vinheim
Level: Smiter
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Registered: 05-31-2007
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how do you use them?
i found a thread in the bugs part of the forum that had a patch file that would solve my problem but i dont know how to use it

Monkey
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 190
Registered: 03-21-2006
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I've been wondering the same thing.
I tried using drod.exe to boot up the .patch files, but I just hear an error beep, and nothing happens.
Is there some sort of special program to use .patch files?

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lurking

Alneyan
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You should link to an example of a .patch file. Extensions are (mostly) a matter of convention, and .patch is good enough to be used by more than one program.

In any case, a .patch file is likely to contain plain text describing modifications to be made on the DROD source code, so it wouldn't be directly useful without recompiling the game. Still, it's hard to tell for sure without actually seeing the file up close.

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[Last edited by Alneyan at 06-24-2007 05:48 PM]

coppro
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The ones in all the bug boards are code modifications, generated by the 'diff' Unix program and for use with the 'patch' Unix program. You can apply them to the code, and then the updates are made without modifying any other changes you may already have made to that file. They are used by software developers because multiple changes may be made by different people, and if they posted up the whole file, tracking down all the differences would be a nightmare. If you want to use a patch file, you will have to recompile DROD (although theoretically, while Mike could post a small file to directly update the executable, patch works on textual files only. It would have to be him, too, or else there's no guaranteeing that the files would otherwise work.)