Question about the IPS format

Hello,

I'm been interested in hacking SNES games for many years but only now did I finally caved in my desires and seriously started to tiptoe into the wonderful world of the 65816 processor. Only problem is that I'm using Linux. I just created a very small hack that basically centers the characters' full name in the end credits and change Shadow's name to Clyde Arrowny. Using the extra space freed by the removal of the letter "w", I also was able to create pointers for everybody's last name, because reasons!

BUT I can't create an IPS patch out of it. I tried Sure, I could:

x. Setup a Windows VM and use the tools that are already available.
x. Fix whatever is my dependancy problem with EWingIPSPatcher (a patcher made for Linux that doesn't work for me for some reason).

But I want to take the unnecessary complicated route and create my own tool. In order to do that, I have one simple question: how does the IPS format work exactly? I get the impression that this is a set of commands saying (put value X in address Y), but I wasn't able to find documentation on how the IPS file itself is created. Thanks for any information you can provide.

I also have an unrealted question, where in the code of Final Fantasy are the text functions located? How about the end game character name display?