Multiple Start States

GenPatch allows you to build patch files to update a single acceptable source, but you may also create patch files to update several different versions at once. You simply do this be specifying more than one source. So instead of "genpatch source target patchname" you would use "genpatch start1 start2 start3 endstate patchname" to update e.g. 3 different start states to a given end state.

This type of patch file is called "Multi-version patch".

Creating a Multi-version patch file will of course work for files, but also for directories. Please read the chapter "Single files or complete directories at once.", if you have not done so before. With directories GenPatch selects "paths" to create a file from available files and ensures that the patch file can be applied to all versions on the end user's machine.

As a special feature, patch files will update even mixed versions (such as in the case where some files on are one release level 1.01 and other are 1.02) as every file is handled individually and version checks are done on a per file base. For instance you may have released updates of your improved documentation separate from the binaries. If you, a Multi-version patch file is the ideal way to handle this situation.