Git apply patch fails silently (no errors but nothing happens)

I found this while googling for the issue: http://data.agaric.com/git-apply-does-not-work-from-within-local-checkout-unrelated-git-repository

git apply will fail to do anything when used within a local checkout of a git repository (other than the one for the project the patch is made for), such as if you are patching a module that is within a site that is in Git version control.

Use patch -p1 < path/file.patch instead.