ok, i take it back -- i *am* still confused by patch -force

[Robert P. J. Day]

  ok, i finally narrowed down what my issue with patch was.  let's say
that i have the absolute name of a patch file, $PATCH, and the absolute
name of a directory, $DIR, in which that patch should be applied (with
-p1, it turns out).  what will work nicely is:

  $ patch -d $DIR -p1 < $PATCH

what will *not* work is:

  $ patch -d $DIR -force -p1 < $PATCH

now, before you all point out the obvious typo (it should be either
"-f" or "--force", not "-force"),  what happens is that *no* warning
is given, and patch appears to run normally, assuring me that, yes,
files are all being patched properly, when in fact, nothing of the sort
is happening.

  argh.

rday