PATCH(1) PATCH(1)
NAME
patch - apply a diff file to an original
SYNOPSIS
patch [options] [originalfile [patchfile]]
but usually just
patch -pnum <patchfile
DESCRIPTION
patch takes a patch file patchfile containing a difference listing produced by the diff program and
applies those differences to one or more original files, producing patched versions. Normally the
patched versions are put in place of the originals. Backups can be made; see the -b or --backup
option. The names of the files to be patched are usually taken from the patch file, but if there's
just one file to be patched it can specified on the command line as originalfile.
Upon startup, patch attempts to determine the type of the diff listing, unless overruled by a -c
(--context), -e (--ed), -n (--normal), or -u (--unified) option. Context diffs (old-style, new-
style, and unified) and normal diffs are applied by the patch program itself, while ed diffs are sim-ply simply
ply fed to the ed(1) editor via a pipe.
patch tries to skip any leading garbage, apply the diff, and then skip any trailing garbage. Thus
you could feed an article or message containing a diff listing to patch, and it should work. If the
entire diff is indented by a consistent amount, or if a context diff contains lines ending in CRLF or
is encapsulated one or more times by prepending "- " to lines starting with "-" as specified by
Internet RFC 934, this is taken into account. After removing indenting or encapsulation, lines
beginning with # are ignored, as they are considered to be comments.
With context diffs, and to a lesser extent with normal diffs, patch can detect when the line numbers
mentioned in the patch are incorrect, and attempts to find the correct place to apply each hunk of
the patch. As a first guess, it takes the line number mentioned for the hunk, plus or minus any off-set offset
set used in applying the previous hunk. If that is not the correct place, patch scans both forwards
and backwards for a set of lines matching the context given in the hunk. First patch looks for a
place where all lines of the context match. If no such place is found, and it's a context diff, and
the maximum fuzz factor is set to 1 or more, then another scan takes place ignoring the first and
last line of context. If that fails, and the maximum fuzz factor is set to 2 or more, the first two
and last two lines of context are ignored, and another scan is made. (The default maximum fuzz fac-tor factor
tor is 2.) If patch cannot find a place to install that hunk of the patch, it puts the hunk out to a
reject file, which normally is the name of the output file plus a .rej suffix, or # if .rej would
generate a file name that is too long (if even appending the single character # makes the file name
too long, then # replaces the file name's last character). (The rejected hunk comes out in ordinary
context diff form regardless of the input patch's form. If the input was a normal diff, many of the
contexts are simply null.) The line numbers on the hunks in the reject file may be different than in
the patch file: they reflect the approximate location patch thinks the failed hunks belong in the new
file rather than the old one.
As each hunk is completed, you are told if the hunk failed, and if so which line (in the new file)
patch thought the hunk should go on. If the hunk is installed at a different line from the line num-ber number
ber specified in the diff you are told the offset. A single large offset may indicate that a hunk
was installed in the wrong place. You are also told if a fuzz factor was used to make the match, in
which case you should also be slightly suspicious. If the --verbose option is given, you are also
told about hunks that match exactly.
If no original file origfile is specified on the command line, patch tries to figure out from the
leading garbage what the name of the file to edit is, using the following rules.
First, patch takes an ordered list of candidate file names as follows:
oo If the header is that of a context diff, patch takes the old and new file names in the header. A
name is ignored if it does not have enough slashes to satisfy the -pnum or --strip=num option.
The name /dev/null is also ignored.
oo If there is an Index: line in the leading garbage and if either the old and new names are both
absent or if patch is conforming to POSIX, patch takes the name in the Index: line.
oo For the purpose of the following rules, the candidate file names are considered to be in the order
(old, new, index), regardless of the order that they appear in the header.
