Subject: FVWM: fvwm patch?

From: Min Li <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 4 Dec 1996 20:11:05 -0600 (CST)

I know these must be very basic questions -- what is a fvwm patch? How
can I use it with fvwm? I just switched to fvwm2 on Solaris2.5 system.Help
me please!
Regards
Min

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From: Kai Grossjohann <[email-masked]>
Date: 05 Dec 1996 10:09:36 +0100

>>>>> Min Li writes:

  Min> I know these must be very basic questions -- what is a fvwm
  Min> patch? How can I use it with fvwm? I just switched to fvwm2 on
  Min> Solaris2.5 system.Help me please!

The program "diff" can show you differences between files.  Let's say
you have two files foo and bar which are equal except for the third
line, then the command "diff foo bar" will show you output telling you
that the third line differs and what the third line looks like in the
files foo and bar, respectively.

Then, there is a program "patch" which uses a description as produced
by "diff" and can apply the changes.  Say you have the file foo and
the diff output from above, then running "patch" will put these two
together and create the file bar.

What this means for fvwm is that Andrew went ahead and modified the
source code for fvwm.  He used the program "diff" to produce a file
showing the differences between his modified version and the original.

You can now use that diff output to apply those same modifications to
the fvwm sources.  Thus, you get your copy of fvwm which is equal to
Andrew's and has Andrew's new features.

Such an output from "diff" to be used with "patch" is called a patch.

hth,
kai
-- 
I wonder why nobody don't like me,
or is it de fact dat I'm ugly? -- Harry Belafonte

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From: Jamie Sparks <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 5 Dec 1996 10:01:23 -0500 (EST)

> Such an output from "diff" to be used with "patch" is called a patch.

This is of course correct, but more generally, a patch is any modification
to existing software, usually used in the context of an upgrade...