RE: Bug: cvs diff -rHEAD does not always refer to head of trunk

[Jim.Hyslop]

lawrence.jones@eds.com wrote:
> Jim.Hyslop writes:
> > 
> > The -rHEAD option for cvs diff refers to the head of the 
> current branch,
> > rather than the latest trunk revision.
> 
> That's as intended.  It's even documented in (comments in the 
> source of)
> the manual.  It is inconsistent, however, and I for one 
> wouldn't object
> to changing it if someone wants to do so.
Well, first of all, I would disagree that comments in the source of the
manual actually *document* anything. You wouldn't tell the end-user of your
software to read comments in your .c file, so why would you expect them to
read the comments in the LaTeX file?

Second, the comments in the source of the manual are incorrect:
@c FIXME: What does HEAD really mean?  I believe that
@c the current answer is the head of the default branch
@c for all cvs commands except diff.

This comment is incorrect, as my previous message demonstrated - HEAD means
the head of the trunk, *not* the default branch for all commands except
diff. I'm talking about observable program behaviour, not documentation or
source code comments.

Until & unless the suggested .thead and .bhead reserved tags are
implemented, I'd recommend updating the documentation to acknowledge and...
well... *document* the inconsistency. That's what documentation's for, isn't
it? :-)

Specifically, in A.5 Common Command Options, I recommend changing:

`HEAD' refers to the most recent available in the repository

to

`HEAD' refers to the most recent trunk revision (except with the cvs diff
command, when it refers to the most recent revision in the sticky branch)

The document should be updated in any case, since "the most recent
available" is ambiguous - if I'm working in the trunk, and somebody checks a
version into a branch, then that branch version is "the most recent
available in the repository". Clearly this is not what is meant by `HEAD'.

-- 
Jim