Then patch selects a file name from the candidate list as follows:
oo If some of the named files exist, patch selects the first name if conforming to POSIX, and the
best name otherwise.
oo If patch is not ignoring RCS, ClearCase, Perforce, and SCCS (see the -g num or --get=num option),
and no named files exist but an RCS, ClearCase, Perforce, or SCCS master is found, patch selects
the first named file with an RCS, ClearCase, Perforce, or SCCS master.
oo If no named files exist, no RCS, ClearCase, Perforce, or SCCS master was found, some names are
given, patch is not conforming to POSIX, and the patch appears to create a file, patch selects the
best name requiring the creation of the fewest directories.
oo If no file name results from the above heuristics, you are asked for the name of the file to
patch, and patch selects that name.
To determine the best of a nonempty list of file names, patch first takes all the names with the
fewest path name components; of those, it then takes all the names with the shortest basename; of
those, it then takes all the shortest names; finally, it takes the first remaining name.
Additionally, if the leading garbage contains a Prereq: line, patch takes the first word from the
prerequisites line (normally a version number) and checks the original file to see if that word can
be found. If not, patch asks for confirmation before proceeding.
The upshot of all this is that you should be able to say, while in a news interface, something like
the following:
| patch -d /usr/src/local/blurfl
and patch a file in the blurfl directory directly from the article containing the patch.
If the patch file contains more than one patch, patch tries to apply each of them as if they came
from separate patch files. This means, among other things, that it is assumed that the name of the
file to patch must be determined for each diff listing, and that the garbage before each diff listing
contains interesting things such as file names and revision level, as mentioned previously.
OPTIONS
-b or --backup
Make backup files. That is, when patching a file, rename or copy the original instead of removing
it. When backing up a file that does not exist, an empty, unreadable backup file is created as a
placeholder to represent the nonexistent file. See the -V or --version-control option for details
about how backup file names are determined.
--backup-if-mismatch
Back up a file if the patch does not match the file exactly and if backups are not otherwise
requested. This is the default unless patch is conforming to POSIX.
--no-backup-if-mismatch
Do not back up a file if the patch does not match the file exactly and if backups are not other-wise otherwise
wise requested. This is the default if patch is conforming to POSIX.
-B pref or --prefix=pref
Prefix pref to a file name when generating its simple backup file name. For example, with
-B /junk/ the simple backup file name for src/patch/util.c is /junk/src/patch/util.c.
--binary
Read and write all files in binary mode, except for standard output and /dev/tty. This option has
no effect on POSIX-conforming systems. On systems like DOS where this option makes a difference,
the patch should be generated by diff -a --binary.
-c or --context
Interpret the patch file as a ordinary context diff.
-d dir or --directory=dir
Change to the directory dir immediately, before doing anything else.
-D define or --ifdef=define
Use the #ifdef ... #endif construct to mark changes, with define as the differentiating symbol.
--dry-run
Print the results of applying the patches without actually changing any files.
-e or --ed
Interpret the patch file as an ed script.
-E or --remove-empty-files
Remove output files that are empty after the patches have been applied. Normally this option is
unnecessary, since patch can examine the time stamps on the header to determine whether a file
should exist after patching. However, if the input is not a context diff or if patch is conform-ing conforming
ing to POSIX, patch does not remove empty patched files unless this option is given. When patch
removes a file, it also attempts to remove any empty ancestor directories.
-f or --force
Assume that the user knows exactly what he or she is doing, and do not ask any questions. Skip
patches whose headers do not say which file is to be patched; patch files even though they have
the wrong version for the Prereq: line in the patch; and assume that patches are not reversed even
if they look like they are. This option does not suppress commentary; use -s for that.
-F num or --fuzz=num
Set the maximum fuzz factor. This option only applies to diffs that have context, and causes
patch to ignore up to that many lines in looking for places to install a hunk. Note that a larger
fuzz factor increases the odds of a faulty patch. The default fuzz factor is 2, and it may not be
set to more than the number of lines of context in the context diff, ordinarily 3.
