Scroll to navigation

quilt(1) General Commands Manual quilt(1)

NAME

quilt - manage a series of patches

SYNOPSIS

quilt [--quiltrc file] [--trace] command [options]
quilt [command] -h
quilt --version

DESCRIPTION

Quilt is a tool to manage large sets of patches by keeping track of the changes each patch makes. Patches can be applied, unapplied, refreshed, and so forth. The key philosophical concept is that your primary working material is patches.

With quilt, all work occurs within a single directory tree. Commands can be invoked from anywhere within the source tree. Like CVS, Subversion, or Git, quilt takes commands of the form “quilt command”. A command can be truncated (abbreviated) as long as the specified part of the command is unambiguous. If command is ambiguously short, quilt lists all commands matching that prefix and exits. All commands print a brief contextual help message and exit if given the “-h” option.

Quilt manages a stack of patches. Patches are applied incrementally on top of the base tree plus all preceding patches. They can be pushed onto the stack (“quilt push”), and popped off the stack (“quilt pop”). Commands are available for querying the contents of the stack (“quilt applied”, “quilt previous”, “quilt top”) and the patches that are not applied at a particular moment (“quilt next”, “quilt unapplied”). By default, most commands apply to the topmost patch on the stack.

Patch files are located in the patches subdirectory of the source tree (see Example of working tree, under FILES, below). The QUILT_PATCHES environment variable overrides this default location. When not found in the current directory, that subdirectory is searched recursively in the parent directories (this is similar to the way Git searches for its configuration files). The patches directory may contain subdirectories. It may also be a symbolic link instead of a directory.

Quilt creates and maintains a file called series, which defines the order in which patches are applied. The QUILT_SERIES environment variable overrides this default name. You can query the contents of the series file at any time with “quilt series”. In this file, each patch file name is on a separate line. Patch files are identified by path names that are relative to the patches directory; patches may be in subdirectories below this directory. Lines in the series file that start with a hash character (#) are ignored. Patch options, such as the strip level or whether the patch is reversed, can be added after each patch file name. Options are introduced by a space, separated by spaces, and follow the syntax of the patch(1) options (e.g., “-p2”). Quilt records patch options automatically when a command supporting them is used. Without options, strip level 1 is assumed. You can also add a comment after each patch file name and options, introduced by a space followed by a hash character. When quilt adds, removes, or renames patches, it automatically updates the series file. Users of quilt can modify series files while some patches are applied, as long as the applied patches remain in their original order. Unless there are means by which a series file can be generated automatically, you should provide it along with any set of quilt-managed patches you distribute. Different series files can be used to assemble patches in different ways, corresponding (for example) to different development branches.

Before a patch is applied, copies of all files the patch modifies are saved to the .pc/patch-name directory, where patch-name is the name of the patch (for example, fix-buffer-overflow.patch). The patch is added to the list of currently applied patches (.pc/applied-patches). Later, when a patch is regenerated (“quilt refresh”), the backup copies in .pc/patch-name are compared with the current versions of the files in the source tree using GNU diff(1).

A similar process occurs when starting a new patch (“quilt new”); the new patch file name is added to the series file. A file to be changed by the patch is backed up and opened for editing (“quilt edit”). After editing, inspect the impact of your changes (“quilt diff”); the changes stay local to your working tree until you call “quilt refresh” to write them to the patch file.

Documentation related to a patch can be put at the beginning of its patch file (“quilt header”). Quilt is careful to preserve all text that precedes the actual patch when doing a refresh. (This is limited to patches in unified format; see the GNU Diffutils manual.)

The series file is looked up in the .pc directory, in the root of the source tree, and in the patches directory. The first series file that is found is used. This may also be a symbolic link, or a file with multiple hard links. Usually, only one series file is used for a set of patches, making the patches subdirectory a convenient location.

The .pc directory cannot be relocated, but it can be a symbolic link. Its subdirectories must not be renamed or restructured. While patches are applied to the source tree, this directory is essential for many operations, including popping patches off the stack and refreshing them. Files in the .pc directory are automatically removed when they are no longer needed, so there is no need to clean up manually.

