311 lines
13 KiB
HTML
311 lines
13 KiB
HTML
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<title>VPatch 3</title>
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</style>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>VPatch 3.1</h1>
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<div>
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<h2>Introduction</h2>
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<div>
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<p>VPatch allows to create a patch file to update previous versions
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of your software. The GenPat utility generates the patch file.
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The plug-in can use the patch to update a file. Using a patch, you can
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reduce the download size of your updates because only the differences
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between the files are included in the patch file.</p>
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</div>
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<h2>How to use</h2>
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<div>
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<h3>Generate the patch file</h3>
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<div>
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<p>Make sure you have the source file (original version) and the target
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file (version to update to). For example, DATA.DTA (currently on user
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system) and DATA_20.DTA (version 2.0 of this data file). Now call
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the command line tool GenPat.exe:</p>
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<pre>GENPAT oldfile.txt newfile.txt patch.pat</pre>
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<p>Now, the patch will be generated, this will take some time.</p>
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<p>Using the /B=(BlockSize) parameter of the GenPat utility (put it
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after the filenames), you can use a different block size. A smaller
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block size may result in a smaller patch, but the generation will
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take more time (the default blocksize is 64).</p>
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<p>If you have trouble using this command-line utility, you can download
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a GUI (graphical user interface) for VPatch from its own website:
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<a href="http://www.tibed.net/vpatch">http://www.tibed.net/vpatch</a>.</p>
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</div>
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<h3>Update the file during installation</h3>
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<div>
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<p>Use the VPatch plug-in to update a file using a patch file:</p>
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<pre>vpatch::vpatchfile "patch.pat" "oldfile.txt" "temporary_newfile.txt"</pre>
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<p>The result of the patch operating will be added to the stack and
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can be one of the following texts:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>OK</li>
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<li>OK, new version already installed</li>
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<li>An error occurred while patching</li>
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<li>Patch data is invalid or corrupt</li>
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<li>No suitable patches were found</li>
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</ul>
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<p>Check <a href="../../Examples/VPatch/example.nsi">example.nsi</a> for an example.
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You
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should check whether the stack string starts with "OK"
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because then the patch has succeeded and you can rename "temporary_newfile.txt"
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to "oldfile.txt" to replace the original, if you want.</p>
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</div>
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<h3>Multiple patches in one file</h3>
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<div>
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<p>GenPat appends a patch to the file you specified. If there is already
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a patch for the same original file, with the same CRC/MD5, in the patch file,
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the patch will be replaced. For example, if you want to be able to upgrade
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version 1 and 2 to version 3,
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you can put a 1 > 3 and 2 > 3 patch in
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one file.</p>
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<p>You can also put patches for different files in one patch file, for
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example, a patch from file A version 1 to file A version 2 and a patch
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from file B version 1 to file B version 2. Just call the plug-in multiple
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times with the same patch file. It will automatically select the right
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patch (based on the file CRC).</p>
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</div>
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<h3>Patch generator (GenPat) exit codes</h3>
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<div>
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<p>In version 3 the following exit codes (known as error levels in
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the DOS period) can be returned by GenPat. GenPat will return an
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exit code based on success of the patch generation. Here is a list
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of the possible exit codes:</p>
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<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="T">
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<tr>
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<td nowrap><b>Exit code</b></td>
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<td><b>Description</b></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>0</td>
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<td>Success</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>1</td>
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<td>Arguments missing</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>2</td>
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<td>Other error</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>3</td>
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<td>Source file already has a patch in specified patch file (ERROR),
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use /R switch to override</td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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<p>These exit codes can be useful when you generate patch files through
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a NSIS script.</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div>
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<h2>Source code</h2>
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<div>
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<p>Source code is available in the original package and in the SVN repository of NSIS.</p>
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<h3>NSIS plug-in (C++)</h3>
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<div>
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<p>The source of the NSIS plug-in that applies patches can be found
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in the Source\Plugin folder.</p>
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</div>
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<h3>Patch Generator (C++)</h3>
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<div>
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<p>The most interesting part of VPatch, the actual patch generation
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algorithm, can be found in Source\GenPat\PatchGenerator.cpp.
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The
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header of that file contains a brief explanation of the algorithm as well.
