Dave Thomas writes:

# "Conrad Schneiker" <schneik / us.ibm.com> writes:
# 
# > # Note for those on other platforms:  Some versions of patch don't 
# > # understand this type of diff output.  If that applies to yours then
# > # you need to use GNU patch.   [I had that problem on Soaris 2.5.1 for
# > # example.]
# > 
# > Soaris --> Solaris?
# > 
# > Ditto for AIX. 
# 
# If someone mails me the message it produces, I'll add a FAQ entry
# along the lines of "Why does it say Blah" when I apply a patch?"

For AIX, native patch, this is what I see:

    # patch -l -i bignum.patch bignum.c
    Processing...  I cannot find a patch in there anywhere.

For GNU patch, this is what I see:

    # patch -l bignum.c bignum.patch
    patching file `bignum.c'
    Hunk #1 succeeded at 1261 (offset -1 lines).

When cutting and pasting patches from mail list or newsgroup posts, I find 
that I almost always need the -l flag.

Conrad Schneiker
(This note is unofficial and subject to improvement without notice.)