Re: Why does cvs diff -r HEAD diff to branch OR head of trunk?

[Larry Jones]

address@hidden writes:
> 
> cvs diff -r HEAD diffs to HEAD of trunk OR head of branch - based on what yor 
> sandbox is checked out on.  Not really good if I am on a branch and want to 
> compare against HEAD of trunk :-)
> 
> Is this a known behaviour?  It does not appear to be documented to work as 
> such (actually, docs would lead you to believe what you think it should do - 
> diffs to HEAD of trunk ONLY.)

Yes, it's known behavior.  Presumably the thought was that someone that
had checked out a revision on a branch would be more interested in
diffing it with the tip of that branch than the head, but it is
inconsitent.  There have been suggestions to change it, but no one has
made an issue of it and there's a fear that someone might be depending
on the current behavior.

> Is there a hidden keyword I am unaware of (BRANCHHEAD, TRUNKHEAD, etc.) or 
> some other workaround or would it be possible in future version to add these 
> CVS-maintained tags (BRANCHHEAD, TRUNKHEAD)?

Not in the standard release, but Steve Cameron has a ".trunk & .origin"
patch that partially addresses the problem:

        <http://www.geocities.com/dotslashstar/branch_patch.html>

-Larry Jones

Things are never quite as scary when you've got a best friend. -- Calvin