porters question: how to properly coerce patch to make subdirs?

[Mark D. Foster]

Updating a port and ran into a problem... patch does not create files/
because this folder did not appear in the old port.
How can I coerce patch to create the files/ folder?
Using diff -Pru or -Nru don't work unless I fake it and create an empty
files/ in the old port.

Sorry if this has been asked before!

-- 
Said one park ranger, 'There is considerable overlap between the 
 intelligence of the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists.'
Mark D. Foster, CISSP <mark at foster.cc>  http://mark.foster.cc/