Advanced patch format?

[Remy X]

I've been reading up on the homebrew file packaging "protocols" and seem to understand everything for the most part.

However i want to get some things straight in my mind regarding patches.

As i understood, most patches (*.patch) are created using the Diff Creator, and can only patch one file at a time. Can also create the file if it doesn't exist.

However i've been hearing about a patch format that allows one to patch multiple files and also supply images... i assume it's an (*.ipk) that is made to not create new and not completely overwrite existing apps, perhaps with a pre- and post-install script that does additional work.

Please tell me if i'm wrong, or if there's anything else i should know. I've found very little on the "format" i'm describing...

[GMMan]

You can stick multiple file patches together by putting the diffs one after another in the patch file. I haven't managed to create new files, though. bsdiff/bspatch is installed with Preware, I think, so binary patches should be possible.

[Remy X]

Originally Posted by GMMan

You can stick multiple file patches together by putting the diffs one after another in the patch file. I haven't managed to create new files, though. bsdiff/bspatch is installed with Preware, I think, so binary patches should be possible.

Well, i assumed it was possible, because Jason Robitaille said so here: Unified Diff Creator (post #17)

Originally Posted by Jason Robitaille

[snip]
Well, you can create files that don't exist by altering the patch header. For example:

--- /dev/null
+++ /usr/palm/new-file.js

The "/dev/null" basically tells GNU patch it's a new file. That said, looking into the 1.3.1 rom, both activecall.css and menus.css still exist.
[/snip]

Good to hear about binary patches. Sooner or later that becomes necessary.