How to use diff correctly?

[Guest daYz]

Hi,

 

Can someone tell me how I should use the diff utility? I want to patch traceroute with a traceroute diff patch. The first two lines of the traceroute-diff file are --- traceroute.c.orig and +++ traceroute.c so I have presumed that I should patch the traceroute.c file that was in the traceroute tarball.

 

The problem is that when I try to patch traceroute, the two files are both fully added into another file instead of making an updated file.

 

I have used the command:

diff traceroute-diff traceroute.c > traceroute.c

 

The other files included in the tarball are:

 

CHANGES

FILES

INSTALL

Makefile.in

README

VERSION

aclocal.m4

config.guess

config.sub

configure

configure.in

findsaddr-generic.c

findsaddr-linux.c

findsaddr-mib.c

findsaddr-socket.c

findsaddr.h

ifaddrlist.c

ifaddrlist.h

install-sh

lbl/gnuc.h

lbl/os-solaris2.h

lbl/os-sunos4.h

linux-include/netinet/in_systm.h

linux-include/netinet/ip.h

linux-include/netinet/ip_icmp.h

linux-include/netinet/ip_var.h

linux-include/netinet/udp.h

linux-include/netinet/udp_var.h

mean.awk

median.awk

mkdep

rip_output.c

strerror.c

traceroute.8

traceroute.c

traceroute.h

usleep.c

 

Thanks for your help

[ramfree17]

i havent done diff and patch before but from how i understood it you create first a diff, and then patch it afterwards. something like this

 

diff file1 file2 > patch.0

patch file2 <patch.0

 

but you better do some more googling and reading as i wont bet my life (and my system) on what i have just said. :#:

 

ciao!

[sarah31]

make a copy of the file you want to "fix".

 

edit it and rename it file.c.orig place it in the same directory as the original. then:

 

diff -ruN /path/to/original/file.c /path/to/newfile.c.orig > patchname.patch

 

then apply the patch as mentioned above.

 

if you are only making a very small change to the file you may want to consider using sed instead.