Quilt commands reference

Add one or more files to the topmost or named patch. Files must be added to the patch before being modified. Files that are modified by patches already applied on top of the specified patch cannot be added.

Patch to add files to.

Print an annotated listing of the specified file showing which patches modify which lines. Only applied patches are included.

Stop checking for changes at the specified rather than the topmost patch.

Print a list of applied patches, or all patches up to and including the specified patch in the file series.

Remove the specified or topmost patch from the series file. If the patch is applied, quilt will attempt to remove it first. (Only the topmost patch can be removed right now.)

Delete the next patch after topmost, rather than the specified or topmost patch.

Remove the deleted patch file from the patches directory as well.

Rename the patch file to patch~ rather than deleting it. Ignored if not used with `-r'.

Produces a diff of the specified file(s) in the topmost or specified patch. If no files are specified, all files that are modified are included.

Create a -p n style patch (-p0 or -p1 are supported).

Create a -p1 style patch, but use a/file and b/file as the original and new filenames instead of the default dir.orig/file and dir/file names.

Create a unified diff (-u, -U) with num lines of context. Create a context diff (-c, -C) with num lines of context. The number of context lines defaults to 3.

Do not include file timestamps in patch headers.

Do not output Index: lines.

Write to standard output the changes that have been made relative to the topmost or specified patch.

Create a reverse diff.

Create a diff for the specified patch. (Defaults to the topmost patch.)

Create a combined diff for all patches between this patch and the patch specified with -P. A patch name of `-' is equivalent to specifying the first applied patch.

Diff against snapshot (see `quilt snapshot -h').

Use the specified utility for generating the diff. The utility is invoked with the original and new file name as arguments.

Use syntax coloring (auto activates it only if the output is a tty).

Sort files by their name instead of preserving the original order.

Edit the specified file(s) in $EDITOR after adding it (them) to the topmost patch.

Print the list of files that the topmost or specified patch changes.

List all files in all applied patches.

Add patch name to output.

Verbose, more user friendly output.

Create a listing for all patches between this patch and the topmost or specified patch. A patch name of `-' is equivalent to specifying the first applied patch.

Integrate the patch read from standard input into the topmost patch: After making sure that all files modified are part of the topmost patch, the patch is applied with the specified strip level (which defaults to 1).

Apply patch in reverse.

Quiet operation.

Force apply, even if the patch has rejects. Unless in quiet mode, apply the patch interactively: the patch utility may ask questions.

The number of pathname components to strip from file names when applying patchfile.

Fork the topmost patch. Forking a patch means creating a verbatim copy of it under a new name, and use that new name instead of the original one in the current series. This is useful when a patch has to be modified, but the original version of it should be preserved, e.g. because it is used in another series, or for the history. A typical sequence of commands would be: fork, edit, refresh.

If new_name is missing, the name of the forked patch will be the current patch name, followed by `-2'. If the patch name already ends in a dash-and-number, the number is further incremented (e.g., patch.diff, patch-2.diff, patch-3.diff).

Generate a dot(1) directed graph showing the dependencies between applied patches. A patch depends on another patch if both touch the same file or, with the --lines option, if their modifications overlap. Unless otherwise specified, the graph includes all patches that the topmost patch depends on. When a patch name is specified, instead of the topmost patch, create a graph for the specified patch. The graph will include all other patches that this patch depends on, as well as all patches that depend on this patch.

Generate a graph including all applied patches and their dependencies. (Unapplied patches are not included.)

Eliminate transitive edges from the graph.

Compute dependencies by looking at the lines the patches modify. Unless a different num is specified, two lines of context are included.

Label graph edges with the file names that the adjacent patches modify.

Directly produce a PostScript output file.

Grep through the source files, recursively, skipping patches and quilt meta-information. If no filename argument is given, the whole source tree is searched. Please see the grep(1) manual page for options.

