As y'all know, I'm a relative latecomer to the world of Unix, but I do try to figure out how y'all did it back when. So, sometimes, as in this case, I can figure out how to do something, but I'm curious how it was done back in the day, moreso than how I can get it done today. I'm looking at the patching of my shiny new 2.11 BSD pl 431 system running on my speedy little virtual PDP-11/70, so I grabbed patch 432 (here's a portion of the patch):
...
    To install the update cut where indicated below and save to a file
    (/tmp/432) and then:

        cd /tmp
        sh 432
        ./432.sh
        ./432.rm
        sh 432.shar
        patch -p0 < 432.patch

    Watch carefully for any rejected parts of the patch.   Failure of a
    patch typically means the system was not current on all preceeding
    updates _or_ that local modifications have been made.
...
====== cut here
#! /bin/sh
# This is a shell archive, meaning:
# 1. Remove everything above the #! /bin/sh line.
# 2. Save the resulting text in a file.
# 3. Execute the file with /bin/sh (not csh) to create:
#    432.rm
#    432.sh
#    432.shar
#    432.patch
...
#    End of shell archive

This seems straightforward. Just follow the directions et voila magic happens.

My questions for y'all are how would you go about doing this? Use vi to delete everything through the ==== cut here line? Use some combination of standard unix tools to chop it up? What was your workflow for patching up the system using these files?

In my world, if I screw something up, it's 15 seconds to run a restore script in my simh directory and I can try again, so my level of concern for a mistake is pretty low. If I was doing this in 1980, on real hardware, I would have had many concerns, as I'm sure some of y'all can remember, how did you prepare and protect yourselves so a patch was successful.

BTW, I thought .shar was an archive format, so when I saw the patch was a shar file, I was worried it would be in some binary form, lo and behold, it looks like text to me... not even b64. So much to learn, so little time.

Thanks,

Will

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