[bug-patch] Changes to patch program -- "refusing to patch"

[Lauer, Hugh C]

What was the rationale for changing the patch program to refuse to patch read-only files? It looks like this happened in version 2.6.1.64 about a year ago.

 

This is a fundamental change in functionality that I and others have depended upon. The previous behavior was to rename the read-only file, replace it with a writable copy, and patch the copy. I have a lot of scripts that depend upon this functionality, particularly in managing sources trees for the Linux kernel. Is there any switch that can restore it?

 

Regards,

 

Hugh C. Lauer

Department of Computer Science

Worcester Polytechnic Institute