diffutils: Creating and Removing
10.4 Creating and Removing Files
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Sometimes when comparing two directories, a file may exist in one
directory but not the other. If you give 'diff' the '--new-file' ('-N')
option, or if you supply an old or new file that is named '/dev/null' or
is empty and is dated the Epoch (1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC), 'diff'
outputs a patch that adds or deletes the contents of this file. When
given such a patch, 'patch' normally creates a new file or removes the
old file. However, when conforming to POSIX (⇒patch and POSIX),
'patch' does not remove the old file, but leaves it empty. The
'--remove-empty-files' ('-E') option causes 'patch' to remove output
files that are empty after applying a patch, even if the patch does not
appear to be one that removed the file.
If the patch appears to create a file that already exists, 'patch'
asks for confirmation before applying the patch.
Info Catalog
diffutils: Imperfect
diffutils: Merging with patch
diffutils: Patching Timestamps