11. Tips for Making and Using Patches

Use some common sense when making and using patches. For example, when sending bug fixes to a program's maintainer, send several small patches, one per independent subject, instead of one large, harder-to-digest patch that covers all the subjects.

Here are some other things you should keep in mind if you are going to distribute patches for updating a software package.

11.1 Tips for Patch Producers		Advice for making patches.
11.2 Tips for Patch Consumers		Advice for using patches.
11.3 Avoiding Common Mistakes		Avoiding common mistakes when using patch.
11.4 Generating Smaller Patches		How to generate smaller patches.