Applies patches produced by `git format-patch` as real commits, preserving the original author, date, and message — the classic 'email a patch' workflow, still used for offline or cross-repo patch exchange.
Reach for this when a change arrives as a patch file rather than as commits in a repo you can fetch from — a bug report attachment, a mailing-list patch, a bundle shared outside your normal remote. Inside a normal PR-based team workflow, prefer cherry-pick or a branch + merge/rebase instead.
git am vs git apply: `git apply` only touches the working tree/index — no commit, no author/date/message preserved. `git am` creates real commits from the patch's embedded metadata. Dry-run either with `git apply --check patch.file` before committing to it.