Re: configure scripts rely on "diff"; could use "cmp" instead if available

[Paul Eggert]

On 05/27/11 07:18, Bob Friesenhahn wrote:
> It seems wise to always use the most simple and most common utility to 
> perform the necessary task.

For the tasks of comparing text files and reporting a problem when there
is a difference, it's typically better to use 'diff' than 'cmp',
because the output is a more useful diagnostic.  Let's not change
Autoconf to use 'cmp' by default.

Busybox could trivially support 'diff' by using a terrible diff
algorithm.  This would conform to POSIX and would make the
autoconf-generated scripts work (albeit not much better than
'cmp' would).