1.. _applying_patches:
2
3Applying Patches To The Linux Kernel
4++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
5
6Original by:
7	Jesper Juhl, August 2005
8
9.. note::
10
11   This document is obsolete.  In most cases, rather than using ``patch``
12   manually, you'll almost certainly want to look at using Git instead.
13
14A frequently asked question on the Linux Kernel Mailing List is how to apply
15a patch to the kernel or, more specifically, what base kernel a patch for
16one of the many trees/branches should be applied to. Hopefully this document
17will explain this to you.
18
19In addition to explaining how to apply and revert patches, a brief
20description of the different kernel trees (and examples of how to apply
21their specific patches) is also provided.
22
23
24What is a patch?
25================
26
27A patch is a small text document containing a delta of changes between two
28different versions of a source tree. Patches are created with the ``diff``
29program.
30
31To correctly apply a patch you need to know what base it was generated from
32and what new version the patch will change the source tree into. These
33should both be present in the patch file metadata or be possible to deduce
34from the filename.
35
36
37How do I apply or revert a patch?
38=================================
39
40You apply a patch with the ``patch`` program. The patch program reads a diff
41(or patch) file and makes the changes to the source tree described in it.
42
43Patches for the Linux kernel are generated relative to the parent directory
44holding the kernel source dir.
45
46This means that paths to files inside the patch file contain the name of the
47kernel source directories it was generated against (or some other directory
48names like "a/" and "b/").
49
50Since this is unlikely to match the name of the kernel source dir on your
51local machine (but is often useful info to see what version an otherwise
52unlabeled patch was generated against) you should change into your kernel
53source directory and then strip the first element of the path from filenames
54in the patch file when applying it (the ``-p1`` argument to ``patch`` does
55this).
56
57To revert a previously applied patch, use the -R argument to patch.
58So, if you applied a patch like this::
59
60	patch -p1 < ../patch-x.y.z
61
62You can revert (undo) it like this::
63
64	patch -R -p1 < ../patch-x.y.z
65
66
67How do I feed a patch/diff file to ``patch``?
68=============================================
69
70This (as usual with Linux and other UNIX like operating systems) can be
71done in several different ways.
72
73In all the examples below I feed the file (in uncompressed form) to patch
74via stdin using the following syntax::
75
76	patch -p1 < path/to/patch-x.y.z
77
78If you just want to be able to follow the examples below and don't want to
79know of more than one way to use patch, then you can stop reading this
80section here.
81
82Patch can also get the name of the file to use via the -i argument, like
83this::
84
85	patch -p1 -i path/to/patch-x.y.z
86
87If your patch file is compressed with gzip or xz and you don't want to
88uncompress it before applying it, then you can feed it to patch like this
89instead::
90
91	xzcat path/to/patch-x.y.z.xz | patch -p1
92	bzcat path/to/patch-x.y.z.gz | patch -p1
93
94If you wish to uncompress the patch file by hand first before applying it
95(what I assume you've done in the examples below), then you simply run
96gunzip or xz on the file -- like this::
97
98	gunzip patch-x.y.z.gz
99	xz -d patch-x.y.z.xz
100
101Which will leave you with a plain text patch-x.y.z file that you can feed to
102patch via stdin or the ``-i`` argument, as you prefer.
103
104A few other nice arguments for patch are ``-s`` which causes patch to be silent
105except for errors which is nice to prevent errors from scrolling out of the
106screen too fast, and ``--dry-run`` which causes patch to just print a listing of
107what would happen, but doesn't actually make any changes. Finally ``--verbose``
108tells patch to print more information about the work being done.
109
110
111Common errors when patching
112===========================
113
114When patch applies a patch file it attempts to verify the sanity of the
115file in different ways.
116
117Checking that the file looks like a valid patch file and checking the code
118around the bits being modified matches the context provided in the patch are
119just two of the basic sanity checks patch does.
120
121If patch encounters something that doesn't look quite right it has two
122options. It can either refuse to apply the changes and abort or it can try
123to find a way to make the patch apply with a few minor changes.
