Node:Creating and Removing, Next:Patching Time Stamps, Previous:Imperfect, Up:Merging with patch

### Creating and Removing Files

Sometimes when comparing two directories, a file may exist in one directory but not the other. If you give `diff` the `-N` or `--new-file` option, or if you supply an old or new file that is named `/dev/null` or is empty and is dated the Epoch (1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC), `diff` outputs a patch that adds or deletes the contents of this file. When given such a patch, `patch` normally creates a new file or removes the old file.