-h
Print this help. The grep -h option can be passed after a double-dash (--). Search expressions that start with a dash can be passed after a second double-dash (-- --).

Print or change the header of the topmost or specified patch.

Append to (-a) or replace (-r) the existing patch header, or edit (-e) the header in $EDITOR. If none of these options is given, print the patch header.

Strip diffstat output from the header.

Strip trailing whitespace at the end of lines of the header.

Create a backup copy of the old version of a patch as patch~.

When editing (-e), insert a template with DEP-3 headers. DEP-3 is http://dep.debian.net/deps/dep3/ Patch Tagging Guidelines.

Import external patches. The patches will be inserted following the current top patch, and must be pushed after import to apply them.

Number of directory levels to strip when applying (default=1)

Apply patch in reverse.

Patch filename to use inside quilt. This option can only be used when importing a single patch.

Overwrite/update existing patches.

When overwriting in existing patch, keep the old (o), all (a), or new (n) patch header. If both patches include headers, this option must be specified. This option is only effective when -f is used.

Create mail messages from a specified range of patches, or all patches in the series file, and either store them in a mailbox file, or send them immediately. The editor is opened with a template for the introduction. Please see /usr/share/doc/quilt/README.MAIL for details. When specifying a range of patches, a first patch name of `-' denotes the first, and a last patch name of `-' denotes the last patch in the series.

Text to use as the text in the introduction. When this option is used, the editor will not be invoked, and the patches will be processed immediately.

Like the -m option, but read the introduction from file.

Use an alternate prefix in the bracketed part of the subjects generated. Defaults to `patch'.

Store all messages in the specified file in mbox format. The mbox can later be sent using formail, for example.

Send the messages directly.

The envelope sender address to use. The address must be of the form `user@domain.name'. No display name is allowed.

The values for the From and Subject headers to use. If no --from option is given, the value of the --sender option is used.

Append a recipient to the To, Cc, or Bcc header.

Specify a particular message encoding on systems which don't use UTF-8 or ISO-8859-15. This character encoding must match the one used in the patches.

Append the specified signature to messages (defaults to ~/.signature if found; use `-' for no signature).

Add the appropriate headers to reply to the specified message.

Create a new patch with the specified file name, and insert it after the topmost patch. The name can be prefixed with a sub-directory name, allowing for grouping related patches together.

Create a -p n style patch (-p0 or -p1 are supported).

Create a -p1 style patch, but use a/file and b/file as the original and new filenames instead of the default dir.orig/file and dir/file names.

Quilt can be used in sub-directories of a source tree. It determines the root of a source tree by searching for a directory above the current working directory. Create a directory in the intended root directory if quilt chooses a top-level directory that is too high up in the directory tree.

Print the name of the next patch after the specified or topmost patch in the series file.

Print the list of patches that modify any of the specified files. (Uses a heuristic to determine which files are modified by unapplied patches. Note that this heuristic is much slower than scanning applied patches.)

Verbose, more user friendly output.

Use syntax coloring (auto activates it only if the output is a tty).

Remove patch(es) from the stack of applied patches. Without options, the topmost patch is removed. When a number is specified, remove the specified number of patches. When a patch name is specified, remove patches until the specified patch end up on top of the stack. Patch names may include the patches/ prefix, which means that filename completion can be used.

Remove all applied patches.

Force remove. The state before the patch(es) were applied will be restored from backup files.

Always verify if the patch removes cleanly; don't rely on timestamp checks.

Quiet operation.

Verbose operation.

Automatically refresh every patch before it gets unapplied.

Print the name of the previous patch before the specified or topmost patch in the series file.

Apply patch(es) from the series file. Without options, the next patch in the series file is applied. When a number is specified, apply the specified number of patches. When a patch name is specified, apply all patches up to and including the specified patch. Patch names may include the patches/ prefix, which means that filename completion can be used. The mtime of all touched files will be exactly the same to prevent time skews.

Apply all patches in the series file.

Quiet operation.

Force apply, even if the patch has rejects.

Verbose operation.