-g num or --get=num
This option controls patch's actions when a file is under RCS or SCCS control, and does not exist
or is read-only and matches the default version, or when a file is under ClearCase or Perforce
control and does not exist. If num is positive, patch gets (or checks out) the file from the
revision control system; if zero, patch ignores RCS, ClearCase, Perforce, and SCCS and does not
get the file; and if negative, patch asks the user whether to get the file. The default value of
this option is given by the value of the PATCH_GET environment variable if it is set; if not, the
default value is zero if patch is conforming to POSIX, negative otherwise.
--help
Print a summary of options and exit.
-i patchfile or --input=patchfile
Read the patch from patchfile. If patchfile is -, read from standard input, the default.
-l or --ignore-whitespace
Match patterns loosely, in case tabs or spaces have been munged in your files. Any sequence of
one or more blanks in the patch file matches any sequence in the original file, and sequences of
blanks at the ends of lines are ignored. Normal characters must still match exactly. Each line
of the context must still match a line in the original file.
-n or --normal
Interpret the patch file as a normal diff.
-N or --forward
Ignore patches that seem to be reversed or already applied. See also -R.
-o outfile or --output=outfile
Send output to outfile instead of patching files in place. Do not use this option if outfile is
one of the files to be patched.
-pnum or --strip=num
Strip the smallest prefix containing num leading slashes from each file name found in the patch
file. A sequence of one or more adjacent slashes is counted as a single slash. This controls how
file names found in the patch file are treated, in case you keep your files in a different direc-tory directory
tory than the person who sent out the patch. For example, supposing the file name in the patch
file was
/u/howard/src/blurfl/blurfl.c
setting -p0 gives the entire file name unmodified, -p1 gives
u/howard/src/blurfl/blurfl.c
without the leading slash, -p4 gives
blurfl/blurfl.c
and not specifying -p at all just gives you blurfl.c. Whatever you end up with is looked for
either in the current directory, or the directory specified by the -d option.
--posix
Conform more strictly to the POSIX standard, as follows.
oo Take the first existing file from the list (old, new, index) when intuiting file names from
diff headers.
oo Do not remove files that are empty after patching.
oo Do not ask whether to get files from RCS, ClearCase, Perforce, or SCCS.
oo Require that all options precede the files in the command line.
oo Do not backup files when there is a mismatch.
--quoting-style=word
Use style word to quote output names. The word should be one of the following:
literal
Output names as-is.
shell Quote names for the shell if they contain shell metacharacters or would cause ambiguous
output.
shell-always
Quote names for the shell, even if they would normally not require quoting.
c Quote names as for a C language string.
escape Quote as with c except omit the surrounding double-quote characters.
You can specify the default value of the --quoting-style option with the environment variable
QUOTING_STYLE. If that environment variable is not set, the default value is shell.
-r rejectfile or --reject-file=rejectfile
Put rejects into rejectfile instead of the default .rej file.
-R or --reverse
Assume that this patch was created with the old and new files swapped. (Yes, I'm afraid that does
happen occasionally, human nature being what it is.) patch attempts to swap each hunk around
before applying it. Rejects come out in the swapped format. The -R option does not work with ed
diff scripts because there is too little information to reconstruct the reverse operation.
If the first hunk of a patch fails, patch reverses the hunk to see if it can be applied that way.
If it can, you are asked if you want to have the -R option set. If it can't, the patch continues
to be applied normally. (Note: this method cannot detect a reversed patch if it is a normal diff
and if the first command is an append (i.e. it should have been a delete) since appends always
succeed, due to the fact that a null context matches anywhere. Luckily, most patches add or
change lines rather than delete them, so most reversed normal diffs begin with a delete, which
fails, triggering the heuristic.)
-s or --silent or --quiet
Work silently, unless an error occurs.
-t or --batch
Suppress questions like -f, but make some different assumptions: skip patches whose headers do not
contain file names (the same as -f); skip patches for which the file has the wrong version for the
Prereq: line in the patch; and assume that patches are reversed if they look like they are.
