Index: quilt/Makefile.in
===================================================================
--- quilt.orig/Makefile.in
+++ quilt/Makefile.in
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ SRC +=		$(QUILT_SRC:%=quilt/%)
 DIRT +=		$(QUILT_IN:%=quilt/%)
 
 SCRIPTS_IN :=	patchfns parse-patch inspect dependency-graph edmail \
-		remove-trailing-ws
+		remove-trailing-ws annotate-helper
 
 SCRIPTS_SRC :=	$(SCRIPTS_IN:%=%.in)
 SCRIPTS :=	$(SCRIPTS_IN)
Index: quilt/quilt/annotate.in
===================================================================
--- quilt.orig/quilt/annotate.in
+++ quilt/quilt/annotate.in
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ merge_files()
 	exec 4<&-
 }
 
-options=`getopt -o p:h -- "$@"`
+options=`getopt -o ap:h -- "$@"`
 
 if [ $? -ne 0 ]
 then
@@ -97,6 +97,9 @@ eval set -- "$options"
 while true
 do
 	case "$1" in
+	-a)
+		opt_a=-a
+		shift ;;
 	-p)
 		if ! opt_patch=$(find_patch "$2")
 		then
@@ -176,7 +179,7 @@ empty_file ${files[0]} > $template
 		annotation_for "${files[n]}" "${files[n+1]}" $((n+1))
 	done
 	echo w
-) | ed -s $template
+) | @SCRIPTS@/annotate-helper -s $opt_a $template
 merge_files $template "address@hidden"
 
 echo
Index: quilt/scripts/annotate-helper.in
===================================================================
--- /dev/null
+++ quilt/scripts/annotate-helper.in
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+#! @PERL@ -w
+
+use FileHandle;
+use Getopt::Std;
+use vars qw($opt_a $opt_s);
+use strict;
+
+getopts('as');
+
+my $filename = shift @ARGV;
+my $fh = new FileHandle("< $filename")
+    or die "$filename: $!\n";
+my @file = <$fh>;
+$fh->close();
+
+while (<>) {
+    my ($a, $b, $c);
+    ($a, $b, $c) = /(\d+)?(?:,(\d+))?([acdw])/
+	or die "parse error\n";
+    if (defined $1) {
+	    $a = $1 - 1;
+	    if (defined $2) {
+		    $b = $2 - 1;
+	    } else {
+		$b = $a;
+	    }
+    }
+    $c = $3;
+    if ($c eq 'w') {
+	$fh = new FileHandle("> $filename")
+	    or die "$filename: $!\n";
+	print $fh @file;
+	$fh->close();
+    } elsif ($c eq 'd') {
+	@file = (@file[0 .. $a-1], @file[$b+1 .. $#file]);
+    } else {
+	my @new;
+	while (<>) {
+	    last if (/^\.$/);
+	    push @new, $_;
+	}
+	if ($c eq 'c') {
+	    if ($opt_a) {
+		for (my $n = 0; $n < @new; $n++) {
+		    chomp $file[$a + $n];
+		    if ($file[$a + $n] eq '') {
+			$file[$a + $n] = $new[$n];
+		    } else {
+			$file[$a + $n] .= "," . $new[$n];
+		    }
+		}
+	    } else {
+		@file = (@file[0 .. $a-1], @new, @file[$b+1 .. $#file]);
+	    }
+	} elsif ($c eq 'a') {
+	    @file = (@file[0 .. $a], @new, @file[$a+1 .. $#file]);
+	}
+    }
+}
Index: quilt/test/annotate.test
===================================================================
--- quilt.orig/test/annotate.test
+++ quilt/test/annotate.test
@@ -43,6 +43,14 @@
 	> 1	patches/patch
 	> 2	patches/patch2
 
+	$ quilt annotate -a foo
+	>	foo
+	> 1	Bar
+	> 1,2	baz
+	>
+	> 1	patches/patch
+	> 2	patches/patch2
+
 	$ quilt new patch3
 	> Patch patches/patch3 is now on top