124
125One example of something that's not 'quite right' that patch will attempt to
126fix up is if all the context matches, the lines being changed match, but the
127line numbers are different. This can happen, for example, if the patch makes
128a change in the middle of the file but for some reasons a few lines have
129been added or removed near the beginning of the file. In that case
130everything looks good it has just moved up or down a bit, and patch will
131usually adjust the line numbers and apply the patch.
132
133Whenever patch applies a patch that it had to modify a bit to make it fit
134it'll tell you about it by saying the patch applied with **fuzz**.
135You should be wary of such changes since even though patch probably got it
136right it doesn't /always/ get it right, and the result will sometimes be
137wrong.
138
139When patch encounters a change that it can't fix up with fuzz it rejects it
140outright and leaves a file with a ``.rej`` extension (a reject file). You can
141read this file to see exactly what change couldn't be applied, so you can
142go fix it up by hand if you wish.
143
144If you don't have any third-party patches applied to your kernel source, but
145only patches from kernel.org and you apply the patches in the correct order,
146and have made no modifications yourself to the source files, then you should
147never see a fuzz or reject message from patch. If you do see such messages
148anyway, then there's a high risk that either your local source tree or the
149patch file is corrupted in some way. In that case you should probably try
150re-downloading the patch and if things are still not OK then you'd be advised
151to start with a fresh tree downloaded in full from kernel.org.
152
153Let's look a bit more at some of the messages patch can produce.
154
155If patch stops and presents a ``File to patch:`` prompt, then patch could not
156find a file to be patched. Most likely you forgot to specify -p1 or you are
157in the wrong directory. Less often, you'll find patches that need to be
158applied with ``-p0`` instead of ``-p1`` (reading the patch file should reveal if
159this is the case -- if so, then this is an error by the person who created
160the patch but is not fatal).
161
162If you get ``Hunk #2 succeeded at 1887 with fuzz 2 (offset 7 lines).`` or a
163message similar to that, then it means that patch had to adjust the location
164of the change (in this example it needed to move 7 lines from where it
165expected to make the change to make it fit).
166
167The resulting file may or may not be OK, depending on the reason the file
168was different than expected.
169
170This often happens if you try to apply a patch that was generated against a
171different kernel version than the one you are trying to patch.
172
173If you get a message like ``Hunk #3 FAILED at 2387.``, then it means that the
174patch could not be applied correctly and the patch program was unable to
175fuzz its way through. This will generate a ``.rej`` file with the change that
176caused the patch to fail and also a ``.orig`` file showing you the original
177content that couldn't be changed.
178
179If you get ``Reversed (or previously applied) patch detected!  Assume -R? [n]``
180then patch detected that the change contained in the patch seems to have
181already been made.
182
183If you actually did apply this patch previously and you just re-applied it
184in error, then just say [n]o and abort this patch. If you applied this patch
185previously and actually intended to revert it, but forgot to specify -R,
186then you can say [**y**]es here to make patch revert it for you.
187
188This can also happen if the creator of the patch reversed the source and
189destination directories when creating the patch, and in that case reverting
190the patch will in fact apply it.
191
192A message similar to ``patch: **** unexpected end of file in patch`` or
193``patch unexpectedly ends in middle of line`` means that patch could make no
194sense of the file you fed to it. Either your download is broken, you tried to
195feed patch a compressed patch file without uncompressing it first, or the patch
196file that you are using has been mangled by a mail client or mail transfer
197agent along the way somewhere, e.g., by splitting a long line into two lines.
198Often these warnings can easily be fixed by joining (concatenating) the
199two lines that had been split.
200
201As I already mentioned above, these errors should never happen if you apply
202a patch from kernel.org to the correct version of an unmodified source tree.
203So if you get these errors with kernel.org patches then you should probably
204assume that either your patch file or your tree is broken and I'd advise you
205to start over with a fresh download of a full kernel tree and the patch you
206wish to apply.
207
208
209Are there any alternatives to ``patch``?
210========================================
211
212
213Yes there are alternatives.
214
215You can use the ``interdiff`` program (http://cyberelk.net/tim/patchutils/) to
216generate a patch representing the differences between two patches and then
217apply the result.
