How to fix error: patch does not apply in Git

Run git apply with the -v (verbose) flag to see exactly which hunks are failing and why:

git apply -v example.patch

This will show you line-by-line details about what Git is attempting to match, helping you identify whether it's a context mismatch, whitespace issue, or something else.

Before attempting a real apply, use the --check flag to test if the patch would apply cleanly:

git apply --check example.patch

This performs a dry run without modifying any files. If it reports errors, you know you need to use one of the recovery options below.

The --3way option tells Git to use a three-way merge when the patch doesn't apply cleanly. This works if the patch contains blob SHA information (most patches created with git format-patch do):

git apply --3way example.patch

If conflicts occur, Git will leave conflict markers in the files (just like a merge conflict), which you can resolve manually and then stage the changes.

Note: The --3way option is incompatible with --reject. Choose one approach or the other.

If --3way doesn't work or isn't available, use --reject to apply whatever hunks succeed and save failed hunks to .rej files:

git apply --reject --whitespace=fix example.patch

After running this:
1. Successfully applied changes are in your working directory
2. Failed hunks are saved in files like filename.rej
3. Manually review each .rej file and apply those changes by hand
4. Delete the .rej files when done

Git by default requires 3 lines of context to match. If your files have minor differences, reducing this can help:

git apply -C1 example.patch

The -C1 option tells Git to only require 1 line of context instead of 3. Use with caution—this increases the risk of applying changes in the wrong location.

If the patch failure is due to whitespace differences, try these options:

# Ignore whitespace changes during matching
git apply --ignore-whitespace example.patch

# Ignore changes in whitespace at EOL
git apply --ignore-space-change example.patch

# Fix whitespace errors according to core.whitespace
git apply --whitespace=fix example.patch

For line ending issues (LF vs CRLF), you may need to convert the patch file:

# Convert CRLF to LF on Linux/Mac
sed -i 's/\r$//' example.patch

# Or use dos2unix if available
dos2unix example.patch

Ensure you're running git apply from the repository root, not a subdirectory. Patches contain paths relative to the repository root:

# Navigate to repository root
cd /path/to/your/repo

# Then apply the patch
git apply example.patch

If the patch was created with a different directory structure, you can strip path components:

# Strip the first directory from paths (e.g., a/src/file.js becomes src/file.js)
git apply -p1 example.patch

When using git am (which applies patches as commits), you have additional recovery options:

# Skip the problematic patch and continue with the next one
git am --skip

# Abort the entire patch series and restore your branch
git am --abort

# After manually resolving conflicts, continue applying
git am --continue

You can also use git am --3way initially to enable three-way merge for the entire patch series.