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- <sect2>
- <title>Contents</title>
- <para>The Patch package contains the patch program.</para>
- </sect2>
- <sect2><title>Description</title>
- <para>The patch program modifies a file according to a patch file. A patch
- file usually is a list created by the diff program that contains
- instructions on how an original file needs to be modified. Patch is used
- a lot for source code patches since it saves time and space. Imagine
- a package that is 1MB in size. The next version of that package
- only has changes in two files of the first version. It can be shipped as an
- entirely new package of 1MB or just as a patch file of 1KB which will
- update the first version to make it identical to the second version. So
- if the first version was downloaded already, a patch file avoids
- a second large download.</para>
- </sect2>
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