Hello Maybe I need to be clear on my question so I won't be given simple answers like read the man page. I'm asking because the man page is unclear as to how to use diff and patch together to get a good patch file and patch application method. Also, I want to get the "Standard" method, since the man page doesn't say this is the way to do it in Linux. For instance, I've gotten patches in the past which I couldn't apply for the life of me and I've had some patch files in the past which were as easy to use as falling off a log. I want my patch file to be the latter. I also want it to be easily recognized by a seasoned linux developer as a quality patch and not some weird hack job that barely works. We spent a long time doing the work and I don't want someone to dis our work because I did a poor job on the patch file. Maybe I'm being anal, but I saw the bit about unified patch file method and I don't have a clude as to what that is or if I should be doing that way or not. So one more time with feeling (and more details). I've got two directory kernels in the current directory: linux-2.4.2_hhl20 (The modified kernel directory) and linux-2.4.2_hhl20.orig (The original kernel). So, from the directory I issue the following command: diff -Naur linxu-2.4.2_hhl20.orig linux-2.4.2_hhl20 > k2.patch When the command finishes, I do the following commands to test the patch: cp -rf linux-2.4.2_hhl20.orig linux-kernel-to-be-patched (I'm giving it this weird name so I can be assured the name of the directory doesn't matter.) Then without changing the directory, I attempt to patch the directory like so: patch -d linux-to-be-patched -p1 < k2.patch (Notice I'm doing the -p1 to ignore the leading dir name, and I'm using the -d linux-to-be-patched option so it will use my new funky kernel directory name.) The patch command runs like gangbusters, until the following occurs: <leading output is snipped.> patching file include/asm/posix_types.h patching file include/asm/siginfo.h patching file include/asm/unistd.h patching file include/asm-ppc/posix_types.h Reversed (or previously applied ) patch detected! Assume -R? [n] And here is why that error occurs: include/asm is a link to include/asm-ppc. So, when it applies the patch to include/asm/posix_types.h it will fail when it does include/asm-ppc/posix_types.h since its already been patched. For what it matters, all three directories have the include/asm link to include/asm-ppc as they should. Lastly, I wasn't trying to make a career out of diff/patch, I just wanted to know how to do it quickly and correctly. I figured it was a 5 minute problem and it only needed a 5 minute question of someone who knew how to do it to answer. J (what the hell is a man page?) D -- Kernelnewbies: Help each other learn about the Linux kernel. Archive: http://mail.nl.linux.org/kernelnewbies/ IRC Channel: irc.openprojects.net / #kernelnewbies Web Page: http://www.kernelnewbies.org/
