^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 1) .. _applying_patches:
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 2)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 3) Applying Patches To The Linux Kernel
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 4) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 5)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 6) Original by:
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 7) Jesper Juhl, August 2005
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 8)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 9) .. note::
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 10)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 11) This document is obsolete. In most cases, rather than using ``patch``
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 12) manually, you'll almost certainly want to look at using Git instead.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 13)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 14) A frequently asked question on the Linux Kernel Mailing List is how to apply
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 15) a patch to the kernel or, more specifically, what base kernel a patch for
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 16) one of the many trees/branches should be applied to. Hopefully this document
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 17) will explain this to you.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 18)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 19) In addition to explaining how to apply and revert patches, a brief
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 20) description of the different kernel trees (and examples of how to apply
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 21) their specific patches) is also provided.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 22)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 23)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 24) What is a patch?
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 25) ================
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 26)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 27) A patch is a small text document containing a delta of changes between two
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 28) different versions of a source tree. Patches are created with the ``diff``
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 29) program.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 30)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 31) To correctly apply a patch you need to know what base it was generated from
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 32) and what new version the patch will change the source tree into. These
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 33) should both be present in the patch file metadata or be possible to deduce
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 34) from the filename.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 35)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 36)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 37) How do I apply or revert a patch?
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 38) =================================
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 39)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 40) You apply a patch with the ``patch`` program. The patch program reads a diff
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 41) (or patch) file and makes the changes to the source tree described in it.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 42)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 43) Patches for the Linux kernel are generated relative to the parent directory
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 44) holding the kernel source dir.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 45)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 46) This means that paths to files inside the patch file contain the name of the
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 47) kernel source directories it was generated against (or some other directory
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 48) names like "a/" and "b/").
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 49)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 50) Since this is unlikely to match the name of the kernel source dir on your
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 51) local machine (but is often useful info to see what version an otherwise
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 52) unlabeled patch was generated against) you should change into your kernel
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 53) source directory and then strip the first element of the path from filenames
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 54) in the patch file when applying it (the ``-p1`` argument to ``patch`` does
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 55) this).
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 56)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 57) To revert a previously applied patch, use the -R argument to patch.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 58) So, if you applied a patch like this::
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 59)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 60) patch -p1 < ../patch-x.y.z
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 61)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 62) You can revert (undo) it like this::
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 63)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 64) patch -R -p1 < ../patch-x.y.z
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 65)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 66)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 67) How do I feed a patch/diff file to ``patch``?
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 68) =============================================
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 69)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 70) This (as usual with Linux and other UNIX like operating systems) can be
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 71) done in several different ways.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 72)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 73) In all the examples below I feed the file (in uncompressed form) to patch
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 74) via stdin using the following syntax::
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 75)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 76) patch -p1 < path/to/patch-x.y.z
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 77)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 78) If you just want to be able to follow the examples below and don't want to
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 79) know of more than one way to use patch, then you can stop reading this
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 80) section here.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 81)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 82) Patch can also get the name of the file to use via the -i argument, like
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 83) this::
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 84)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 85) patch -p1 -i path/to/patch-x.y.z
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 86)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 87) If your patch file is compressed with gzip or xz and you don't want to
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 88) uncompress it before applying it, then you can feed it to patch like this
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 89) instead::
