (/m2-hotfixes/EXAMPLE-PATCH_2.4.6.patch).

NOTE
You should place your own patches in the m2-hotfixes directory together with patches you receive directly from Adobe Commerce Support.

An example patch file (/m2-hotfixes/EXAMPLE-PATCH_2.4.6.patch):

diff --git a/vendor/magento/framework/Mview/View/Subscription.php b/vendor/magento/framework/Mview/View/Subscription.php
index 03a3bf9..681e0b0 100644
--- a/vendor/magento/framework/Mview/View/Subscription.php
+++ b/vendor/magento/framework/Mview/View/Subscription.php
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ use Magento\Framework\Mview\ViewInterface;

 /**
  * Mview subscription.
+ * Test Patch File
  */
 class Subscription implements SubscriptionInterface
 {

centralized-patcher-composer-plugin

Since this example uses the on-premises method to install quality patches, you must ensure that the vendor/bin/magento-patches apply command runs after composer install operations. This plugin is triggered after composer install operations, which runs the vendor/bin/magento-patches apply command.

To create the centralized-patcher-compose-plugin component package:

  1. Create a composer.json file with the following contents:

    code language-json 
    {
 "name": "magento-services/centralized-patcher-composer-plugin",
 "version": "0.0.1",
 "description": "Centralized patcher composer plugin to apply quality patches from the centralized patcher",
 "type": "composer-plugin",
 "license": [
     "OSL-3.0",
     "AFL-3.0"
 ],
 "require": {
     "symfony/process": "^4.1 || ^5.1",
     "magento/magento-cloud-patches": "~1.0.20",
     "magento/framework": "~103.0.5-p1",
     "composer-plugin-api": "^2.0"
 },
 "require-dev": {
     "composer/composer": "^2.0"
 },
 "suggest": {
     "magento-services/centralized-patcher": "~0.0.1"
 },
 "autoload": {
     "psr-4": {
         "MagentoServices\\CentralizedPatcherComposerPlugin\\": ""
     }
 },
 "extra": {
     "class": "MagentoServices\\CentralizedPatcherComposerPlugin\\Patcher"
 }
}

  2. Create a PHP file and define a CentralizedPatcher class to read the quality patches list from the centralized-patcher component package and install them immediately after every composer install operation.

    code language-php 
    <?php
declare(strict_types=1);

namespace MagentoServices\CentralizedPatcherComposerPlugin;

use Composer\Composer;
use Composer\EventDispatcher\EventSubscriberInterface;
use Composer\IO\IOInterface;
use Composer\Plugin\PluginInterface;
use Composer\Script\ScriptEvents;
use Symfony\Component\Process\Exception\ProcessFailedException;
use Symfony\Component\Process\Process;

class Patcher implements PluginInterface, EventSubscriberInterface
{
 /**
  * @var Composer $composer
  */
 protected $composer;

 /**
  * @var IOInterface $io
  */
 protected $io;

 /**
  * @param Composer $composer
  * @param IOInterface $io
  * @return void
  */
 public function activate(Composer $composer, IOInterface $io)
 {
     $this->composer = $composer;
     $this->io = $io;
 }

 /**
  * @param Composer $composer
  * @param IOInterface $io
  * @return void
  */
 public function deactivate(Composer $composer, IOInterface $io)
 {
     // Method must exist
 }

 /**
  * @param Composer $composer
  * @param IOInterface $io
  * @return void
  */
 public function uninstall(Composer $composer, IOInterface $io)
 {
     // Method must exist
 }

 /**
  * @return string[]
  */
 public static function getSubscribedEvents()
 {
     return [
         ScriptEvents::POST_UPDATE_CMD => 'installPatches',
         ScriptEvents::POST_INSTALL_CMD => 'installPatches',
     ];
 }

 /**
  * Apply patches from magento-services/centralized-patcher
  *
  * @param \Composer\Script\Event $event
  * @return void
  */
 public function installPatches(\Composer\Script\Event $event)
 {
     $patches = [];
     $this->io->write('Applying centralized quality patches');
     $packages = $this->composer->getLocker()->getLockData()['packages'];
     foreach ($packages as $package) {
         if ($package['name'] !== 'magento-services/centralized-patcher') {
             continue;
         }
         $patches = $package['extra']['quality-patches'] ?? [];
     }
     if (empty($patches)) {
         $this->io->error("No centralized quality patches to install");
         exit(0);
     }
     $command = array_merge(
         ['php','./vendor/bin/magento-patches','apply','--no-interaction'],
          $patches
     );
     $process = new Process($command);
     try {
         $this->io->debug($process->getCommandLine());
         $process->mustRun();
         $this->io->write(
             str_replace("\n\n", "\n", trim($process->getErrorOutput() ?: $process->getOutput(), "\n"))
         );
     } catch (ProcessFailedException $e) {
         $process = $e->getProcess();
         $error = sprintf(
             'The command "%s" failed. %s',
             $process->getCommandLine(),
             trim($process->getErrorOutput() ?: $process->getOutput(), "\n")
         );
         throw new \RuntimeException($error, $process->getExitCode());
     }
 }
}
TIP
Refer to the code-examples to see the two packages described in this example in action.

What to do with project-specific patches

You may have a scenario where only 95% of the patches are required in all projects, while a few patches apply only to a specific instance. The regular way to apply patching still works. You can keep project-specific patches in the /m2-hotfixes directory and install quality patches per project.

If you use this approach, do not commit any patches in the /m2-hotfixes directory that have been copied into your project by the centralized-patcher component package. You can prevent accidental commits by adding /m2-hotfixes to your .gitignore file. After updating the .gitignore file, remember that any project-specific /m2-hotfixes must be added using the git add –force command.

Running different Adobe Commerce versions

Make sure that you set the right dependency in the centralized-patcher component package. For example, you may require Adobe Commerce 2.4.5-p2 for a specific version of your package, which only provides patches that are compatible with Adobe Commerce 2.4.5-p2. You may have another version of this package that is compatible with Adobe Commerce 2.4.4.

Understanding the result

Like with Adobe Commerce on cloud infrastructure, this article assumes that your deployment process uses the composer install command and not composer update or git pull to deploy new code to your servers. The flow of centralized patch installation will then look as follows:

  1. Composer install

    • Installs Adobe Commerce, including -p1 or -p2 security and functional patches
    • Combines centralized /m2-hotfixes and support patches with project-specific /m2-hotfixes and support patches
    • Applies any patches that are installed with the cweagans/composer-patches Composer package

  2. After composer install

    • Composer plugin installs centralized quality patches

  3. Deployment

    • Required patches and project-specific quality patches are installed based on the .magento.env.yaml file (Adobe Commerce on cloud infrastructure projects only).
    • Custom patches and support patches from the /m2-hotfixes directory are installed in alphabetical order by patch name.

This way you can centrally manage all your patches for all your installations and you can better guarantee the security and stability of your Adobe Commerce stores. Use the following methods to check patch status:

Code examples

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