-T or --set-time
Set the modification and access times of patched files from time stamps given in context diff
headers, assuming that the context diff headers use local time. This option is not recommended,
because patches using local time cannot easily be used by people in other time zones, and because
local time stamps are ambiguous when local clocks move backwards during daylight-saving time
adjustments. Instead of using this option, generate patches with UTC and use the -Z or --set-utc
option instead.
-u or --unified
Interpret the patch file as a unified context diff.
-v or --version
Print out patch's revision header and patch level, and exit.
-V method or --version-control=method
Use method to determine backup file names. The method can also be given by the PATCH_VERSION_CON-TROL PATCH_VERSION_CONTROL
TROL (or, if that's not set, the VERSION_CONTROL) environment variable, which is overridden by
this option. The method does not affect whether backup files are made; it affects only the names
of any backup files that are made.
The value of method is like the GNU Emacs `version-control' variable; patch also recognizes syn-onyms synonyms
onyms that are more descriptive. The valid values for method are (unique abbreviations are
accepted):
existing or nil
Make numbered backups of files that already have them, otherwise simple backups. This is the
default.
numbered or t
Make numbered backups. The numbered backup file name for F is F.~N~ where N is the version
number.
simple or never
Make simple backups. The -B or --prefix, -Y or --basename-prefix, and -z or --suffix options
specify the simple backup file name. If none of these options are given, then a simple backup
suffix is used; it is the value of the SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX environment variable if set, and is
.orig otherwise.
With numbered or simple backups, if the backup file name is too long, the backup suffix ~ is used
instead; if even appending ~ would make the name too long, then ~ replaces the last character of
the file name.
--verbose
Output extra information about the work being done.
-x num or --debug=num
Set internal debugging flags of interest only to patch patchers.
-Y pref or --basename-prefix=pref
Prefix pref to the basename of a file name when generating its simple backup file name. For exam-ple, example,
ple, with -Y .del/ the simple backup file name for src/patch/util.c is src/patch/.del/util.c.
-z suffix or --suffix=suffix
Use suffix as the simple backup suffix. For example, with -z - the simple backup file name for
src/patch/util.c is src/patch/util.c-. The backup suffix may also be specified by the SIM-PLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX
PLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX environment variable, which is overridden by this option.
-Z or --set-utc
Set the modification and access times of patched files from time stamps given in context diff
headers, assuming that the context diff headers use Coordinated Universal Time (UTC, often known
as GMT). Also see the -T or --set-time option.
The -Z or --set-utc and -T or --set-time options normally refrain from setting a file's time if
the file's original time does not match the time given in the patch header, or if its contents do
not match the patch exactly. However, if the -f or --force option is given, the file time is set
regardless.
Due to the limitations of diff output format, these options cannot update the times of files whose
contents have not changed. Also, if you use these options, you should remove (e.g. with
make clean) all files that depend on the patched files, so that later invocations of make do not
get confused by the patched files' times.
ENVIRONMENT
PATCH_GET
This specifies whether patch gets missing or read-only files from RCS, ClearCase, Perforce, or
SCCS by default; see the -g or --get option.
POSIXLY_CORRECT
If set, patch conforms more strictly to the POSIX standard by default: see the --posix option.
QUOTING_STYLE
Default value of the --quoting-style option.
SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX
Extension to use for simple backup file names instead of .orig.
TMPDIR, TMP, TEMP
Directory to put temporary files in; patch uses the first environment variable in this list that
is set. If none are set, the default is system-dependent; it is normally /tmp on Unix hosts.
VERSION_CONTROL or PATCH_VERSION_CONTROL
Selects version control style; see the -v or --version-control option.
FILES
$TMPDIR/p*
temporary files
/dev/tty
controlling terminal; used to get answers to questions asked of the user
SEE ALSO
diff(1), ed(1)
Marshall T. Rose and Einar A. Stefferud, Proposed Standard for Message Encapsulation, Internet RFC
934 URL: <ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc934.txt (1985-01).
NOTES FOR PATCH SENDERS
There are several things you should bear in mind if you are going to be sending out patches.
