Xref: utzoo comp.sys.atari.st:32269 comp.sys.atari.st.tech:643 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!sdd.hp.com!hplabs!otter.hpl.hp.com!hpltoad!ghiggins!gjh From: gjh@hplb.hpl.hp.com (Graham Higgins) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st,comp.sys.atari.st.tech Subject: Re: diff files Message-ID: Date: 6 Nov 90 16:56:18 GMT References: <287@aldetec.oz.au> Sender: news@hplb.hpl.hp.com (Usenet News Administrator) Organization: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Bristol, UK. Lines: 22 In-Reply-To: clive@aldetec.oz.au's message of 6 Nov 90 01:46:11 GMT Nntp-Posting-Host: ghiggins.hpl.hp.com ++ Not wishing to sound too dumb.... ++ But what are you ment to do with .dif files.... ++ puzzled - (what magic utility merges them?) ++ ..Clive I feel it's worth posting a public answer, as it's a non-Gem area really. Diff files represent the difference between two (text, usually) files. This a common way of distributing optional patches to sources. If a diff file represents a set of patches (sometimes across a number of files) the patches can be automagically applied using Larry Wall's "patch" program --- patch < source.dif. Both diff and patch are available on atari.archive.umich.edu The tos/minix ports of GNU C are embodied in a diff file. Which leads me on ... Graham (puzzled?, wait till you *use* it!)