Note that the "diff --git" format which patch understands to some degree now, handles empty files.

diff wil not create any output for empty files,

   $ echo -n '' > f
   $ diff -u /dev/null f

and patch will not create files from patches with only an Index line:

   Index: filename
   =======================

This is confusing because Subversion does create such patches. This problem should be looked into when adding support for git extended headers (which support things like rename, copy, and mode changes).