[ale] how do I apply a patch?

[John M. Mills]

> Do I need to recompile with some switches and then apply the patch, or do I just
> "apply the patch" to the newly compiled executable?  (Lesstif 0.82 is compiled
> and sitting in /usr/local/lib and an entry for that path is in /etc/ld.so.conf.)

Lisa - I'm sure others will kick in, but to start off I would expect the
patch should be applied against the _source_ rather than the executable.
Check 'man patch', and look in '/usr/src/linux' at the README for a couple
of examples, and of course at whatever text file accompanied the patch.
The patch is a text file and you can look at it, too.  The usual procedure
is something like:

$ cd <bottom of the 'ddd' branch of your source tree>
$ patch [options] < <patch_file>

You get a report of the success or failure of each section which is to be
modified, and new files named *.orig and *.rej for the files which may
have changed or where the patch didn't seem to fit.

If the patches went in OK, you now build the package.  If not, it may mean
you have some handwork ahead of you, but in a case like this it probably
means you had some error in how you set up the patch.

Actually patch files are one of the optional outputs of 'diff', so you can
make up a couple of simple files, 'diff' them, and see what patches are
about.

I haven't tried Less-Tif. Sorry.

  John M. Mills, Senior Research Engineer -- john.mills at gtri.gatech.edu
  Georgia Tech Research Institute, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA 30332-0834
         Phone contacts: 404.894.0151 (voice), 404.894.6285 (FAX)
   'Deja-Moo':  The feeling you've heard all this bull before.  --Anon