a facility for automatically processing software patches is described . the facility receives in a computing system a distinguished patch package for modifying the behavior of a programmatic entity . the facility automatically extracts from the distinguished patch package patch application information that identifies a distinguished programmatic entity against which the patches to be applied , and patch behavior information that specifies a manner in which to modify the behavior of the distinguished programmatic entity . the facility automatically adds to a patch table a distinguished entry containing the extracted patch application information and patch behavior information .