Knowing you Patched the Kernel

[Doug MacFarlane <madmac@covad.net>]

Team:

How do you know you successfully patched the kernel?

I have PATCH_THE_KERNEL = AUTO and use the --apply_patched option to the
make-kpkg command.

I also redirect all the output (via a > compile.output redirection) to a
text file so I can read the messages and/or error messages.  

I thought that I had added the FreeSwan patch, but I can't tell. 
grepping compile.output for freeswan produces no matches.  The Makefile
in the FreeSwan patch directory only echos text when there are errors.

How does one know it worked?  I'd hate to beat my head against the wall
trying to get FreeSwan to work when I didn't actually get the kernel
patched . . . . 

TIA

madmac