Applying patches

Now we know how to create patches from commits, it's time to learn how to apply them.

Getting ready

We'll use the repository from the previous examples, along with the generated patches, as follows:

 

$ cd Git-Version-Control-Cookbook-Second-Edition_offline-sharing 
$ git checkout master
$ ls -1a
.
..
.git
Makefile
README.md
another_pi.c
latest-commit
math.c
not-on-master

How to do it...

First, we'll check out the develop branch and apply the patch generated from the master branch (0001-Calculate-pi-with-more-digits.patch) in the first example.

We use the Git am command to apply the patches; am is short for apply from mailbox:

$ git checkout develop
Your branch is up-to-date with 'origin/develop'.
$ git am latest-commit/0001-Calculate-pi-with-more-digits.patch
Applying: Adds functionality to prime-test a range of numbers
error: patch failed: math.c:47
error: math.c: patch does not apply
Patch failed at 0001 Adds functionality to prime-test a range of numbers
The copy of the patch...