Re: [Gnu-arch-users] new `tla changes --diffs' behavior

[Miles Bader]

On Thu, Jan 29, 2004 at 10:44:45AM +1100, Robert Collins wrote:
> > This is the way `diff' works too: by default it doesn't show whole-file
> > changes, but you can do so using the following options:
> > 
> >   -N,  --new-file                 Treat absent files as empty.
> >   -P,  --unidirectional-new-file  Treat absent first files as empty.
> 
> If you want to sratch it, go ahead. But the default should be on IMO.
> (Otherwise -N becomes an 'unbreak me please' option.)

If the purpose of the output is interactive examination (which is the case
the great majority of the time in my experience), seeing new file contents
dumped is usually just (voluminous) noise -- at least for me, it's almost
always enough to see the name of the new file.

[and of course it's also `what diff does']

> Oh, and we don't need two flags, just one to toggle it on or off for both
> added and deleted files.

I don't know; I rarely delete files, so I usually can't tell the difference.
:-)  However diff presumably has the two options for a reason, and I think
it's good to be diff-compatible where possible.

-Miles
-- 
"I distrust a research person who is always obviously busy on a task."
   --Robert Frosch, VP, GM Research