Info Catalog diffutils: patch Directories diffutils: Merging with patch diffutils: Backup Names

diffutils: Backups

 
 10.8 Backup Files
 =================
 
 Normally, 'patch' creates a backup file if the patch does not exactly
 match the original input file, because in that case the original data
 might not be recovered if you undo the patch with 'patch -R' (⇒
 Reversed Patches).  However, when conforming to POSIX, 'patch' does
 not create backup files by default.  ⇒patch and POSIX.
 
    The '--backup' ('-b') option causes 'patch' to make a backup file
 regardless of whether the patch matches the original input.  The
 '--backup-if-mismatch' option causes 'patch' to create backup files for
 mismatches files; this is the default when not conforming to POSIX. The
 '--no-backup-if-mismatch' option causes 'patch' to not create backup
 files, even for mismatched patches; this is the default when conforming
 to POSIX.
 
    When backing up a file that does not exist, an empty, unreadable
 backup file is created as a placeholder to represent the nonexistent
 file.
 

Info Catalog diffutils: patch Directories diffutils: Merging with patch diffutils: Backup Names