Create your patch systematically. A good method is the command diff -Naur old new where old and new
identify the old and new directories. The names old and new should not contain any slashes. The
diff command's headers should have dates and times in Universal Time using traditional Unix format,
so that patch recipients can use the -Z or --set-utc option. Here is an example command, using
Bourne shell syntax:
LC_ALL=C TZ=UTC0 diff -Naur gcc-2.7 gcc-2.8
Tell your recipients how to apply the patch by telling them which directory to cd to, and which patch
options to use. The option string -Np1 is recommended. Test your procedure by pretending to be a
recipient and applying your patch to a copy of the original files.
You can save people a lot of grief by keeping a patchlevel.h file which is patched to increment the
patch level as the first diff in the patch file you send out. If you put a Prereq: line in with the
patch, it won't let them apply patches out of order without some warning.
You can create a file by sending out a diff that compares /dev/null or an empty file dated the Epoch
(1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC) to the file you want to create. This only works if the file you want to
create doesn't exist already in the target directory. Conversely, you can remove a file by sending
out a context diff that compares the file to be deleted with an empty file dated the Epoch. The file
will be removed unless patch is conforming to POSIX and the -E or --remove-empty-files option is not
given. An easy way to generate patches that create and remove files is to use GNU diff's -N or
--new-file option.
If the recipient is supposed to use the -pN option, do not send output that looks like this:
diff -Naur v2.0.29/prog/README prog/README
--- v2.0.29/prog/README Mon Mar 10 15:13:12 1997
+++ prog/README Mon Mar 17 14:58:22 1997
because the two file names have different numbers of slashes, and different versions of patch inter-pret interpret
pret the file names differently. To avoid confusion, send output that looks like this instead:
diff -Naur v2.0.29/prog/README v2.0.30/prog/README
--- v2.0.29/prog/README Mon Mar 10 15:13:12 1997
+++ v2.0.30/prog/README Mon Mar 17 14:58:22 1997
Avoid sending patches that compare backup file names like README.orig, since this might confuse patch
into patching a backup file instead of the real file. Instead, send patches that compare the same
base file names in different directories, e.g. old/README and new/README.
Take care not to send out reversed patches, since it makes people wonder whether they already applied
the patch.
Try not to have your patch modify derived files (e.g. the file configure where there is a line con-figure: configure:
figure: configure.in in your makefile), since the recipient should be able to regenerate the derived
files anyway. If you must send diffs of derived files, generate the diffs using UTC, have the recip-ients recipients
ients apply the patch with the -Z or --set-utc option, and have them remove any unpatched files that
depend on patched files (e.g. with make clean).
While you may be able to get away with putting 582 diff listings into one file, it may be wiser to
group related patches into separate files in case something goes haywire.
DIAGNOSTICS
Diagnostics generally indicate that patch couldn't parse your patch file.
If the --verbose option is given, the message Hmm... indicates that there is unprocessed text in the
patch file and that patch is attempting to intuit whether there is a patch in that text and, if so,
what kind of patch it is.
patch's exit status is 0 if all hunks are applied successfully, 1 if some hunks cannot be applied,
and 2 if there is more serious trouble. When applying a set of patches in a loop it behooves you to
check this exit status so you don't apply a later patch to a partially patched file.
CAVEATS
Context diffs cannot reliably represent the creation or deletion of empty files, empty directories,
or special files such as symbolic links. Nor can they represent changes to file metadata like owner-ship, ownership,
ship, permissions, or whether one file is a hard link to another. If changes like these are also
required, separate instructions (e.g. a shell script) to accomplish them should accompany the patch.
patch cannot tell if the line numbers are off in an ed script, and can detect bad line numbers in a
normal diff only when it finds a change or deletion. A context diff using fuzz factor 3 may have the
same problem. Until a suitable interactive interface is added, you should probably do a context diff
in these cases to see if the changes made sense. Of course, compiling without errors is a pretty
good indication that the patch worked, but not always.
patch usually produces the correct results, even when it has to do a lot of guessing. However, the
results are guaranteed to be correct only when the patch is applied to exactly the same version of
the file that the patch was generated from.
