Chong Yu Meng wrote: > On Tue, 2006-09-05 at 01:44 -0400, Todd Zullinger wrote: >> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- >> Hash: SHA1 >> >> Chong Yu Meng wrote: >>> Hi all, >>> >>> I'm having some difficulty understanding patching in general. A >>> little background: I downloaded the source tarball for a program and >>> it will not "make" cleanly. Checking the forum on the website, >>> someone had published a patch in the form of text in an email that >>> looks like this: >>> >>> --- mlrate/mlrate.c 2003-01-27 10:31:31.000000000 +0100 >>> +++ mlrate.new/mlrate.c 2004-11-22 12:37:52.086783325 +0100 >>> @@ -25,6 +25,8 @@ >>> #include <string.h> >>> ... and continues for a bit longer >>> >> To apply this patch you would use the patch program. Usage is >> something like this: >> >> cd /where/your/mlrate/tarball/is/ >> patch -p1 < /path/to/your/saved/patch >> >> The -p1 option tells patch to strip off the first directory when >> looking for the file(s) to patch. So if you have a diff that starts >> with "--- mlrate/mlrate.c" and you're in the directory where mlrate.c >> is, -p1 would remove the mlrate/ part from the diff and find the file >> to patch properly. > > Thanks, all! > > Let me see if I understand this correctly: > > I have untarred the source tarball into /usr/src/mlrate, and mlrate.c > is now inside /use/src/mlrate/src directory. So, now I copy and paste > the text from the forum to a text file (say, mlrate.patch) and save it > under /usr/src/mlrate/src. Then I go into the directory > /usr/src/mlrate/src and enter the command: > > patch -p0 < mlrate.patch > > And the patch command will know what to do and patch it. > > Then I can run "make" and "make install" as per usual? > > Thanks and Regards. > Almost correct. Because the file was made comparing files in the milrate and milrate.new directories, you will need to run patch -p1 < mlrate.patch to strip out the milrate and milrate.new part of the path to the file. You will find that you use -p1 more often then you use -p0 because it tends to work out better to have the old version in one directory, and the new version in another directory when making changes. Mikkel -- Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!
