Rick Keefer wrote:
>
> On Tue, 09 Mar 1999 23:39:35 -0500, Steve Philp wrote:
>
> >Rick Keefer wrote:
> >>
> >> Hey all,
> >>
> >> Well here's another newbie question. What is a patch and how is it installed?
> >
> >A patch is a small (or in the case of some kernel patches, rather large)
> >piece of source code that you apply to your current source code.
> >
> >Say I'm developing a piece of software and have a number of people who
> >are using it. I make the source code to my program available for them
> >to download, compile and install. It could be a pretty hefty download
> >to grab it the first time. When I make a fix or add a feature to my
> >program, it's wasteful to ask everyone to download ALL of the code
> >again, so I create a patch. Put simply, a patch file contains the
> >differences between my old version of the code and my new version.
> >
> >My users download the small patch, use the patch program to apply it to
> >my source code, and now we're all working from the updated code.
> >
> >All in all, it's a really useful tool (and comes from the author of
> >another useful tool, Larry Wall of Perl fame).
> >
> >--
> >Steve Philp
> >[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >
>
> Thanks Steve for the information. Now what is the patch program you mentioned?? How
> is it used?
> Rick
Oddly enough, the patch program is called patch. :)
If you've got it installed, you can find some information in
/usr/doc/patch-2.5. More complete information is available by typing
'man patch'.
For the basics, let's say you've got a version of the Linux kernel
installed in /usr/src/linux. Linus issues a new patch that provides
something that you've really wanted Linux to support. You download the
patch file, then type something like this:
cd /usr/src/
patch -p0 < patch-2.2.3
This will take the information in the patch-2.2.3 file and apply it to
the various files in the /usr/src/<Whatever> directory. The patch files
are pure text, so feel free to view them with your favorite editor and
see what's inside.
Hope this helps! If there's something specific you're looking for, let
us know what you're hoping for.
--
Steve Philp
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
