diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -63,7 +63,6 @@
 *.pyc
 *.o
 *.o-*
-*.patch
 *.a
 *.pb.cc
 *.pb.h
@@ -75,6 +74,10 @@
 *.json.h
 *.raw.h
 
+# Only ignore unexpected patches
+*.patch
+!depends/patches/*.patch
+
 #libtool object files
 *.lo
 *.la