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(ediff)Remote and Compressed Files

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Remote and Compressed Files
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   Ediff works with remote, compressed, and encrypted files.  Ediff
supports `ange-ftp.el', `jka-compr.el', `uncompress.el' and
`crypt++.el', but it may work with other similar packages as well.
This means that you can compare files residing on another machine, or
you can apply a patch to a file on another machine.  Even the patch
itself can be a remote file!

   When patching compressed or remote files, Ediff does not rename the
source file (unlike what the `patch' utility would usually do).
Instead, the source file retains its name and the result of applying
the patch is placed in a temporary file that has the suffix `_patched'
attached.  Generally, this applies to files that are handled using
black magic, such as special file handlers (ange-ftp and some
compression and encryption packages also use this method).

   Regular files are treated by the `patch' utility in the usual manner,
i.e., the original is renamed into `source-name.orig' and the result of
the patch is placed into the file source-name (`_orig' is used on
systems like VMS, DOS, etc.)