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 90)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 91) xzcat path/to/patch-x.y.z.xz | patch -p1
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 92) bzcat path/to/patch-x.y.z.gz | patch -p1
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 93)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 94) If you wish to uncompress the patch file by hand first before applying it
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 95) (what I assume you've done in the examples below), then you simply run
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 96) gunzip or xz on the file -- like this::
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 97)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 98) gunzip patch-x.y.z.gz
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 99) xz -d patch-x.y.z.xz
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 100)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 101) Which will leave you with a plain text patch-x.y.z file that you can feed to
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 102) patch via stdin or the ``-i`` argument, as you prefer.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 103)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 104) A few other nice arguments for patch are ``-s`` which causes patch to be silent
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 105) except for errors which is nice to prevent errors from scrolling out of the
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 106) screen too fast, and ``--dry-run`` which causes patch to just print a listing of
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 107) what would happen, but doesn't actually make any changes. Finally ``--verbose``
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 108) tells patch to print more information about the work being done.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 109)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 110)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 111) Common errors when patching
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 112) ===========================
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 113)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 114) When patch applies a patch file it attempts to verify the sanity of the
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 115) file in different ways.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 116)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 117) Checking that the file looks like a valid patch file and checking the code
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 118) around the bits being modified matches the context provided in the patch are
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 119) just two of the basic sanity checks patch does.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 120)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 121) If patch encounters something that doesn't look quite right it has two
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 122) options. It can either refuse to apply the changes and abort or it can try
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 123) to find a way to make the patch apply with a few minor changes.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 124)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 125) One example of something that's not 'quite right' that patch will attempt to
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 126) fix up is if all the context matches, the lines being changed match, but the
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 127) line numbers are different. This can happen, for example, if the patch makes
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 128) a change in the middle of the file but for some reasons a few lines have
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 129) been added or removed near the beginning of the file. In that case
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 130) everything looks good it has just moved up or down a bit, and patch will
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 131) usually adjust the line numbers and apply the patch.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 132)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 133) Whenever patch applies a patch that it had to modify a bit to make it fit
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 134) it'll tell you about it by saying the patch applied with **fuzz**.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 135) You should be wary of such changes since even though patch probably got it
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 136) right it doesn't /always/ get it right, and the result will sometimes be
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 137) wrong.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 138)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 139) When patch encounters a change that it can't fix up with fuzz it rejects it
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 140) outright and leaves a file with a ``.rej`` extension (a reject file). You can
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 141) read this file to see exactly what change couldn't be applied, so you can
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 142) go fix it up by hand if you wish.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 143)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 144) If you don't have any third-party patches applied to your kernel source, but
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 145) only patches from kernel.org and you apply the patches in the correct order,
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 146) and have made no modifications yourself to the source files, then you should
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 147) never see a fuzz or reject message from patch. If you do see such messages
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 148) anyway, then there's a high risk that either your local source tree or the
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 149) patch file is corrupted in some way. In that case you should probably try
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 150) re-downloading the patch and if things are still not OK then you'd be advised
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 151) to start with a fresh tree downloaded in full from kernel.org.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 152)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 153) Let's look a bit more at some of the messages patch can produce.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 154)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 155) If patch stops and presents a ``File to patch:`` prompt, then patch could not
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 156) find a file to be patched. Most likely you forgot to specify -p1 or you are
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 157) in the wrong directory. Less often, you'll find patches that need to be
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 158) applied with ``-p0`` instead of ``-p1`` (reading the patch file should reveal if
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 159) this is the case -- if so, then this is an error by the person who created
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 160) the patch but is not fatal).
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 161)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 162) If you get ``Hunk #2 succeeded at 1887 with fuzz 2 (offset 7 lines).`` or a
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 163) message similar to that, then it means that patch had to adjust the location
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 164) of the change (in this example it needed to move 7 lines from where it
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 165) expected to make the change to make it fit).
