patch 2.5.4 and the evolution of leading garbage handling

[John M. Adams]

Hello,

I'm using patch 2.5.4 on solaris8.  I noticed that with recent
versions of patch, the algorithm for choosing the file to patch has
changed.

In particular, I seem to be unable to figure out how to conveniently
apply a patch created via cvs diff like this.

Index: io-modules/tdf-io-exposure-proxy.lisp
===================================================================
RCS file: /cerb/p1/develop/cvs/trans/io-modules/tdf-io-exposure-proxy.lisp,v
retrieving revision 1.6.2.1
diff -u -r1.6.2.1 tdf-io-exposure-proxy.lisp
--- io-modules/tdf-io-exposure-proxy.lisp       2000/10/20 18:16:53     1.6.2.1
+++ io-modules/tdf-io-exposure-proxy.lisp       2000/11/09 01:34:27
@@ -383,8 +383,8 @@
...

What I'd like to do is say patch <diffs where cwd is such that
io-modules/tdf-io-exposure-proxy.lisp exists and have patch patch that
file.  Is one supposed to be able to do this?  I've spent several
hours reading man pages and searching the web and haven't been able to
determine the intent here.

Well, even if you don't have time to respond, thanks for maintaining
patch.

Regards,

Appendix A
----------

patch 2.5.4
-----------

truss patch <$a/jma-diff 2>truss.log

stat("tdf-io-exposure-proxy.lisp", 0xFFBEE928)  Err#2 ENOENT
stat("RCS/tdf-io-exposure-proxy.lisp,v", 0xFFBEE7D0) Err#2 ENOENT
stat("RCS/tdf-io-exposure-proxy.lisp", 0xFFBEE7D0) Err#2 ENOENT
stat("tdf-io-exposure-proxy.lisp,v", 0xFFBEE7D0) Err#2 ENOENT
stat("SCCS/s.tdf-io-exposure-proxy.lisp", 0xFFBEE7D0) Err#2 ENOENT
stat("s.tdf-io-exposure-proxy.lisp", 0xFFBEE7D0) Err#2 ENOENT
ioctl(1, TCGETA, 0xFFBEDCDC)                    = 0
write(1, " c a n ' t   f i n d   f".., 41)      = 41
write(1, " P e r h a p s   y o u  ".., 55)      = 55

truss patch --posix <$a/jma-diff 2>truss.log

stat("tdf-io-exposure-proxy.lisp", 0xFFBEE920)  Err#2 ENOENT
ioctl(1, TCGETA, 0xFFBEDCD4)                    = 0
write(1, " c a n ' t   f i n d   f".., 41)      = 41
write(1, " P e r h a p s   y o u  ".., 55)      = 55

patch 2.1
---------

stat("io-modules", 0x00030630)                  = 0
stat("io-modules/tdf-io-exposure-proxy.lisp", 0x00030630) = 0
stat("io-modules", 0x00030630)                  = 0
stat("io-modules/tdf-io-exposure-proxy.lisp", 0x00030630) = 0
stat("io-modules", 0x00030630)                  = 0
stat("io-modules/tdf-io-exposure-proxy.lisp", 0x00030630) = 0

-- 
John M. Adams