Set the maximum fuzz factor (default: 2).

Merge the patch file into the original files (see patch(1)).

Leave around the reject files patch produced, even if the patch is not actually applied.

Use syntax coloring (auto activates it only if the output is a tty).

Automatically refresh every patch after it was successfully applied.

Refreshes the specified patch, or the topmost patch by default. Documentation that comes before the actual patch in the patch file is retained.

It is possible to refresh patches that are not on top. If any patches on top of the patch to refresh modify the same files, the script aborts by default. Patches can still be refreshed with -f. In that case this script will print a warning for each shadowed file, changes by more recent patches will be ignored, and only changes in files that have not been modified by any more recent patches will end up in the specified patch.

Create a -p n style patch (-p0 or -p1 supported).

Create a -p1 style patch, but use a/file and b/file as the original and new filenames instead of the default dir.orig/file and dir/file names.

Create a unified diff (-u, -U) with num lines of context. Create a context diff (-c, -C) with num lines of context. The number of context lines defaults to 3.

Create a new patch containing the changes instead of refreshing the topmost patch. If no new name is specified, `-2' is added to the original patch name, etc. (See the fork command.)

Do not include file timestamps in patch headers.

Do not output Index: lines.

Add a diffstat section to the patch header, or replace the existing diffstat section.

Enforce refreshing of a patch that is not on top.

Create a backup copy of the old version of a patch as patch~.

Sort files by their name instead of preserving the original order.

Strip trailing whitespace at the end of lines.

Remove one or more files from the topmost or named patch. Files that are modified by patches on top of the specified patch cannot be removed.

Remove named files from the named patch.

Rename the topmost or named patch.

Patch to rename.

Revert uncommitted changes to the topmost or named patch for the specified file(s): after the revert, 'quilt diff -z' will show no differences for those files. Changes to files that are modified by patches on top of the specified patch cannot be reverted.

Revert changes in the named patch.

Print the names of all patches in the series file.

Use syntax coloring (auto activates it only if the output is a tty).

Verbose, more user friendly output.

Initializes a source tree from an rpm spec file or a quilt series file.

Optional path prefix for the resulting source tree.

Directory that contains the package sources. Defaults to `.'.

Verbose debug output.

Set the maximum fuzz factor (needs rpm 4.6 or later).

Use the original, slow method to process the spec file. In this mode, rpmbuild generates a working tree in a temporary directory while all its actions are recorded, and then everything is replayed from scratch in the target directory.

Use the new, faster method to process the spec file. In this mode, rpmbuild is told to generate a working tree directly in the target directory. This is the default (since quilt version 0.67).

The setup command is only guaranteed to work properly on spec files where applying all the patches is the last thing done in the %prep section. This is a design limitation due to the fact that quilt can only operate on patches. If other commands in the %prep section modify the patched files, they must come first, otherwise you won't be able to push the patch series.

For example, a %prep section where you first unpack a tarball, then apply patches, and lastly perform a tree-wide string substitution, is not OK. For "quilt setup" to work, it would have to be changed to unpacking the tarball, then performing the tree-wide string substitution, and lastly applying the patches.

Take a snapshot of the current working state. After taking the snapshot, the tree can be modified in the usual ways, including pushing and popping patches. A diff against the tree at the moment of the snapshot can be generated with `quilt diff --snapshot'.

Only remove current snapshot.

Print the name of the topmost patch on the current stack of applied patches.

Print a list of patches that are not applied, or all patches that follow the specified patch in the series file.

Upgrade the meta-data in a working tree from an old version of quilt to the current version. This command is only needed when the quilt meta-data format has changed, and the working tree still contains old-format meta-data. In that case, quilt will request to run `quilt upgrade'.

OPTIONS

These options are common to all quilt commands.

Print a usage message (for the given command, if one is specified, otherwise for quilt itself) and exit.
Use file as the configuration file instead of ~/.quiltrc (or /etc/quilt.quiltrc if ~/.quiltrc does not exist). The special value “-” causes quilt not to read any configuration file.
Run the command in the shell's trace mode (-x) for debugging of internal operations.
Print the version number and exit.

