not-dash-escaped option ?

[Toxik - Fabian Rodriguez]

Hello,

While using WinPT to sign texts, I noticed it doubles dashes in the text. So
if I was to sign this message:

- this is one item
- this is another

it will come out like this:
- - this is one item
- - this is another

Timo Schulz, currently working on WinPT, advised to use
the --not-dash-escaped option.

Can anybody explain this (from the MAN page) in other words ("for dummies")
? :

"This option changes the behavior of cleartext signatures so that they can
be used for patch files. You should not send such an armored file via email
because all spaces and line endings are hashed too. You can not use this
option for data which has 5 dashes at the beginning of a line, patch files
don't have this. A special armor header line tells GnuPG about this
cleartext signature option."

In other words, if I am not signing a "patch file", I can use this option
safely. Is that true ?

What exactly is a "patch file" ?

I also noticed the same happens to line with 5 dashes or more. The why the
reference to it in the Man entry ?

Any and all comments welcome.

Thank you,

Fabian Rodriguez - Toxik Technologies Inc.
www.Toxik.com - Open PGP ID: 0x5AF2A4D5