how to apply a local patch to an etherpad plugin?

[jkbzh]

etherpad-lite v2.3.2
pnpm v10.12.3
nodejs v22.16.0

Hi,

I was expecting to use pnpm to apply a local patch, as that's one of its features. However I didn't manage to do it for etherpad-plugins.

pnpm supports applying local patches to existing modules when, for example, you don't have to their repository or the module is not being maintained anymore. This doc doc, gives an example on how to it by via this command:
pnpm patch module-name@version.

I've used and it works as expected.

However, I can't manage to make it work with etherpad-lite 2.3.2. I did the linux installation as decribed in the readme (git clone, pnpm i, pnpm run build::etherpad). One I did that, I installed the plugin from the command line:

pnpm run plugins i ep_ldap_auth

And everything works as expected.

However, when I want to patch that plugin, pnpm doesn't find it.
You should be able to see it if you do a pnpm ls, but it only shows etherpad itself:

$ cd etherpad-lite
$ pnpm ls
...
[email protected] /tmp/etherpad-lite
dependencies:
ep_etherpad-lite link:src ep_ldapauth plugin
...

If I run this command while on etherpad-lite/src, I can see all the etherpad-lite dependencies and I can edit them, for example:

$ cd etherpad-lite/src
$pnpm patch [email protected]
Patch: You can now edit the package at:

/tmp/etherpad-lite/node_modules/.pnpm_patches/[email protected]
...

However, the ep_ldapauth plugin is not listed as a dependency so I cannot patch it. I don't think I can see either any of the modules that are stored under etherpad-lite/src/plugin_packages/.

Do you have an idea on what I'm doing wrong?

It is as if the plugin-directories were being excluded from the dependencies and that's why pvpm ls can't see them.

If you don't have any solution on how to use pnpm to apply a patch, could you give me some tips on how I could patch the plugin? Is it as easy as editing the ./src/plugin_packages/.versions/[email protected]/ep_ldapauth.js
file and that's it or do I need to compile etherpad-lite again with pvpm?

Will my changes for that plugin be overwritten when etherpad-lite is updated thru its automatic mechanism? (if I understood that setting correctly).

Thanks in advance for your help,