EXIT STATUS

The exit status is 0 if the requested operation completed successfully, or 1 in case of error.

An exit status of 2 indicates that quilt did not do anything to complete the command. This happens in particular when asking quilt to push when the whole stack is already pushed, or to pop when the whole stack is already popped. This behavior is intended to ease scripting with quilt.

ENVIRONMENT

Quilt recognizes the following variables:

Specify the program to run to edit files; for instance, with “quilt edit” or “quilt header -e”.
Specify the arguments used to invoke the less(1) pager. Defaults to “-FRSX”.

FILES

Example of working tree

project-1.2.3/
├── patches/
│    ├── series         (list of patches to apply)
│    ├── patch1.diff    (one particular patch)
│    ├── patch2.diff
│    └── ...
├── .pc/
│    ├── .quilt_patches (content of QUILT_PATCHES)
│    ├── .quilt_series  (content of QUILT_SERIES)
│    ├── patch1.diff/   (copy of patched files)
│    │    └── ...
│    ├── patch2.diff/
│    │    └── ...
│    └── ...
└── ...

The patches directory is precious as it contains all your patches as well as the order in which they should be applied.

The .pc directory contains metadata about the current state of your patch series. Changing its content is not advised. This directory can usually be regenerated from the initial files and the content of the patches directory (provided that all patches were regenerated before the removal).

Configuration file

Upon startup, quilt evaluates the file specified with the “--quiltrc” option; if that option is not given, the file .quiltrc in the user's home directory is used, and if that does not exist, /etc/quilt.quiltrc is read. This file is a bash(1) script. EDITOR and LESS can be overridden here if desired; see ENVIRONMENT, above.

Define a variable of the form QUILT_COMMAND_ARGS to specify default options to be passed to any quilt command (in uppercase). For example,

QUILT_DIFF_ARGS="--color=auto"

causes the output of “quilt diff” to be syntax-colored when
  writing to a terminal.


  

  
Additional options that quilt shall pass to GNU diff when
      generating patches. A useful setting for C source code is
      “-p”, which causes GNU diff to show in the resulting
      patch which function a change is in.

  

  
Additional options that quilt shall pass to GNU patch when
      applying patches. For example, recent versions of GNU patch support
      the “--reject-format=unified” option for generating reject
      files in “unified diff” style (older patch versions
      used “--unified-reject-files” for that).





  

  
You may also want to add the “-E” option if you have issues
      with quilt not deleting empty files when you think it should. The
      documentation of GNU patch says that “normally this option
      is unnecessary”, but when patch is in POSIX mode or if the
      patch format doesn't distinguish empty files from deleted files,
      patch deletes empty files only if the “-E” option is
      given. Beware that when passing “-E” to patch,
      quilt will no longer be able to deal with empty files, which is why
      using “-E” is no longer the default.





  

  
indicates additional options that quilt shall pass to
      diffstat(1) when generating patch statistics. For example,
      “-f0” can be used for an alternative output format. Recent
      versions of diffstat also support alternative rounding methods
      (“-r1”, “-r2”).

  

  
The location of backup files and any other data relating to the current
      state of the working directory from quilt's perspective. Defaults
      to “.pc”.

  

  
The location of patch files, defaulting to patches.

  

  
The name of the series file, defaulting to series. Unless an
      absolute path is used, the search algorithm described above applies.

  

  
Boolean flag; if set to anything, quilt will prefix any patch name
      it prints with its directory (QUILT_PATCHES).

  

  
Boolean flag; if set to anything, no “Index:” line is
      prepended to patches generated by quilt. This is shorthand for
      adding “--no-index” to both QUILT_DIFF_ARGS and
      QUILT_REFRESH_ARGS.

  

  
Boolean flag; if set to anything, no timestamps are included in headers
      when generating patches. This is shorthand for adding
      “--no-timestamps” to both QUILT_DIFF_ARGS and
      QUILT_REFRESH_ARGS.

