diff --git a/WHATSNEW b/WHATSNEW
index 166269275..82fb20035 100644
--- a/WHATSNEW
+++ b/WHATSNEW
@@ -342,6 +342,9 @@ Other changes:
 
   For more details see docs/manual/inputhandler.html.
 
+* <patch> has a new attribute that selects the directory in which to
+  run the command.
+
 Changes from Ant 1.4 to Ant 1.4.1
 ===========================================
 
diff --git a/docs/manual/CoreTasks/patch.html b/docs/manual/CoreTasks/patch.html
index 30621d0b4..12083a6b9 100644
--- a/docs/manual/CoreTasks/patch.html
+++ b/docs/manual/CoreTasks/patch.html
@@ -55,6 +55,11 @@
       slashes from filenames.</td>
     <td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
   </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">dir</td> 
+    <td valign="top">The directory in which to run the patch command.</td>
+    <td align="center" valign="top">No, default is the project's basedir.</td>
+  </tr>
 </table>
 <h3>Examples</h3>
 <pre>  &lt;patch patchfile=&quot;module.1.0-1.1.patch&quot;/&gt;</pre>
@@ -69,7 +74,7 @@ the diff output looked like</p>
 </pre> 
 the leading <i>a/</i> will be stripped.
 <hr>
-<p align="center">Copyright &copy; 2001 Apache Software Foundation. All rights
+<p align="center">Copyright &copy; 2001-2002 Apache Software Foundation. All rights
 Reserved.</p>
 
 </body>
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Patch.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Patch.java
index c54e8fb95..34db7aab2 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Patch.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Patch.java
@@ -73,6 +73,7 @@ import java.io.IOException;
 public class Patch extends Task {
 
     private File originalFile;
+    private File directory;
     private boolean havePatchfile = false;
     private Commandline cmd = new Commandline();
 
@@ -145,12 +146,21 @@ public class Patch extends Task {
         }
     }
 
+    /**
+     * The directory to run the patch command in, defaults to the
+     * project's base directory.
+     *
+     * @since Ant 1.5
+     */
+    public void setDir(File directory) throws BuildException {
+        this.directory = directory;
+    }
+
     public void execute() throws BuildException {
         if (!havePatchfile) {
             throw new BuildException("patchfile argument is required", 
                                      location);
         } 
-        
         Commandline toExecute = (Commandline) cmd.clone();
         toExecute.setExecutable("patch");
 
@@ -161,7 +171,21 @@ public class Patch extends Task {
         Execute exe = new Execute(new LogStreamHandler(this, Project.MSG_INFO,
                                                        Project.MSG_WARN), 
                                   null);
-        exe.setCommandline(toExecute.getCommandline());
+
+        if (directory != null) {
+            if (directory.exists() && directory.isDirectory()) {
+                exe.setWorkingDirectory(directory);
+            } else if (!directory.isDirectory()) {
+                throw new BuildException(directory + " is not a directory.",
+                                         location);
+            } else {
+                throw new BuildException("directory " + directory
+                                         + " doesn\'t exist", location);
+            }
+        } else {
+            exe.setWorkingDirectory(getProject().getBaseDir());
+        }
+
         try {
             exe.execute();
         } catch (IOException e) {