This version of `patch' has many changes made by the Free Software Foundation. They add support for: * handling arbitrary binary data and large files * the unified context diff format that GNU diff can produce * making GNU Emacs-style backup files * improved interaction with RCS and SCCS * the GNU conventions for option parsing and configuring and compilation. * better POSIX.2 compliance They also fix some bugs. See the NEWS and ChangeLog files for details. Tutorial-style documentation for patch is included in the GNU diffutils package. Unfortunately, the diffutils 2.7 documentation for `patch' is obsolete; this should be fixed in diffutils 2.8. In the mean time, see `patch --help', or consult the man page in this distribution. For GNU and Unix build and installation instructions, see the file INSTALL. For MS-DOS using DJGPP tools, see the file pc/djgpp/README. For other systems, copy config.hin to config.h and change #undef statements in it to #define as appropriate for your system, and copy Makefile.in to Makefile and set the variables that are enclosed in @ signs as appropriate for your system. Please send bug reports for this version of patch to bug-gnu-utils@prep.ai.mit.edu. The Free Software Foundation is distributing this version of patch independently because as of this writing, Larry Wall has not released a new version of patch since mid-1988. We have heard that he has been too busy working on other things, like Perl. He has graciously agreed to let GNU `patch' be distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License. ------ Copyright 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988 Larry Wall Copyright 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1997 Free Software Foundation, Inc. This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this file; see the file COPYING. If not, write to the Free Software Foundation, 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.