How do I change paths in a unified patch?

Question

I have a Git repository in which I made some changes to the folder structure. I moved everything that was in ./_test_html directory to the root ./ of the repository and continued working.

Now I wanted to revert some changes I had made before the directory change, but realized I could not do this with a normal revert because the files affected were no longer present in my current branch, so I created a patch file and changed all paths in the file from ./subdir to ./ to make the references correct again, but git apply gives me error:

patch failed, patch does not apply errors.

See below for (parts) of the old and adjusted patch file and the Git output. What am I doing wrong and is there a command/tool to use instead of manually editing patch file?

Old file

    ---
 _test_html/mobile/css/sf.css                 |  53 ++++++++++++++--
 _test_html/mobile/images/logo_temp_x.png     | Bin 17636 -> 19362 bytes
 _test_html/mobile/js/secretflirt.js          |  16 ++++-
 _test_html/mobile/templates/footer.tpl.php   |   7 ++-
 _test_html/mobile/templates/header.tpl.php   |  90 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 _test_html/mobile/templates/ingelogd.tpl.php |  40 +-----------
 6 files changed, 157 insertions(+), 49 deletions(-)

diff --git a/_test_html/mobile/css/sf.css b/_test_html/mobile/css/sf.css
index 0d5f317..63a3b9d 100644
--- a/_test_html/mobile/css/sf.css
+++ b/_test_html/mobile/css/sf.css
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ h2, .ui-collapsible-heading{margin:0;font-size:16px;}

 .ui-collapsible-heading a span.ui-btn{right:6px;}

-.ui-field-contain{ border-bottom-width: 0px!important; 0px; padding: 0px;
+.ui-field-contain{ border-bottom-width: 0px!important; padding: 0px;
 margin: 3px 3px 0px 0px; width: 100%;}
 input.ui-input-text, .ui-input-search{background:#fff;color:#333;margin: 2px 2px 2px 0px; width: 100%;height: 2.1em;}
 textarea.ui-input-text {background:#fff;color:#333;margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px;margin-right: 5px;width: 100%; min-height:150px;}
@@ -648,7 +648,7 @@ label.ui-input-text, label.ui-select{color:#333;font-size:100%;font-weight:norma
 .ui-body-c .ui-footer .ui-link{color:#c8c8c8;font-size:110%;font-weight:bold;}
 .ui-body-c .ui-footer .ui-link.last{color:#2489CE;}
 .ui-body-c .ui-footer .ui-link:hover{color:#fff;}
-label.error, {display:block;margin-left: 10px;margin-top: 5px;text-shadow: 1px 1px 5px white;
+label.error {display:block;margin-left: 10px;margin-top: 5px;text-shadow: 1px 1px 5px white;
 color: red;
 font-size: 1.1em;}

new file

    ---
 mobile/css/sf.css                 |  53 ++++++++++++++--
 mobile/images/logo_temp_x.png     | Bin 17636 -> 19362 bytes
 mobile/js/secretflirt.js          |  16 ++++-
 mobile/templates/footer.tpl.php   |   7 ++-
 mobile/templates/header.tpl.php   |  90 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 mobile/templates/ingelogd.tpl.php |  40 +-----------
 6 files changed, 157 insertions(+), 49 deletions(-)

diff --git a/mobile/css/sf.css b/mobile/css/sf.css
index 0d5f317..63a3b9d 100644
--- a/mobile/css/sf.css
+++ b/mobile/css/sf.css
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ h2, .ui-collapsible-heading{margin:0;font-size:16px;}

 .ui-collapsible-heading a span.ui-btn{right:6px;}

-.ui-field-contain{ border-bottom-width: 0px!important; 0px; padding: 0px;
+.ui-field-contain{ border-bottom-width: 0px!important; padding: 0px;
 margin: 3px 3px 0px 0px; width: 100%;}
 input.ui-input-text, .ui-input-search{background:#fff;color:#333;margin: 2px 2px 2px 0px; width: 100%;height: 2.1em;}
 textarea.ui-input-text {background:#fff;color:#333;margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px;margin-right: 5px;width: 100%; min-height:150px;}
@@ -648,7 +648,7 @@ label.ui-input-text, label.ui-select{color:#333;font-size:100%;font-weight:norma
 .ui-body-c .ui-footer .ui-link{color:#c8c8c8;font-size:110%;font-weight:bold;}
 .ui-body-c .ui-footer .ui-link.last{color:#2489CE;}
 .ui-body-c .ui-footer .ui-link:hover{color:#fff;}
-label.error, {display:block;margin-left: 10px;margin-top: 5px;text-shadow: 1px 1px 5px white;
+label.error {display:block;margin-left: 10px;margin-top: 5px;text-shadow: 1px 1px 5px white;
 color: red;
 font-size: 1.1em;}

git apply output

    $ git apply patch2.diff
patch2.diff:101: trailing whitespace.
    min-height:400px
patch2.diff:843: trailing whitespace.
            }
patch2.diff:846: trailing whitespace.
});
patch2.diff:873: trailing whitespace.
<div class="panel-content">
patch2.diff:874: trailing whitespace.

error: patch failed: mobile/css/sf.css:66
error: mobile/css/sf.css: patch does not apply
error: the patch applies to 'mobile/images/logo_temp_x.png' (ebe43e4cce1686add4f
ad9bf64f0fc261010a6b5), which does not match the current contents.
error: mobile/images/logo_temp_x.png: patch does not apply
error: patch failed: mobile/js/secretflirt.js:1518
error: mobile/js/secretflirt.js: patch does not apply
error: patch failed: mobile/templates/footer.tpl.php:1
error: mobile/templates/footer.tpl.php: patch does not apply
error: patch failed: mobile/templates/header.tpl.php:1
error: mobile/templates/header.tpl.php: patch does not apply
error: patch failed: mobile/templates/ingelogd.tpl.php:28
error: mobile/templates/ingelogd.tpl.php: patch does not apply

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Answer 1

You can try to apply the original patch using patch in dry mode:

patch -p2 --dry-run -i patch2.diff 

-p2 means that first two components will be stripped, that is a/_test_html/.

If no errors occurred then run again without --dry-run .

Answer 2

git apply example.patch
error: patch failed: includes/example.inc:233
error: includes/example.inc: patch does not apply

is an often reoccuring error.

I've read that this happens because git couldn't apply the changes in the patch because it wasn't able to find the line(s) of code in question; they must have been changed or removed by another commit.

Looks like related to How to apply patches on the top of a git tree preventing duplication?. Perhaps this can help you?