COMPATIBILITY ISSUES
The POSIX standard specifies behavior that differs from patch's traditional behavior. You should be
aware of these differences if you must interoperate with patch versions 2.1 and earlier, which do not
conform to POSIX.
oo In traditional patch, the -p option's operand was optional, and a bare -p was equivalent to -p0.
The -p option now requires an operand, and -p 0 is now equivalent to -p0. For maximum compatibil-ity, compatibility,
ity, use options like -p0 and -p1.
Also, traditional patch simply counted slashes when stripping path prefixes; patch now counts
pathname components. That is, a sequence of one or more adjacent slashes now counts as a single
slash. For maximum portability, avoid sending patches containing // in file names.
oo In traditional patch, backups were enabled by default. This behavior is now enabled with the -b
or --backup option.
Conversely, in POSIX patch, backups are never made, even when there is a mismatch. In GNU patch,
this behavior is enabled with the --no-backup-if-mismatch option, or by conforming to POSIX with
the --posix option or by setting the POSIXLY_CORRECT environment variable.
The -b suffix option of traditional patch is equivalent to the -b -z suffix options of GNU patch.
oo Traditional patch used a complicated (and incompletely documented) method to intuit the name of
the file to be patched from the patch header. This method did not conform to POSIX, and had a few
gotchas. Now patch uses a different, equally complicated (but better documented) method that is
optionally POSIX-conforming; we hope it has fewer gotchas. The two methods are compatible if the
file names in the context diff header and the Index: line are all identical after prefix-strip-ping. prefix-stripping.
ping. Your patch is normally compatible if each header's file names all contain the same number
of slashes.
oo When traditional patch asked the user a question, it sent the question to standard error and
looked for an answer from the first file in the following list that was a terminal: standard
error, standard output, /dev/tty, and standard input. Now patch sends questions to standard out-put output
put and gets answers from /dev/tty. Defaults for some answers have been changed so that patch
never goes into an infinite loop when using default answers.
oo Traditional patch exited with a status value that counted the number of bad hunks, or with status
1 if there was real trouble. Now patch exits with status 1 if some hunks failed, or with 2 if
there was real trouble.
oo Limit yourself to the following options when sending instructions meant to be executed by anyone
running GNU patch, traditional patch, or a patch that conforms to POSIX. Spaces are significant
in the following list, and operands are required.
-c
-d dir
-D define
-e
-l
-n
-N
-o outfile
-pnum
-R
-r rejectfile
BUGS
Please report bugs via email to <bug-patch@gnu.org>.
patch could be smarter about partial matches, excessively deviant offsets and swapped code, but that
would take an extra pass.
If code has been duplicated (for instance with #ifdef OLDCODE ... #else ... #endif), patch is inca-pable incapable
pable of patching both versions, and, if it works at all, will likely patch the wrong one, and tell
you that it succeeded to boot.
If you apply a patch you've already applied, patch thinks it is a reversed patch, and offers to un-apply unapply
apply the patch. This could be construed as a feature.
COPYING
Copyright (C) 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988 Larry Wall.
Copyright (C) 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 Free
Software Foundation, Inc.
Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright
notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions
for verbatim copying, provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms
of a permission notice identical to this one.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under
the above conditions for modified versions, except that this permission notice may be included in
translations approved by the copyright holders instead of in the original English.
AUTHORS
Larry Wall wrote the original version of patch. Paul Eggert removed patch's arbitrary limits; added
support for binary files, setting file times, and deleting files; and made it conform better to
POSIX. Other contributors include Wayne Davison, who added unidiff support, and David MacKenzie, who
added configuration and backup support.
GNU 2003/05/08 PATCH(1)
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