---
name: "dpatch"
section: "7"
platform: "linux"
package: "dpatch"
version: "2.0.41"
release: "Debian 11 (Bullseye)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/dpatch/7"
---

# dpatch(7)

self applying patch

## NAME

debian/patches/script.dpatch - self applying patch

## SYNOPSIS

**debian/patches/script.dpatch** *-patch* **\[***directory***\]**\
 **debian/patches/script.dpatch** *-unpatch* **\[***directory***\]**\
 **debian/patches/script.dpatch** *-pkg-***custom \[***directory***\]**

## DESCRIPTION

A **dpatch** is a program that modifies the source tree in a given *directory*. How it does that is entirely up to the person writing it. It can be a script that calls [**patch**(1)](/patch/1.md) with the appropriate options, a complicated perl script that does some deep magic, or anything else. The only requirement is that it **MUST** accept the *-patch* and *-unpatch* options, followed by the destination (or working) directory, when specified. For the sake of compatibility, the second argument is only present when a working directory was explicitly set with **dpatch --workdir**.

For some of the [**dpatch**(1)](/dpatch/1.md) features to work, the script should follow a common style: there should be a line near the top of the file with the following format: "*filename* -- *author* \<*email*\>". And one or more "# DP: *description*" lines. These will be used by **dpatch cat** for example.

## WARNING

**dpatch** is deprecated, please switch to the \`3.0 (quilt)' Debian source package format instead. See *http://wiki.debian.org/Projects/DebSrc3.0#FAQ* for a short guide on how to do it.

## EXAMPLES

One can find **dpatch** examples under */usr/share/doc/dpatch/examples/*.

## AUTHOR

This manual page was written by Gergely Nagy.

## SEE ALSO

[**dpatch**(1)](/dpatch/1.md),  [**dpatch.make**(7)](/dpatch.make/7.md),  [**dpatch-edit-patch**(1)](/dpatch-edit-patch/1.md),  [**dpatch-list-patch**(1)](/dpatch-list-patch/1.md),  [**dpatch-convert-diffgz**(1)](/dpatch-convert-diffgz/1.md)