218
219This will let you move from something like 4.7.2 to 4.7.3 in a single
220step. The -z flag to interdiff will even let you feed it patches in gzip or
221bzip2 compressed form directly without the use of zcat or bzcat or manual
222decompression.
223
224Here's how you'd go from 4.7.2 to 4.7.3 in a single step::
225
226	interdiff -z ../patch-4.7.2.gz ../patch-4.7.3.gz | patch -p1
227
228Although interdiff may save you a step or two you are generally advised to
229do the additional steps since interdiff can get things wrong in some cases.
230
231Another alternative is ``ketchup``, which is a python script for automatic
232downloading and applying of patches (http://www.selenic.com/ketchup/).
233
234Other nice tools are diffstat, which shows a summary of changes made by a
235patch; lsdiff, which displays a short listing of affected files in a patch
236file, along with (optionally) the line numbers of the start of each patch;
237and grepdiff, which displays a list of the files modified by a patch where
238the patch contains a given regular expression.
239
240
241Where can I download the patches?
242=================================
243
244The patches are available at http://kernel.org/
245Most recent patches are linked from the front page, but they also have
246specific homes.
247
248The 4.x.y (-stable) and 4.x patches live at
249
250	https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/
251
252The -rc patches live at
253
254	https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/testing/
255
256
257The 4.x kernels
258===============
259
260These are the base stable releases released by Linus. The highest numbered
261release is the most recent.
262
263If regressions or other serious flaws are found, then a -stable fix patch
264will be released (see below) on top of this base. Once a new 4.x base
265kernel is released, a patch is made available that is a delta between the
266previous 4.x kernel and the new one.
267
268To apply a patch moving from 4.6 to 4.7, you'd do the following (note
269that such patches do **NOT** apply on top of 4.x.y kernels but on top of the
270base 4.x kernel -- if you need to move from 4.x.y to 4.x+1 you need to
271first revert the 4.x.y patch).
272
273Here are some examples::
274
275	# moving from 4.6 to 4.7
276
277	$ cd ~/linux-4.6		# change to kernel source dir
278	$ patch -p1 < ../patch-4.7	# apply the 4.7 patch
279	$ cd ..
280	$ mv linux-4.6 linux-4.7	# rename source dir
281
282	# moving from 4.6.1 to 4.7
283
284	$ cd ~/linux-4.6.1		# change to kernel source dir
285	$ patch -p1 -R < ../patch-4.6.1	# revert the 4.6.1 patch
286					# source dir is now 4.6
287	$ patch -p1 < ../patch-4.7	# apply new 4.7 patch
288	$ cd ..
289	$ mv linux-4.6.1 linux-4.7	# rename source dir
290
291
292The 4.x.y kernels
293=================
294
295Kernels with 3-digit versions are -stable kernels. They contain small(ish)
296critical fixes for security problems or significant regressions discovered
297in a given 4.x kernel.
298
299This is the recommended branch for users who want the most recent stable
300kernel and are not interested in helping test development/experimental
301versions.
302
303If no 4.x.y kernel is available, then the highest numbered 4.x kernel is
304the current stable kernel.
305
306.. note::
307
308 The -stable team usually do make incremental patches available as well
309 as patches against the latest mainline release, but I only cover the
310 non-incremental ones below. The incremental ones can be found at
311 https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/incr/
312
313These patches are not incremental, meaning that for example the 4.7.3
314patch does not apply on top of the 4.7.2 kernel source, but rather on top
315of the base 4.7 kernel source.
316
317So, in order to apply the 4.7.3 patch to your existing 4.7.2 kernel
318source you have to first back out the 4.7.2 patch (so you are left with a
319base 4.7 kernel source) and then apply the new 4.7.3 patch.
320
321Here's a small example::
322
323	$ cd ~/linux-4.7.2		# change to the kernel source dir
324	$ patch -p1 -R < ../patch-4.7.2	# revert the 4.7.2 patch
325	$ patch -p1 < ../patch-4.7.3	# apply the new 4.7.3 patch
326	$ cd ..
