vim - How to edit a diff/patch file cleanly ? Are there any patch file editors?

Question

Scenario: I have a patch file that applies cleanly to my working files, but I do not want all the changes from the patch.

Usually, I do vim example.patch, remove unwanted changes and them apply patch -p0 -i example.patch but at times the patch does not apply cleanly, and I have to start over again.

Is there a patch file editor that allows users to edit and delete part of the patch and still can apply cleanly ?

Answer 1

If you open a diff file in emacs and put the editor in "diff" mode you can actually edit patches and it will update the hunk markers in a smart way. Works really well for me!