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+This directory gets symlinked from `${ROOT}/etc/portage/patches`. It
+may contain patches for packages that will be applied during the
+prepare phase. Basic usage of this directory is more or less as
+follows: if you have a patch for e.g. the sys-devel/gcc package then
+create a `sys-devel/gcc` directory and drop the patch there. The patch
+needs to end with either `.patch` or `.diff` to be picked up. Ideally
+the patches should be prefixed with a number (`git format-patch`
+style) so the order of patch application is obvious. Also remember
+that you can't patch ebuild files that way.
+
+For more details about user patches, please refer to Gentoo Wiki page
+about it:
+
+https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki//etc/portage/patches