---
name: "unwrapdiff"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "patchutils"
version: "0.4.5-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/unwrapdiff"
---

# unwrapdiff(1)

demangle word-wrapped patches

## NAME

unwrapdiff - demangle word-wrapped patches

## SYNOPSIS

**unwrapdiff** \[-v\] \[*file*...\]

**unwrapdiff** {\[--help\] \| \[--version\]}

## DESCRIPTION

**unwrapdiff** demangles patches that have been word-wrapped, in an attempt to make them useful.

The corrected diff is sent to standard output. Note that you will probably need to use the **-l** option when applying the patch, in order to ignore any whitespace differences there may be.

## OPTIONS

- **-v**

  Verbose operation. A list of lines that are modified in a way that might be wrong is sent to stderr.

- **--help**

  Display a short usage message.

- **--version**

  Display the version number of unwrapdiff.

## LIMITATIONS

Some heuristics are used to decide whether use a space to recombine a wrapped line, or just join them together. Currently this is done by comparing with last three characters of a line with the first two characters of its continuation, and using a space if any of them are different.

The patch needs to have been valid before being word-wrapped.

The last line of a hunk is nearly always ambiguous. If the next line begins “@@”, “Index: ”, “diff ” or “--- ” then it is taken to be complete; otherwise it is unwrapped using the next line.

## AUTHOR

**Tim Waugh** \<twaugh@redhat.com\>

Package maintainer