[Monotone-devel] File diff command-line UI thoughts

[Kevin Smith]

As you know, I am interested in adding some file diff commands to 
monotone. I started playing with it last night, and realized that the 
existing UI doesn't really have a slot for doing file diffs.

Currently, the diff command can be used as:

diff
 (compare workspace tree against head tree)

diff <manifest-id>
 (compare workspace tree against specific revision)

diff <manifest-id1> <manifest-id2>
 (compare two tree revisions)

What I really want is:

diff <filename>
diff <filename> <file-id>
diff <file-id1> <file-id2>

Other monotone commands require you to specify the type of the id, such 
as "manifest" or "file". Which, by the way, I find slightly irritating. 
Why can't it just figure out whether I have given it a file's id or a 
manifest's id, and do the right thing?

Anyway, without changing the existing ui, the best I can think of is to 
add a 'filediff' or 'fdiff' command. But I still have ambiguity between 
the second and third command formats shown above. Any thoughts on how 
the file diff command should really be added?

Kevin