If you have a patch that is created with:
sh$ diff -Nur [old-src-dir] [new-src-dir] > my-patch
you apply that patch by typing:
sh$ ls my-patch
my-patch
sh$ cd [src-dir]/
sh$ patch -p1 < ../my-patch
--- Short and sweet

Don’t use cvs update when what you want to use is cvs diff – you get the same information, but if you do it the wrong way you end up all sticky.

Explanation:

I learned this the hard way – I kept checking information out, modifying it, and using cvs update to check where I had mods and then when I wanted to check things back in I had to use cvs update -A to get rid of the sticky bit – cursing CVS the whole time…