patchsplit

Language: English | Simplified Chinese

Download GitHub pull requests, GitLab merge requests, or individual commits as patches, one file per commit or one combined diff.

patchsplit is a command-line tool written in Rust. It fetches patches directly from GitHub or GitLab without cloning the repository, making it useful for reviewing, sharing, and applying changes locally.

• Per-commit patches: Keep the original patch content, commit messages, and authorship, with numbered filenames in commit order.
• Single commit: Use --commit <hash> to download one commit's .patch with either a short or full hash.
• GitLab support: Pass --gitlab to fetch merge requests and commits from gitlab.com, including projects nested under subgroups.
• Combined diff: Use --squash to export the request's net changes as a single patch.
• Predictable output: Choose an output directory; existing files are only overwritten when you pass --force.
• Localized CLI: English and built-in Simplified Chinese messages.

Installation | Usage | Localization | Development | Contributing | License

Installation

patchsplit calls the system curl command to download patches. Make sure curl is available in your PATH; the Debian/Ubuntu package declares it as a dependency. Rust is only needed when building from source.

Ubuntu (PPA)

Add the project PPA and refresh the package index:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:zitzhen/patchsplit
sudo apt update

Install patchsplit:

sudo apt install patchsplit

Debian / Ubuntu (.deb)

Download the .deb package from GitHub Releases, then install it with the command below. Replace <version> with the version in the downloaded filename.

sudo apt install ./patchsplit_<version>_amd64.deb

Fedora / RHEL and compatible distributions (.rpm)

Download the main .rpm package from GitHub Releases. Use its exact filename in place of <package-file>:

sudo dnf install ./<package-file>.rpm

Choose patchsplit-<version>-<release>.*.x86_64.rpm, excluding any package with debuginfo or debugsource in its name.

Arch Linux (AUR)

The community-maintained patchsplit-bin package is provided by lingbopro. Install it with either AUR helper:

paru -S patchsplit-bin
# Or:
yay -S patchsplit-bin

Linux / macOS (prebuilt binaries)

Download the archive for your platform from GitHub Releases. The release workflow builds x86_64 binaries for Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Extract the Linux archive:

tar -xzf patchsplit-linux-x86_64.tar.gz

Or extract the macOS archive:

tar -xzf patchsplit-macos-x86_64.tar.gz

Then install the extracted binary:

sudo install -m 755 patchsplit /usr/local/bin/patchsplit
patchsplit --version

If macOS blocks a binary you have verified and trust, remove its quarantine attribute:

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /usr/local/bin/patchsplit

Windows

Download patchsplit-windows-x86_64.zip from GitHub Releases, then extract and run it in PowerShell:

Expand-Archive .\patchsplit-windows-x86_64.zip -DestinationPath .\patchsplit
.\patchsplit\patchsplit.exe --version

To use it globally, add the extracted patchsplit directory to your user Path environment variable. The CLI needs curl.exe available in Path.

From source

With Rust, Cargo, and Git installed:

git clone https://github.com/zitzhen/patchsplit.git
cd patchsplit
cargo install --path . --locked
patchsplit --version

Ensure Cargo's binary directory (usually ~/.cargo/bin) is in your PATH.

Usage

patchsplit <owner/repo> <pr-number> [--out <dir>] [--force] [--squash]
patchsplit <owner> <repo> <pr-number> [--out <dir>] [--force] [--squash]
patchsplit <owner/repo> --commit <hash> [--out <dir>] [--force]
patchsplit <owner> <repo> --commit <hash> [--out <dir>] [--force]
patchsplit --gitlab <namespace/project> <mr-number> [--out <dir>] [--force] [--squash]
patchsplit --gitlab <namespace/project> --commit <hash> [--out <dir>] [--force]

Split a pull request by commit

Replace the repository and PR number with the pull request you want to download:

patchsplit rust-lang/rust 12345
patchsplit openai codex 42 -o pr-42-patches

The default output directory is patches/, created automatically if needed. Filenames use a zero-padded index and a sanitized commit subject, for example:

patches/
  0001-add-parser.patch
  0002-wire-cli.patch

Existing output files are not overwritten by default. Pass --force to replace them.

The per-commit files preserve GitHub's mail-formatted patches. To apply them with commit messages and authorship, run the following inside the target Git repository, checked out at a compatible base:

git am /path/to/patches/*.patch

Export a combined diff

patchsplit openai/codex 42 --squash -o pr-42-patches

-s, --squash downloads GitHub's aggregate PR .diff and writes pr-<pr-number>.patch. It represents the net change from the PR's merge base to its head: repeated edits are combined and reverted changes disappear, rather than concatenating the per-commit patches.

Apply it from inside the target repository on the corresponding base:

git apply --check /path/to/pr-42-patches/pr-42.patch
git apply /path/to/pr-42-patches/pr-42.patch

Mode	Output	Commit messages and authorship	Apply with
Default (GitHub PR)	One numbered patch per commit	Preserved	git am
--squash (GitHub PR)	One pr-<pr-number>.patch	Not included	git apply
--commit <hash> (GitHub)	One <hash>.patch	Preserved	git am
--gitlab (GitLab MR)	One numbered patch per commit	Preserved	git am
--gitlab --squash	One mr-<mr-number>.patch	Not included	git apply
--gitlab --commit <hash>	One <hash>.patch	Preserved	git am

The combined output is a raw diff, not a git am mailbox. An empty net diff is reported as an error and no file is written. Binary changes are limited to the data GitHub includes in its diff; binary file contents may not be included.

