title: git patches cause error unrecognized input
body: <p>I'm running Mac OSX 10.9.4 (Mavericks) and have git version 2.8.2. I've tested this with a completely new repo.  Here's example.</p>
  
  <pre><code>mkdir gitest
  cd gitest
  git init
  echo "monkeyface" &gt; monkey.txt
  git commit -m "first commit"
  echo "monkeyface farted" &gt; monkeyfart.txt
  git add .
  git diff HEAD &gt; new.patch
  rm monkeyfart.txt
  git reset --hard HEAD
  git apply new.patch --check
  &gt;fatal: unrecognized input
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Any ideas what is causing this?  Could it be anything in my .gitconfig file?</p>
  
  <pre><code>[user]
      name = myusername
      email = myemail@mail.com
  [color]
    ui = always
  [alias]
    st = status -sb -uall
    lg = log --decorate --pretty=oneline --abbrev-commit --graph
    undocommit = reset --soft HEAD^
    undopush = push -f origin HEAD^:master
  [core]
      editor = vim
      excludesfile = ~/.gitignore_global
      pager = less -r
  [commit]
    template = ~/.gitmessage.txt
  [filter "media"]
      clean = git-media-clean %f
      smudge = git-media-smudge %f
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>UPDATE:</p>
  
  <p>While the answer linked below offers some idea on what the problem might have been, my issue was specifically hidden in my configuration since no color argument was being passed into the command.   This answer is relevant but my question and answer might be helpful to others who may experience a similar issue.</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22385091/extract-changes-from-diff-file-to-current-branch">Extract changes from diff file to current branch</a> </p>