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</p>
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</div>
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<h3>User interface (Delphi)</h3>
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<div>
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<p>A user interface is included as well, which you will have to build
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yourself because the GUI executable was too large to include. Besides
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Borland Delphi 6 or higher (you can use the freely available Personal
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edition), you will also need to install the <a href="http://www.delphi-gems.com">VirtualTreeView</a> component by Mike Lischke.</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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<h2>Version history</h2>
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<div>
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<ul>
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<li>3.1
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<ul>
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<li>GenPat now compiles on POSIX platforms (MinGW/GCC), Visual
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C++ 6 and Borland C++.</li>
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<li>More test cases to verify functionality of GenPat.</li>
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</ul>
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</li>
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<li>3.0
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<ul>
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<li><b>Final</b>: Updates to the GUI, installer</li>
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<li><b>RC8</b>: GenPat will now flag replacement of a patch (e.g.
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the source file has the same contents as a previous patch inside
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a patch file) as an error. You can specifically allow it using
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the /R switch. Added license to source files.</li>
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<li><b>RC7</b>: Fixed critical bug in GenPat with multiple patches
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in a single file. Fixed serious bug in stand-alone EXE runtime:
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process kept on running forever. Included case testing through
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a Python script to test common usage (and prevent bugs like
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the one in GenPat in the future).</li>
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<li><b>RC6</b>: Upgraded to non-beta compiler. Added /A switch
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to change block match limit and /O to deactivate the limit.
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Updated GUI to support the /O switch.</li>
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<li><b>RC4a to RC5a</b>: input block size is now checked for power
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of 2 and fixed if incorrect. When patch file does not yet exist,
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no longer forgets to create the header. No longer tries to allocate
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memory when there are no chunks. Fixed memory leaks.</li>
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<li>Target file date is now preserved inside a patch and restored
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on the user system.</li>
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<li>MD5 checksums are now used instead of CRC32 checksums, unless
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existing patches in a file already are in CRC32 mode.</li>
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<li>The patch generator, GenPat, has been completely rewritten
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in C++. It no longer needs to keep the entire files in memory,
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instead memory usage is a certain percentage of the source file
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size. The percentage is based on the block size, larger block
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sizes will reduce memory usage.</li>
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<li>All runtimes now share a common codebase, perform proper error
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checking and don't leave behind files if the input file was
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already up to date.</li>
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<li>Bug Fix: The patch generator algorithm no longer reduces to
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a quadratic runtime if there are many blocks with the same content
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in the files to patch.</li>
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<li>Bug Fix: The documentation of the command-line utilities was
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incorrect and no warnings would be given by the runtimes, causing
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the patch not to work (this does not apply to NSIS patches).</li>
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</ul>
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</li>
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<li>2.1
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<ul>
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<li>Added argument checking and error handling to GenPat. Now
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returns exit codes as well to indicate success/failure (and
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the reason for failure). Only GenPat has changed in this version
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compared to 2.0 final.</li>
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<li>Bug Fix: GenPat no longer gives an Access Violation when attempting
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to patch a file smaller than 64 bytes into a file larger than
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64 bytes.</li>
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</ul>
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</li>
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<li>2.0 final
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<ul>
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<li>Cleaned up source code for the patch generator, which is now
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included (this code is written in Borland Delphi 6 and compiles
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with the freely available Personal edition).</li>
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</ul>
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</li>
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<li>2.0 beta 2
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<ul>
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<li>All new algorithm used in the patch generator: much faster
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(up to 90%) while using smaller block sizes (higher compression)</li>
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<li>Created a NSIS 2 plugin</li>
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<li>Works with small files</li>
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<li>Replaces existing patch in file if original file CRC is identical</li>
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</ul>
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</li>
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</ul>
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</div>
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<h2>Credits</h2>
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<div>
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<p>Written by Koen van de Sande.<br>
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C plug-in initially by Edgewize, updated by Koen van de Sande.<br>
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New documentation and example by Joost Verburg and Koen van de Sande.</p>
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</div>
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<h2>License</h2>
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<div><pre>
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Copyright (C) 2001-2005 Koen van de Sande / Van de Sande Productions
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This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied
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warranty. In no event will the authors be held liable for any damages
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arising from the use of this software.
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Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any purpose,
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including commercial applications, and to alter it and redistribute
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it freely, subject to the following restrictions:
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1. The origin of this software must not be misrepresented;
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you must not claim that you wrote the original software.
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If you use this software in a product, an acknowledgment in the
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product documentation would be appreciated but is not required.
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2. Altered versions must be plainly marked as such,
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and must not be misrepresented as being the original software.
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3. This notice may not be removed or altered from any distribution.
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</pre></div>
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</div>
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</body>
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