[bug-patch] GNU patch close to next stable release (2)

[Andreas Grünbacher]

After another improvement in git-style diff support to better handle
concatenated
diffs, here is a last call for testing to ensure that the code works
well enough to
become the next stable release. Please find the latest development snapshots
here:

  ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/patch/

The following significant changes have happened since the last stable release
in December 2009:

* Support for most features of the "diff --git" format, including renames and
  copies, permission changes, and symlink diffs.  Binary diffs are not
  supported yet; patch will complain and skip them.

* Support for double-quoted filenames in the "diff --git" format: when a
  filename starts with a double quote, it is interpreted as a C string
  literal.  The escape sequences \\, \", \a, \b, \f, \n, \r, \t, \v, and \ooo
  (a three-digit octal number between 0 and 255) are recognized.

* Patch now ignores destination file names that are absolute or that contain
  a component of "..".  This addresses CVE-2010-4651.

* Refuse to apply a normal patch to a symlink.  (Previous versions of patch
  were replacing the symlink with a regular file.)

* When trying to modify a read-only file, warn about the potential problem
  by default.  The --read-only command line option allows to change this
  behavior.

* Files that should be deleted are now deleted once the entire patch file has
  been read.  This fixes a bug with numbered backup files.

* When a timestamp specifies a time zone, honor that instead of assuming the
  local time zone (--set-date) or Universal Coordinated Time (--set-utc).

* Support for nanosecond precision timestamps.

* Many portability and bug fixes.

Please report bugs or suggestions on the <address@hidden> mailing list, or
in the project's bug tracker on Savannah:

  http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/patch

Thanks,
Andreas