How can my client apply patch created by git diff without git installed?
I have tried to use patch command but it always asks file name to patch.
5 Answers
git diff > patchfile
and
patch -p1 < patchfile
work but as many people noticed in comments and other answers patch does not understand adds, deletes and renames. There is no option but git apply patchfile if you need handle file adds, deletes and renames.
EDIT December 2015
Latest versions of patch command (2.7, released in September 2012) support most features of the "diff --git" format, including renames and copies, permission changes, and symlink diffs (but not yet binary diffs) (release announcement).
So provided one uses current/latest version of patch there is no need to use git to be able to apply its diff as a patch.
12 Comments
Jakub Narębski
Or use
git diff > patchfile, but patch -p1 < patchfile
Koen.
If you want to create a patchfile of a subpath of the repository you can use the
relative option like: git diff --no-prefix --relative=my/relative/path > patchfile
Andrey Kuznetsov
patch -p1 < patchfile does not require git installed. The first command demonstrates command for generating diff, not applying it.
hobs
The patch generated is for the changes from the branch/refspec indicated in the command to the current or active branch. In other words, you want
git diff from_branch > patchfile; git checkout from_branch; git patch -p1 < patchfile or git diff from_branch to_branch > patchfile; ...Andrey Kuznetsov
@PaulChechetin As egor83 said in suppie's answer it strips slash in the beginning.
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try this:
patch -p1 < patchfile
3 Comments
chrisl-921fb74d
What does the -p1 argument do?
wberry
@chrisjlee
git diff will put a/ and b/ prefixes in the output, so patch -p1 neglects those to apply the patch file.Use
git apply patchfile
if possible.
patch -p1 < patchfile
has potential side-effect.
git apply also handles file adds, deletes, and renames if they're described in the git diff format, which patch won't do. Finally, git apply is an "apply all or abort all" model where either everything is applied or nothing is, whereas patch can partially apply patch files, leaving your working directory in a weird state.
3 Comments
Colin D Bennett
Yes,
git apply is the best way to do it, but this question specifically asks how to apply the patch without Git installed.
spyle
Options
--dry-run --verbose are useful to determine what the side effects will be, if any. (using patch v2.5.8)
jww
@ignis - "
git apply patchfile - ... the only sane answer..." - that's almost laughable. Every time the OpenSSL devs send me a patch to test, Git fails to apply it. That's every time. I've yet to see that stupid tool apply a patch.I use
patch -p1 --merge < patchfile
This way, conflicts may be resolved as usual.
Comments
Try this:
$ git apply file.diff
1 Comment
Lara Bailey
See question: "without git installed"
patchdoesn't fully support this format.