Latest upstream release: 2.7.1
Current version in Fedora Rawhide: 2.6.1
URL: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/patch/

Please consult the package updates policy before you issue an update to a stable branch: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Updates_Policy

More information about the service that created this bug can be found at:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Upstream_release_monitoring

Changes in version 2.7.1:

* Two critical bug fixes in the "diff --git" format support.
* Clarify the message printed when a patch is expected to empty out and delete
  a file, but the file does not become empty.
* Various improvements to messages when applying a patch to a file of different
  type (regular file vs. symlink), when there are line ending differences (LF
  vs. CRLF), and when in --dry-run mode.
* When in the root directory, allow file names that are absolute or that
  contain a component of "..".
* New --follow-symlinks option to allow to treat symlinks as files: this was
  patch's behavior before version 2.7.
* Ignore when extended attributes cannot be preserved because they are
  unsupported or because permission to set them is denied.
* License clarifications in NEWS and README.
* Portability bug fixes.

Changes in version 2.7:

* Patch no longer gets a failed assertion for certain mangled patches.
* Ignore destination file names that are absolute or that contain a component
  of "..".  This addresses CVE-2010-4651.
* Support for most features of the "diff --git" format, including renames and
  copies, permission changes, and symlink diffs.  Binary diffs are not
  supported yet; patch will complain and skip them.
* Support for double-quoted filenames: when a filename starts with a double
  quote, it is interpreted as a C string literal.  The escape sequences \\, \",
  \a, \b, \f, \n, \r, \t, \v, and \ooo (a three-digit octal number between 0
  and 255) are recognized.
* Refuse to apply a normal patch to a symlink.  (Previous versions of patch
  were replacing the symlink with a regular file.)
* When trying to modify a read-only file, warn about the potential problem
  by default.  The --read-only command line option allows to change this
  behavior.
* Files to be deleted are deleted once the entire input has been processed, not
  immediately.  This fixes a bug with numbered backup files.
* When a timestamp specifies a time zone, honor that instead of assuming the
  local time zone (--set-date) or Universal Coordinated Time (--set-utc).
* Support for nanosecond precision timestamps.
* Many portability and bug fixes.