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 166)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 167) The resulting file may or may not be OK, depending on the reason the file
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 168) was different than expected.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 169)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 170) This often happens if you try to apply a patch that was generated against a
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 171) different kernel version than the one you are trying to patch.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 172)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 173) If you get a message like ``Hunk #3 FAILED at 2387.``, then it means that the
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 174) patch could not be applied correctly and the patch program was unable to
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 175) fuzz its way through. This will generate a ``.rej`` file with the change that
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 176) caused the patch to fail and also a ``.orig`` file showing you the original
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 177) content that couldn't be changed.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 178)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 179) If you get ``Reversed (or previously applied) patch detected! Assume -R? [n]``
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 180) then patch detected that the change contained in the patch seems to have
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 181) already been made.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 182)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 183) If you actually did apply this patch previously and you just re-applied it
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 184) in error, then just say [n]o and abort this patch. If you applied this patch
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 185) previously and actually intended to revert it, but forgot to specify -R,
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 186) then you can say [**y**]es here to make patch revert it for you.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 187)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 188) This can also happen if the creator of the patch reversed the source and
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 189) destination directories when creating the patch, and in that case reverting
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 190) the patch will in fact apply it.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 191)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 192) A message similar to ``patch: **** unexpected end of file in patch`` or
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 193) ``patch unexpectedly ends in middle of line`` means that patch could make no
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 194) sense of the file you fed to it. Either your download is broken, you tried to
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 195) feed patch a compressed patch file without uncompressing it first, or the patch
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 196) file that you are using has been mangled by a mail client or mail transfer
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 197) agent along the way somewhere, e.g., by splitting a long line into two lines.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 198) Often these warnings can easily be fixed by joining (concatenating) the
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 199) two lines that had been split.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 200)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 201) As I already mentioned above, these errors should never happen if you apply
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 202) a patch from kernel.org to the correct version of an unmodified source tree.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 203) So if you get these errors with kernel.org patches then you should probably
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 204) assume that either your patch file or your tree is broken and I'd advise you
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 205) to start over with a fresh download of a full kernel tree and the patch you
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 206) wish to apply.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 207)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 208)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 209) Are there any alternatives to ``patch``?
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 210) ========================================
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 211)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 212)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 213) Yes there are alternatives.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 214)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 215) You can use the ``interdiff`` program (http://cyberelk.net/tim/patchutils/) to
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 216) generate a patch representing the differences between two patches and then
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 217) apply the result.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 218)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 219) This will let you move from something like 5.7.2 to 5.7.3 in a single
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 220) step. The -z flag to interdiff will even let you feed it patches in gzip or
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 221) bzip2 compressed form directly without the use of zcat or bzcat or manual
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 222) decompression.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 223)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 224) Here's how you'd go from 5.7.2 to 5.7.3 in a single step::
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 225)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 226) interdiff -z ../patch-5.7.2.gz ../patch-5.7.3.gz | patch -p1
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 227)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 228) Although interdiff may save you a step or two you are generally advised to
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 229) do the additional steps since interdiff can get things wrong in some cases.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 230)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 231) Another alternative is ``ketchup``, which is a python script for automatic
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 232) downloading and applying of patches (https://www.selenic.com/ketchup/).
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 233)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 234) Other nice tools are diffstat, which shows a summary of changes made by a
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 235) patch; lsdiff, which displays a short listing of affected files in a patch
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 236) file, along with (optionally) the line numbers of the start of each patch;
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 237) and grepdiff, which displays a list of the files modified by a patch where
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 238) the patch contains a given regular expression.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 239)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 240)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 241) Where can I download the patches?
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 242) =================================
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 243)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 244) The patches are available at https://kernel.org/
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 245) Most recent patches are linked from the front page, but they also have
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 246) specific homes.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 247)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 248) The 5.x.y (-stable) and 5.x patches live at
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 249)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 250) https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v5.x/
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 251)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 252) The -rc patches are not stored on the webserver but are generated on
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 253) demand from git tags such as
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 254)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 255) https://git.kernel.org/torvalds/p/v5.1-rc1/v5.0
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 256)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 257) The stable -rc patches live at
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 258)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 259) https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v5.x/stable-review/
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 260)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 261)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 262) The 5.x kernels
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 263) ===============
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 264)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 265) These are the base stable releases released by Linus. The highest numbered
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 266) release is the most recent.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 267)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 268) If regressions or other serious flaws are found, then a -stable fix patch
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 269) will be released (see below) on top of this base. Once a new 5.x base
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 270) kernel is released, a patch is made available that is a delta between the
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 271) previous 5.x kernel and the new one.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 272)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 273) To apply a patch moving from 5.6 to 5.7, you'd do the following (note
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 274) that such patches do **NOT** apply on top of 5.x.y kernels but on top of the
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 275) base 5.x kernel -- if you need to move from 5.x.y to 5.x+1 you need to
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 276) first revert the 5.x.y patch).
