You can create a file by sending out a diff that compares /dev/null or an empty file dated the Epoch (1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC ) to the file you want to create. This only works if the file you want to create doesn't exist already in the target directory. Conversely, you can remove a file by sending out a context diff that compares the file to be deleted with an empty file dated the Epoch. The file will be removed unless patch is conforming to POSIX and the -E or --remove-empty-files option is not given. An easy way to generate patches that create and remove files is to use GNU diff's -N or --new-file option.