Use patch.patch() when checking for patch availability.
The test is closer to what we want to know. It also makes sense when you deal with patched versions of patch() as most people do under win32.
EVERYTHING
diff -r ec612a6291f1 alpha/one
--- a/alpha/one
+++ b/alpha/one
@@ -0,0 +1,1 @@
+1
diff -r ec612a6291f1 beta/two
--- a/beta/two
+++ b/beta/two
@@ -0,0 +1,1 @@
+2
BETA ONLY
diff -r ec612a6291f1 beta/two
--- a/beta/two
+++ b/beta/two
@@ -0,0 +1,1 @@
+2
INSIDE BETA
diff -r ec612a6291f1 beta/two
--- a/beta/two
+++ b/beta/two
@@ -0,0 +1,1 @@
+2