Hello Ok. After much consternation its working now. Many thanks to Greg KH who pointed out this gem on a document: linux/Documentation/SubmittingPatches file. It explains in pointed detail the answer to my question about the prescribed method. It instructs the user to use the dontdiff file list which contains more than just the asm directory. I forgot about autoconf.h and its ilk. Also, when you use dontdiff you don't need to do a make mrproper beforehand. you can build it with your object files in place! So to sum it up: Building the patch: diff -Nur -X dontdiff linux-2.4.2_hhl20.orig linux-2.4.2_hhl20 > k2.patch Applying the patch: patch -d linux-dir-to-patch -p1 < k2.patch Many thanks to all who gave me a hand (That includes you Ed). JD ps. see the SubmittingPatches doc for how to get the dontdiff file list. Jan Hudec <bulb@ucw.cz>@nl.linux.org on 02/28/2002 05:08:56 PM Sent by: kernelnewbies-bounce@nl.linux.org To: kernelnewbies@nl.linux.org cc: Subject: Re: embarrassing patch question > > Then without changing the directory, I attempt to patch the directory like > > so: > > patch -d linux-to-be-patched -p1 < k2.patch > > try: > cd linux-to-be-patched > patch -p1 < ../k2.patch The manual page claims, that $ patch -d directory -p1 < the.patch and $ cd directory $ patch -p1 < ../the.patch is _exactly_ equivalent. So if one of them works and the other does not, it seems like a bug in patch or at least in the man page. Oh, think I see the fault now. diff seems to handle symlinks wrong. There is the dontdiff file to take care of that. (-X dontdiff option) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Jan Hudec `Bulb' <bulb@ucw.cz> -- 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/ -- 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/