327	$ mv linux-4.7.2 linux-4.7.3	# rename the kernel source dir
328
329The -rc kernels
330===============
331
332These are release-candidate kernels. These are development kernels released
333by Linus whenever he deems the current git (the kernel's source management
334tool) tree to be in a reasonably sane state adequate for testing.
335
336These kernels are not stable and you should expect occasional breakage if
337you intend to run them. This is however the most stable of the main
338development branches and is also what will eventually turn into the next
339stable kernel, so it is important that it be tested by as many people as
340possible.
341
342This is a good branch to run for people who want to help out testing
343development kernels but do not want to run some of the really experimental
344stuff (such people should see the sections about -next and -mm kernels below).
345
346The -rc patches are not incremental, they apply to a base 4.x kernel, just
347like the 4.x.y patches described above. The kernel version before the -rcN
348suffix denotes the version of the kernel that this -rc kernel will eventually
349turn into.
350
351So, 4.8-rc5 means that this is the fifth release candidate for the 4.8
352kernel and the patch should be applied on top of the 4.7 kernel source.
353
354Here are 3 examples of how to apply these patches::
355
356	# first an example of moving from 4.7 to 4.8-rc3
357
358	$ cd ~/linux-4.7			# change to the 4.7 source dir
359	$ patch -p1 < ../patch-4.8-rc3		# apply the 4.8-rc3 patch
360	$ cd ..
361	$ mv linux-4.7 linux-4.8-rc3		# rename the source dir
362
363	# now let's move from 4.8-rc3 to 4.8-rc5
364
365	$ cd ~/linux-4.8-rc3			# change to the 4.8-rc3 dir
366	$ patch -p1 -R < ../patch-4.8-rc3	# revert the 4.8-rc3 patch
367	$ patch -p1 < ../patch-4.8-rc5		# apply the new 4.8-rc5 patch
368	$ cd ..
369	$ mv linux-4.8-rc3 linux-4.8-rc5	# rename the source dir
370
371	# finally let's try and move from 4.7.3 to 4.8-rc5
372
373	$ cd ~/linux-4.7.3			# change to the kernel source dir
374	$ patch -p1 -R < ../patch-4.7.3		# revert the 4.7.3 patch
375	$ patch -p1 < ../patch-4.8-rc5		# apply new 4.8-rc5 patch
376	$ cd ..
377	$ mv linux-4.7.3 linux-4.8-rc5		# rename the kernel source dir
378
379
380The -mm patches and the linux-next tree
381=======================================
382
383The -mm patches are experimental patches released by Andrew Morton.
384
385In the past, -mm tree were used to also test subsystem patches, but this
386function is now done via the
387`linux-next <https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/linux-next.html>`
388tree. The Subsystem maintainers push their patches first to linux-next,
389and, during the merge window, sends them directly to Linus.
390
391The -mm patches serve as a sort of proving ground for new features and other
392experimental patches that aren't merged via a subsystem tree.
393Once such patches has proved its worth in -mm for a while Andrew pushes
394it on to Linus for inclusion in mainline.
395
396The linux-next tree is daily updated, and includes the -mm patches.
397Both are in constant flux and contains many experimental features, a
398lot of debugging patches not appropriate for mainline etc., and is the most
399experimental of the branches described in this document.
400
401These patches are not appropriate for use on systems that are supposed to be
402stable and they are more risky to run than any of the other branches (make
403sure you have up-to-date backups -- that goes for any experimental kernel but
404even more so for -mm patches or using a Kernel from the linux-next tree).
405
406Testing of -mm patches and linux-next is greatly appreciated since the whole
407point of those are to weed out regressions, crashes, data corruption bugs,
408build breakage (and any other bug in general) before changes are merged into
409the more stable mainline Linus tree.
410
411But testers of -mm and linux-next should be aware that breakages are
412more common than in any other tree.
413
414
415This concludes this list of explanations of the various kernel trees.
416I hope you are now clear on how to apply the various patches and help testing
417the kernel.
418
419Thank you's to Randy Dunlap, Rolf Eike Beer, Linus Torvalds, Bodo Eggert,
420Johannes Stezenbach, Grant Coady, Pavel Machek and others that I may have
421forgotten for their reviews and contributions to this document.
422