Download a single commit

Pass --commit <hash> (or -commit <hash>) with a short or full commit hash instead of a pull request number:

patchsplit zitzhen patchsplit -commit b430113
patchsplit zitzhen/patchsplit --commit b4301133226e5c3a464cff9649de0b321c0b0a2e

This fetches https://github.com/<owner>/<repo>/commit/<hash>.patch and writes the commit's mail-formatted patch verbatim to <hash>.patch in the output directory, for example patches/b430113.patch. Apply it with git am just like a per-commit PR patch. --commit cannot be combined with --squash.

Download from GitLab

Pass --gitlab to download a GitLab merge request or commit from gitlab.com. The project path uses namespace/project form and may contain subgroups, for example group/subgroup/project:

patchsplit --gitlab zitzhen/patchsplit 1
patchsplit --gitlab zitzhen/patchsplit --commit fafbad69af7507f41e786aa6685b2fa29716c85f
patchsplit --gitlab group/subgroup/project 1 --squash -o mr-1-patches

A merge request is fetched from https://gitlab.com/<namespace>/<project>/-/merge_requests/<number>.patch and, just like a GitHub PR, split into one mail-formatted patch per commit. With --squash, the request's .diff net change is written to mr-<number>.patch. A --commit download fetches https://gitlab.com/<namespace>/<project>/-/commit/<hash>.patch and writes the verbatim patch to <hash>.patch. The same --out, --force, and --squash rules apply, and --commit cannot be combined with --squash.

Options

Option	Description
-o, --out <dir>	Output directory (default: patches/).
-f, --force	Overwrite existing patch files.
-s, --squash	Write the request's net diff as one patch.
--gitlab	Download a merge request or commit from gitlab.com.
--commit <hash>	Download one commit's .patch; accepts a short or full hash.
-h, --help	Show help.
-V, --version	Show version.

Localization

patchsplit includes Simplified Chinese translations and uses English when no matching translation is available. Language selection checks these environment variables in order: PATCHSPLIT_LANGUAGE, LANGUAGE, LC_ALL, LC_MESSAGES, then LANG.

Override the language for a single command on Linux or macOS:

PATCHSPLIT_LANGUAGE=zh_CN patchsplit --help
PATCHSPLIT_LANGUAGE=C patchsplit --help

Custom UTF-8 .po catalogs can be loaded from PATCHSPLIT_LOCALEDIR or installation-relative locations next to the executable. External catalogs take precedence over the built-in catalog for the same locale.

Development

Build a release binary from the repository root:

cargo build --release --locked

The binary is written to target/release/patchsplit (patchsplit.exe on Windows). Run the test suite with:

cargo test --locked

Tests on Unix also require Git to verify that aggregate patches apply to the expected file tree.

Updating translations

Refresh the translation template with GNU gettext tools:

scripts/update-pot.sh

The template is generated at po/patchsplit.pot. Source files used for extraction are listed in po/POTFILES.in.

Contributing

Bug reports, feature requests, documentation improvements, and translations are welcome. Open an issue with the command you ran, your OS, the patchsplit version, and the expected and actual behavior when reporting a bug.

For code changes, add or update tests where relevant and run cargo test --locked before submitting a pull request. Keep CLI documentation and translations in sync with user-facing changes.

Release maintenance

Pushing a v* tag triggers GitHub Actions to build release packages for three platforms and automatically create a GitHub draft release:

git tag v1.x.x
git push origin v1.x.x

You can also run the Release workflow manually from GitHub Actions. Select the branch or commit to package, then enter the release tag. If the tag does not exist, it will point to the workflow commit. The workflow creates these files:

• patchsplit-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
• patchsplit-macos-x86_64.tar.gz
• patchsplit-windows-x86_64.zip
• patchsplit_<version>_amd64.deb
• patchsplit-<version>-<release>.*.x86_64.rpm

Releases are created as drafts, so they should be reviewed and published from the GitHub Releases page.

Launchpad PPA

Publishing a GitHub release triggers the Notify PPA workflow. It builds and signs a Debian source package, then uploads it to Launchpad so the configured PPA starts building the new version. Configure these repository variables:

• PPA_OWNER: Launchpad account name.
• PPA_NAME: PPA name, without the ppa: prefix.
• PPA_GPG_KEY_ID: full fingerprint of the primary signing key (not a signing subkey ID).
• PPA_MAINTAINER_NAME and PPA_MAINTAINER_EMAIL: optional source package metadata.

Store the ASCII-armored private key as the PPA_GPG_PRIVATE_KEY repository secret. The workflow can also be run manually with a tag, branch, or commit in the ref input.

License

patchsplit is open source under the MIT License.