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## 6 Remote and Compressed Files

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 DOS, etc.)