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 277)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 278) Here are some examples::
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 279)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 280) # moving from 5.6 to 5.7
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 281)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 282) $ cd ~/linux-5.6 # change to kernel source dir
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 283) $ patch -p1 < ../patch-5.7 # apply the 5.7 patch
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 284) $ cd ..
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 285) $ mv linux-5.6 linux-5.7 # rename source dir
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 286)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 287) # moving from 5.6.1 to 5.7
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 288)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 289) $ cd ~/linux-5.6.1 # change to kernel source dir
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 290) $ patch -p1 -R < ../patch-5.6.1 # revert the 5.6.1 patch
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 291) # source dir is now 5.6
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 292) $ patch -p1 < ../patch-5.7 # apply new 5.7 patch
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 293) $ cd ..
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 294) $ mv linux-5.6.1 linux-5.7 # rename source dir
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 295)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 296)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 297) The 5.x.y kernels
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 298) =================
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 299)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 300) Kernels with 3-digit versions are -stable kernels. They contain small(ish)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 301) critical fixes for security problems or significant regressions discovered
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 302) in a given 5.x kernel.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 303)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 304) This is the recommended branch for users who want the most recent stable
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 305) kernel and are not interested in helping test development/experimental
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 306) versions.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 307)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 308) If no 5.x.y kernel is available, then the highest numbered 5.x kernel is
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 309) the current stable kernel.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 310)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 311) .. note::
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 312)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 313) The -stable team usually do make incremental patches available as well
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 314) as patches against the latest mainline release, but I only cover the
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 315) non-incremental ones below. The incremental ones can be found at
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 316) https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v5.x/incr/
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 317)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 318) These patches are not incremental, meaning that for example the 5.7.3
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 319) patch does not apply on top of the 5.7.2 kernel source, but rather on top
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 320) of the base 5.7 kernel source.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 321)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 322) So, in order to apply the 5.7.3 patch to your existing 5.7.2 kernel
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 323) source you have to first back out the 5.7.2 patch (so you are left with a
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 324) base 5.7 kernel source) and then apply the new 5.7.3 patch.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 325)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 326) Here's a small example::
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 327)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 328) $ cd ~/linux-5.7.2 # change to the kernel source dir
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 329) $ patch -p1 -R < ../patch-5.7.2 # revert the 5.7.2 patch
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 330) $ patch -p1 < ../patch-5.7.3 # apply the new 5.7.3 patch
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 331) $ cd ..
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 332) $ mv linux-5.7.2 linux-5.7.3 # rename the kernel source dir
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 333)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 334) The -rc kernels
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 335) ===============
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 336)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 337) These are release-candidate kernels. These are development kernels released
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 338) by Linus whenever he deems the current git (the kernel's source management
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 339) tool) tree to be in a reasonably sane state adequate for testing.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 340)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 341) These kernels are not stable and you should expect occasional breakage if
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 342) you intend to run them. This is however the most stable of the main
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 343) development branches and is also what will eventually turn into the next
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 344) stable kernel, so it is important that it be tested by as many people as
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 345) possible.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 346)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 347) This is a good branch to run for people who want to help out testing
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 348) development kernels but do not want to run some of the really experimental
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 349) stuff (such people should see the sections about -next and -mm kernels below).