  

  
The pager quilt shall use for commands which produce paginated
      output. If unset, the value of GIT_PAGER or, failing that,
      PAGER is used. If none of these variables is set, “less
      -R” is used. An empty value indicates that no pager should be
    used.

  

  
A sequence of definitions that directs quilt which ANSI escape
      sequences to associate with an output context, overriding the defaults.
      The most common use is to set colors (thus the name of this variable), but
      other attributes exist, such as bold or reverse.





  

  
To override one or more settings, set QUILT_COLORS to a
      colon-separated list of elements, each of the form
      “format-name=digit-sequence[;...]”.

  

  
Each digit-sequence should be a SGR (Select Graphic Rendition)
      value supported by your terminal. The standardized SGR values were
      specified by ANSI and incorporated into ISO-6429 and ECMA-48
      (§8.3.117). The colors have standard names but their values were
      not defined within a color space; their precise appearance will vary and
      may be customizable in your terminal (emulator).

  

  
Recognized format-names, along with the quilt commands that
      use them, their use contexts, and default values, follow.
    

      

        format-name
        command
        context
        default
      

      

        diff_add
        diff
        added lines
        36 (cyan)
      

      

        diff_cctx
        diff
        asterisk sequences
        33 (yellow)
      

      

        diff_ctx
        diff
        text after hunk
        35 (magenta)
      

      

        diff_hdr
        diff
        index line
        32 (green)
      

      

        diff_hunk
        diff
        hunk header
        33 (yellow)
      

      

        diff_mod
        diff
        modified lines
        35 (magenta)
      

      

        diff_rem
        diff
        removed lines
        35 (magenta)
      

      

        patch_fail
        push
        failure message
        31 (red)
      

      

        patch_fuzz
        push
        fuzz information
        35 (magenta)
      

      

        patch_offs
        push
        offset information
        33 (yellow)
      

      

        series_app
        series
        applied patch names
        32 (green)
      

      

        series_top
        series
        top patch name
        33 (yellow)
      

      

        series_una
        series
        unapplied patch names
        0 (none)
      

    

  

  

  
All format-names used by the series command are also used by the
      patches command.

  

  
The special format-name “clear” is used to turn off
      special graphic renditions and return to the terminal defaults. Changing
      its definition should not be necessary for any terminal that claims to
      support ANSI escape sequences. If your terminal is corrupted despite your
      best efforts, try the command “tput sgr0” to restore the
      default graphic rendition.

  

  
As an example, one can put the following in ~/.quiltrc (or
      /etc/quilt.quiltrc):






QUILT_DIFF_ARGS="--color"
# Render diff file headers in bold blue over yellow.
# Render diff hunk headers in "negative image" yellow.
# Render failed patches with a red background.
QUILT_COLORS="diff_hdr=1;34;43:diff_hunk=7;33:patch_fail=41"











AUTHORS


Quilt started as a series of scripts written by Andrew
    Morton (patch-scripts). Based on Andrew's ideas, Andreas
    Grünbacher completely rewrote the scripts, with the help of several
    other contributors (see the file AUTHORS in the distribution).


This man page was written by Martin Quinson, based on information
    found in the PDF documentation, and in the help message of each command.






EXAMPLES


Please refer to the PDF documentation for a full example of use
    (under SEE ALSO below).






SEE ALSO


How to Survive with Many Patches, or: Introduction to Quilt
    is installed at /usr/share/doc/quilt/quilt.pdf. Note that some
    distributors compress this file. zxpdf(1) can be used to display
    compressed PDF files.


The GNU Diffutils manual,
    Comparing
    and Merging Files, documents diff and patch in
  detail.


Control
    Functions for Coded Character Sets (ECMA-48) specifies the ANSI
    escape sequences used by QUILT_COLORS; section 8.3.117 will be of the
    most interest. See console_codes(4) for a more convenient, if less
    canonical, resource.


diff(1), diffstat(1), guards(1),
    patch(1)







  

    December 17, 2013
    quilt