gsd-reapply-patches

To restore local configuration changes after an update, you can perform a three-way merge between the pristine baseline, your user backup, and the newly installed version. This safely reapplies your custom modifications while adopting upstream fixes and surfacing any conflicts for manual resolution.

A three-way merge for local patches compares the pristine baseline, your saved user backup, and the new installed version to accurately distinguish mechanical drift from your customizations. This mechanism ensures your modifications are preserved without blindly overwriting the updated files.

You can reapply saved patches by detecting backup metadata in the gsd-local-patches directory and executing a merge into the updated installation. The process reads backup-meta.json to enumerate modified files and automatically prompts you to resolve any detected conflicts.

Yes, the local patch merge process fully supports config directories that are git repositories. It extracts the pristine baseline directly from git history or gsd-pristine snapshots, and falls back to enhanced two-way merge heuristics when baseline data is unavailable.

When conflict resolution is required during a local patch reapply, the merge process explicitly surfaces the conflicts for your direct user-visible resolution. It avoids trusting the installer to guess your intent, ensuring you maintain full control over custom CLI behaviors.

The limitation of using two-way merge heuristics is that they are a fallback when pristine baselines cannot be extracted from git or snapshots. This approach is less robust than a three-way merge at distinguishing upstream mechanical drift from your actual user customizations.