LaTeX Patches Guide 1998/12/01 This document describes the procedure by which changes to the LaTeX distribution in between the six-monthly releases will be made. Such changes will be made only when major problems are discovered and fixed. Other changes will only be made twice a year, in June and December. Changes which affect the file latex.ltx, and hence the format, are called `patches to the LaTeX kernel': this concept is described in detail below. The changes of this type are described briefly at the end of this file, in chronological order. All changes to all files should be listed, in reverse-time order, in the files called changes.txt: there is one in each distribution subdirectory. Patches to the LaTeX kernel dated <1998/12/01> ============================================== New releases of LaTeX will occur at six-monthly intervals, in June and December. Between these releases it may be necessary to make small updates to fix major problems. We have made it relatively easy to install updates that affect only the format---by placing all these changes in one file, called ltpatch.ltx. In order to update your LaTeX format you should put ltpatch.ltx where it can be read by iniTeX and then run iniTeX on latex.ltx. You do not need to unpack the latex sources again. In this run of iniTeX, the file ltpatch.ltx (if it exists) will be read just before the format file is `dumped'. This will correct any bugs and it will modify the opening banner of LaTeX: for example, from: LaTeX2e <1998/12/01> to: LaTeX2e <1998/12/01> patch level 1 (The ltpatch.ltx distributed with this `full' release of LaTeX is `patch level 0' which does not change the banner.) --- Copyright 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 The LaTeX3 Project. All rights reserved ---