@ Forester

This question will allow you to calibrate my expertise:

Never having used 'patch' before, can I apply this command
in a console on a bash script, or do I have to be working
with source code in a special editor, preparing for a
re-compile?

I've done lots of one line edits to bash scripts, but
no real structural mods.

In order to avoid a re-compilation of source code, as
an alternative might I use the patch script to guide
a re-arrangement of the bash code just using a simple-
minded edit inside an ordinary text editor?