Re: diff of multiple files between old versions

[Eric Siegerman]

On Wed, Sep 17, 2003 at 10:37:35AM -0700, Steve deRosier wrote:
> So, when I know the two dates that I need to know, how do I find out 
> what changed between them (keep in mind that I don't want to do a cvs 
> diff on each and every file by hand, the directory structure the cvs 
> gives me is large and convoluted)?

You should be able to simply do:
        cvs -z3 diff -D 2003-01-15 -D 2003-01-17 .
CVS will recursively diff the whole tree.  Of course, if you *do*
want to diff just some specific files, you can name them on the
command line.

> What I'm currently doing is checking out dated versions in different 
> directories and compiling and testing:
> mkdir cvs011503
> cd cvs011503
> cvs -z3 co -P -D 2003-01-15 .

Then again, since you already have both versions checked out,
with GNU diff you can do:
        diff -r cvs011503 cvs011703
(Some other diff's work recursively too, but some don't, and some
sort-of-work.  GNU diff I trust.  In fact, I prefer it even over
"cvs diff" for getting an overview of how a large tree changed,
since it gives you the complete picture on one output stream --
"cvs diff" puts differences on stdout, but reports adds and
deletes on stderr, and in a less-clear form at that.)

--

|  | /\
|-_|/  >   Eric Siegerman, Toronto, Ont.        address@hidden
|  |  /
When I came back around from the dark side, there in front of me would
be the landing area where the crew was, and the Earth, all in the view
of my window. I couldn't help but think that there in front of me was
all of humanity, except me.
        - Michael Collins, Apollo 11 Command Module Pilot