Feature request: File creation from diff -ruN

[kit-ty-kate]

The documentation of GNU patch states:

You can create a file by sending out a diff that compares /dev/null or an empty file dated the
Epoch (1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC) to the file you want to create.

This is used, for example by (GNU) diff -ruN, where the -N option reads:

-N, --new-file
treat absent files as empty

Currently, this implementation of patch would return Edit on such an input instead of the expected Create

[hannesm]

a question I have: is this addressed in #9? If not, would you mind to post a small example?

[kit-ty-kate]

is this addressed in #9?

it is not.

If not, would you mind to post a small example?

With the following setup:

mkdir a b
echo aaa > a/test
diff -ruaN a b > patch

the outputted patch file looks like:

diff -ruaN a/test b/test
--- a/test	2024-03-21 11:29:11
+++ b/test	1970-01-01 01:00:00
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-aaa

on macOS

diff -ruaN a/test b/test
--- a/test	Thu Mar 21 12:34:45 2024
+++ b/test	Thu Jan  1 01:00:00 1970
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-aaa

on OpenBSD

diff -ruaN a/test b/test
--- a/test	2024-03-21 11:35:38.363194916 +0000
+++ b/test	1970-01-01 01:00:00.000000000 +0100
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-aaa

with GNU diffutils

--- a/test
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-aaa

with Busybox's diff