So we can create diffs (or patches) using the diff tool and apply them to an unpatched version of that same source code using the patch tool. We will look at a diff utility example below.Ī “patch” refers to a specific collection of differences between files that can be applied to a source code tree using the Unix diff utility. “Diff” is simply short for “difference ” a Unix utility by the same name reveals the difference between one or more files. What exactly are these patches and diffs that developers talk about?įirst, for the sake of this article, let’s assume that these two terms reference one and the same thing. You might think this is folklore, but an early capture of the Apache website claims that the name was derived from this original “patch” collection hence APAt CHy server, which was then simplified to Apache.īut enough history trivia. In fact, did you know that Apache’s name originated from the set of patches that were collected and collated against the original NCSA HTTPd server source code? Open source has had an impact here, as the main development model of large projects from Apache web server to the Linux kernel have been “patch-based” development projects throughout their lifetime. If you’ve ever worked on a large codebase with a distributed development model, you’ve probably heard people say things like “Sue just sent a patch,” or “Rajiv is checking out the diff.” Maybe those terms were new to you and you wondered what they meant.
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