So, if anybody is crazy enough to grab patches from the commits@lists.mysql.com list and try and use them… you may have run into this problem (which I do every few weeks/months): new files aren’t created. That’s right kids, BitKeeper (or at least the post-commit hook that mails out the patches) produces patch files where new files are in a completely different format than GNU patch expects. Not even BK can import these patches (bk import -temail or -tpatch just don’t do it).

So… I present this script – unfuck_bk_patches.pl which once run across a patch that includes new files, allows you to apply it using patch (or, for example, quilt).

I release it under the “sworn at software license”… which means you’re allowed to do anything you want with it as long as at some point you have sworn at computer software for being crappy.