A modern, robust Python library for parsing and applying unified diffs with comprehensive format support and automatic error correction.
Python Patch is a comprehensive library for working with unified diff files. It provides both a command-line interface and a Python API for parsing, analyzing, and applying patches from various version control systems.
- Multi-format support: Git, Mercurial (HG), Subversion (SVN) patch formats
- Automatic error correction: Handles broken diffs, line ending issues, and path prefix problems
- Smart detection: Automatically identifies patch format and applies appropriate parsing rules
- Simple API: Easy-to-use functions for common operations
- Type hints: Full type annotation support for better IDE integration
- Comprehensive error handling: Detailed error reporting and recovery options
- Zero dependencies: Uses only Python standard library
- Cross-platform: Works on Linux, Windows, and macOS
- High test coverage: Extensively tested with real-world patch files
- Performance optimized: Efficient parsing and memory usage
- Detailed diffstat: Visual histogram showing changes per file
- Progress reporting: Track application progress for large patch sets
- Flexible output formats: JSON, plain text, and structured data
The following features are not yet supported:
- File renaming, creation, and removal operations
- Directory tree operations (mkdir, rmdir)
- Version control specific properties and metadata
- Non-unified diff formats (context diffs, ed scripts)
Install from PyPI using pip:
# Install the latest stable version
pip install patch
# Install with development dependencies
pip install "patch[dev]"
# Install specific version (recommended for production)
pip install "patch==1.*"# Apply a patch file
patch diff.patch
# Apply with custom strip level
patch --strip=1 changes.patch
# Dry run (show what would be changed)
patch --dry-run feature.patch
# Reverse a patch
patch --reverse bugfix.patch
# Show detailed statistics
patch --verbose --stats updates.patchimport patch
# Parse and apply a patch file
patchset = patch.fromfile('changes.patch')
if patchset:
success = patchset.apply(strip=1)
print(f"Applied {len(patchset)} patches successfully: {success}")
# Parse patch from string
patch_content = """--- a/file.txt
+++ b/file.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
line1
-old line
+new line
line3"""
patchset = patch.fromstring(patch_content)
if patchset:
patchset.apply()
# Download and apply patch from URL
patchset = patch.fromurl('https://github.com/user/repo/commit/abc123.patch')
if patchset:
patchset.apply(strip=1)import patch
# Load patch with error handling
try:
patchset = patch.fromfile('complex.patch')
if not patchset:
print("Failed to parse patch")
exit(1)
# Inspect patches before applying
for p in patchset:
print(f"File: {p.target}")
print(f"Hunks: {len(p.hunks)}")
print(f"Additions: +{p.added}, Deletions: -{p.removed}")
# Apply with options
success = patchset.apply(
strip=1, # Strip path components
root='/path/to/project', # Apply relative to directory
dry_run=True # Test without making changes
)
if success:
print("All patches applied successfully!")
else:
print("Some patches failed to apply")
except FileNotFoundError:
print("Patch file not found")
except PermissionError:
print("Permission denied reading patch file")patch.fromfile(filename)- Parse patch from filepatch.fromstring(content)- Parse patch from string/bytespatch.fromurl(url)- Download and parse patch from URL
apply(strip=0, root=None, dry_run=False)- Apply all patchesrevert()- Reverse all patchesfindfile(filename)- Find patch for specific filediffstat()- Generate diffstat summary
Run the test suite to ensure everything works correctly:
# Run modern pytest tests
python -m pytest tests_pytest/ -v
# Run with coverage report
python -m pytest tests_pytest/ --cov=src/patch --cov-report=html
# Run legacy test suite
python tests/run_tests.py
# Run specific test categories
python -m pytest tests_pytest/test_api.py -vWe welcome contributions! Please see our Contributing Guide for details.
# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/AstroAir/python-patch.git
cd python-patch
# Create virtual environment
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate
# Install in development mode
pip install -e ".[dev]"
# Run tests
python -m pytest tests_pytest/We maintain high code quality standards:
# Format code
black src/ tests_pytest/
# Lint code
flake8 src/ tests_pytest/
# Type checking
mypy src/- Python: 3.10+ (see pyproject.toml for full compatibility)
- Dependencies: None (uses only Python standard library)
- Platforms: Linux, Windows, macOS
- API Documentation - Detailed API reference
- Contributing Guide - How to contribute
- Changelog - Version history and changes
- Examples - Usage examples and tutorials
This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.
- Original Author: anatoly techtonik
- Current Maintainer: Max Qian (astro_air@126.com)
- Contributors: See CREDITS for full list
- PyPI Package: https://pypi.org/project/patch/
- Source Code: https://github.com/AstroAir/python-patch
- Issue Tracker: https://github.com/AstroAir/python-patch/issues
- CI/CD: https://github.com/AstroAir/python-patch/actions
Made with ❤️ by the Python community