The patches in the contrib directory enable features
that either don't work completely, aren't well tested, or
are of limited general use.  They can be applied by 
using patch in the vblade source directory as follows:

forfeit:~/vblade-12 # patch -p1 <contrib/jumbo.diff
patching file aoe.c
patching file fns.h
patching file freebsd.c
patching file linux.c
forfeit:~/vblade-12 # 

contrib/o_direct.diff:

Enable O_DIRECT on linux to minimize cache effects of the I/O to
and from the file backing the vblade.