The snapshots are created by "make distcheck", just like the releases. 
To compile a snapshot, you should not need any software other than the
one you need to compile the release.  If it's not true, report it as a
bug.

Version numbers of the snapshots use the format YYYY-MM-DD-hh in UTC. 
Version of the RPM package doesn't include dashes - it's a requirement
of RPM.  When reporting a problem with a snapshot, please report its
version number.

The RPM package is generated on Ubuntu using lsb-rpm.  It is aimed to be
useful on any LSB compatible system for x86 architecture.  You can
create the binary package for your distribution using the "rpmbuild -tb"
command.  The mc.spec file is inside the tarball.  Source RPM package is
not distributed.  If you need it, use "rpmbuild -ta".

The patch is made against the latest stable version.  Note that the
files under the "po" directory are excluded from the patch.  The reason
is that they produce too big diffs for insignificant changes in the
sources.  If you are working on the translations, please go to ../po
directory.

The patch should be applied from the mc directory using option "-Ep1".