Re: diff format

Josh MacDonald (jmacd@CS.Berkeley.EDU)
Thu, 25 Feb 1999 15:52:21 -0800


In article <fa.ga2f2lv.1k2kart@ifi.uio.no>,
lm@bitmover.com (Larry McVoy) wrote:
> : > Folks, I need to get your read on something quickly. I'd like to use the
> : > diff -n format for BitKeeper patches. I suspect that many will have an
> : > issue with this because these patches are pretty useless to human beings.
> : > Linus especially will not like this.
> :
> : It's not about "like".
> :
> : I will totally refuse to touch _any_ diff format that does not have
> : context.
>
> That's great because that's exactly what I want :-)
> But I suspect that you meant something else. So let's hash this out,
> because it is crucial to the correct operation of the system. The short
> summary is that I believe that you will be happy.

In earlier discussions you've expressed a distaste for the xdelta file
format, but now you can't justify it anymore. Can you comment on this?
It seems like you've changed your operational model.

You begin by saying that you want context diffs, but that now you intend
to use diff -n for transmission. That's because (I suspect) you can't
guarantee a patch's idempotency with contextual information. You can't
guarantee much with only a patch, but since you also record a patch's parent
version the diff format is unimportant. The remainder of your posting
was off the original topic, as far as I can tell. Is it now your position
that any diff format is acceptable for transmission, so long as the user
can view diffs in any format they like?

-josh

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