Re: [bug-patch] Patch fails to replace unmodified files

[Andrew Church]

>> However, the current behavior is not consistent, so yes, it is a bug.
>
>Well, patch creates copies of files it modifies, and doesn't create copies
>of files it doesn't modify. Where is the inconsistency in that?

You just stated it yourself: patch creates copies of files it modifies,
and doesn't create copies of files it doesn't modify.

Given an input file containing a known set of diffs and a set of target
files with unknown content, I cannot know which files patch will modify
and which files it won't (or equivalently, which diffs will have at least
one hunk successfully applied and which diffs will have all hunks fail).
All I know is whether a particular file is in the input diff set.  If
patch alters its behavior based on input unknown to me, then by
definition it is behaving inconsistently.

  --Andrew Church
    http://achurch.org/