# Patches

Diff and Patch are traditional commands in the Unix terminal.

But you can also generate patches from a session of BC **Text Compare**.  Once your two files are open in Text Compare, choose from the menu: `Session->TextCompareReport`

![](https://1446155253-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-LXUX-uoaZJ8T4qyEc-x%2F-LgiIteuaFkbCeuFt-lE%2F-LgipAmD81PtLNB-AwFp%2Fimage.png?alt=media\&token=e30a8ce3-e787-49d3-982e-8fdbf4d8d264)

Beyond Compare can generate the report...er the patch, in three formats, shown below.   Left to right these are Normal-diff, context-diff, and unified-diff:

![](https://1446155253-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-LXUX-uoaZJ8T4qyEc-x%2F-LgipmK6YcZAGLmyk6d2%2F-Lgiq8DyqBoJrJ1u7GCn%2Fimage.png?alt=media\&token=6a7a0c38-0582-4ddb-81ed-0c51d8954b51)

The +++ and --- don't mean add and subtract.  They are just [low-res](https://twitter.com/dfpatchnotesbot) ways to say File One and File Two.

Helpful:

{% embed url="<https://linuxacademy.com/blog/linux/introduction-using-diff-and-patch/>" %}

{% embed url="<http://www.scootersoftware.com/support.php?zz=kb_patch>" %}