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 350)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 351) The -rc patches are not incremental, they apply to a base 5.x kernel, just
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 352) like the 5.x.y patches described above. The kernel version before the -rcN
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 353) suffix denotes the version of the kernel that this -rc kernel will eventually
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 354) turn into.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 355)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 356) So, 5.8-rc5 means that this is the fifth release candidate for the 5.8
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 357) kernel and the patch should be applied on top of the 5.7 kernel source.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 358)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 359) Here are 3 examples of how to apply these patches::
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 360)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 361) # first an example of moving from 5.7 to 5.8-rc3
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 362)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 363) $ cd ~/linux-5.7 # change to the 5.7 source dir
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 364) $ patch -p1 < ../patch-5.8-rc3 # apply the 5.8-rc3 patch
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 365) $ cd ..
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 366) $ mv linux-5.7 linux-5.8-rc3 # rename the source dir
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 367)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 368) # now let's move from 5.8-rc3 to 5.8-rc5
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 369)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 370) $ cd ~/linux-5.8-rc3 # change to the 5.8-rc3 dir
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 371) $ patch -p1 -R < ../patch-5.8-rc3 # revert the 5.8-rc3 patch
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 372) $ patch -p1 < ../patch-5.8-rc5 # apply the new 5.8-rc5 patch
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 373) $ cd ..
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 374) $ mv linux-5.8-rc3 linux-5.8-rc5 # rename the source dir
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 375)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 376) # finally let's try and move from 5.7.3 to 5.8-rc5
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 377)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 378) $ cd ~/linux-5.7.3 # change to the kernel source dir
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 379) $ patch -p1 -R < ../patch-5.7.3 # revert the 5.7.3 patch
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 380) $ patch -p1 < ../patch-5.8-rc5 # apply new 5.8-rc5 patch
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 381) $ cd ..
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 382) $ mv linux-5.7.3 linux-5.8-rc5 # rename the kernel source dir
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 383)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 384)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 385) The -mm patches and the linux-next tree
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 386) =======================================
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 387)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 388) The -mm patches are experimental patches released by Andrew Morton.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 389)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 390) In the past, -mm tree were used to also test subsystem patches, but this
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 391) function is now done via the
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 392) `linux-next <https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/linux-next.html>`
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 393) tree. The Subsystem maintainers push their patches first to linux-next,
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 394) and, during the merge window, sends them directly to Linus.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 395)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 396) The -mm patches serve as a sort of proving ground for new features and other
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 397) experimental patches that aren't merged via a subsystem tree.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 398) Once such patches has proved its worth in -mm for a while Andrew pushes
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 399) it on to Linus for inclusion in mainline.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 400)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 401) The linux-next tree is daily updated, and includes the -mm patches.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 402) Both are in constant flux and contains many experimental features, a
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 403) lot of debugging patches not appropriate for mainline etc., and is the most
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 404) experimental of the branches described in this document.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 405)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 406) These patches are not appropriate for use on systems that are supposed to be
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 407) stable and they are more risky to run than any of the other branches (make
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 408) sure you have up-to-date backups -- that goes for any experimental kernel but
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 409) even more so for -mm patches or using a Kernel from the linux-next tree).
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 410)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 411) Testing of -mm patches and linux-next is greatly appreciated since the whole
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 412) point of those are to weed out regressions, crashes, data corruption bugs,
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 413) build breakage (and any other bug in general) before changes are merged into
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 414) the more stable mainline Linus tree.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 415)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 416) But testers of -mm and linux-next should be aware that breakages are
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 417) more common than in any other tree.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 418)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 419)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 420) This concludes this list of explanations of the various kernel trees.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 421) I hope you are now clear on how to apply the various patches and help testing
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 422) the kernel.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 423)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 424) Thank you's to Randy Dunlap, Rolf Eike Beer, Linus Torvalds, Bodo Eggert,
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 425) Johannes Stezenbach, Grant Coady, Pavel Machek and others that I may have
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 426) forgotten for their reviews and contributions to this document.
Orange Pi5 kernel
Deprecated Linux kernel 5.10.110 for OrangePi 5/5B/5+ boards
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