Patch and Git Patch

Create and apply a patch with git

git patch hello program in C

Create the patch from a simple git diff and save to a file:

$ 1> ./changes.patch git diff .
$ cat ./changes.patch

And it would result in something like this:

diff --git a/src/hello.c b/src/hello.c
index 951ca50..4a74987 100644
--- a/src/hello.c
+++ b/src/hello.c
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 #include <stdio.h>
+#include <stdlib.h>

 int main(void) {
   fprintf(stdout, "Hello, World!\n");
+
+  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
 }

Now, that .patch is sent to someone else who wants to apply the patch, use git apply:

$ git apply changes.patch