patching with diff files

[Slackmonster]

Can anyone recommend a good source of reading material for patching with diff files? I am specifically looking for info on patching whole directories/apps. For example, say I wanted to download the patch files for XFree86. How would I go about applying that to the whole directory structure?

[bdg1983]

Have you read the patch man pages?

man patch

and

man diff (don't really know if the diff manual page pertains to your needs though)

Hope it's what your looking for.

[Slackmonster]

Yes, I read the man page for patch but it didn't really help me. It only really referenced patching one file. It's kind of funny, most sites have diff files for you to use but I haven't found one yet that tells you HOW! :(

[Craig McPherson]

In general, you can just put the patch file in the directory above the source code, and do this:

patch -p0 < patchfilename

You may need to do -p1 instead or put the patch file in the directory with the source code, depending on how the filenames in the path file are written.