Git apply error : unrecognized input

Question

 git diff 4ee42367 8c650199 > changes2.patch
 git checkout newBranch
 git apply changes2.patch
 error: unrecognized input

When i tried to apply the changes i'll get the error. What i'm doing wrong?

I can't reproduce this behavior, but off hand I would guess that using the `--full-index` and `--binary` options for `git diff` might help. I'm assuming those hashes are either commit ID's, or appropriate tree ID's; and my guess is that you just have content that messes up a basic diff (as far as being able to create an applicable patch); but none of the combinations I tried got this exact symptom (at least, on my version of git), so I'm not sure. — Mark Adelsberger, Jul 26 '18 at 19:52

score 15 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 15 '19 at 18:22

15

In case anyone else has this issue: for me, Powershell was the culprit. using Anentropic's answer from within git bash resulted in a "good" (readable) patch.

answered Jun 15 '19 at 18:22

MCO

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Apparently, Powershell produces output in UTF-16, which get can not consume. – Petr Oct 23 '20 at 15:07
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Here is a link with information on how to mitigate this in Powershell: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/40098771/changing-powershells-default-output-encoding-to-utf-8. Simple fix is to run `$PSDefaultParameterValues['*:Encoding'] = 'utf8'` first. – Nate Apr 12 '21 at 20:25

Levent Tugay Kaplan · Answer 2 · 2021-02-19T19:41:47.960

I figured out this problem as instructed below,

git checkout -b new_branch and commit something
git diff master --no-color > your_patch_file.patch
Open "your_patch_file.patch" file with NotePad++ and edit that file like,
- Encoding > Convert to UTF-8
- Edit > EOL Conversion > Unix (LF)
- Save file
git checkout master
git apply your_patch_file_name.patch

Or you can run your git commands on Git Bash, probably you won't encounter any problem.

score 7 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 07 '18 at 14:34

7

Do you have coloured output enabled by default?

If git diff 4ee42367 8c650199 shows up coloured in your terminal then the colour codes will get output to the patch file

Then git apply will fail with error: unrecognized input

In this case try instead with git diff --no-color

answered Nov 07 '18 at 14:34

Anentropic

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you da man! you pointed me in the right direction to fix a bug in `lerna` https://github.com/lerna/lerna/pull/2037 – Clay Apr 22 '19 at 22:37

score 6 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 12 '21 at 20:29

For those running this form within Powershell, here is another post with information about the encoding error, and why it is happening.

If you're just looking for an answer, you can edit your powershell profile:

PS> code $profile

and add

$PSDefaultParameterValues['Out-File:Encoding'] = 'utf8'

This can cause other issues, so use at your own risk.

If you just want to run it for a single instance, you can do this

$PSDefaultParameterValues['Out-File:Encoding'] = 'utf8'
git diff > change.patch
git checkout otherbranch
git apply change.patch

Git apply error : unrecognized input

4 Answers4