title: What is the difference between patches vs patchesJson6902 in Kustomize
body: <p>Based on the docs that I've read, there are 3 methods of patching:</p>
  <ul>
  <li>patches</li>
  <li>patchesStrategicMerge</li>
  <li>patchesJson6902.</li>
  </ul>
  <p>The difference between <code>patchesStrategicMerge</code> and <code>patchesJson6902</code> is obvious. <code>patchesStrategicMerge</code> requires a duplicate structure of the kubernetes resource to identify the base resource that is being patched followed by the modified portion of the spec to denote what gets changed (or deleted).</p>
  <p><code>patchesJson6902</code> defines a 'target' attribute used to specify the kubernetes resource with a 'path' attribute that specifies which attribute in the resource gets modified, added, or removed.</p>
  <p>However, what is not clear to me is the difference between <code>patches</code> and <code>patchesJson6902</code>. They seem to be very similar in nature. Both specify a 'target' attribute and operation objects which describes what gets modified.</p>
  <p>The only difference I've noticed is that <code>patches</code> does not require a 'group' attribute while <code>patchesJson6902</code> does; The reason for this is unknown.</p>
  <p>So why the difference between the two? How do I determine which one to use?</p>