Re: diff "--git"

[Micah Cowan]

Karl Berry wrote:
>     On the contrary, I think we could make a stab at implementing "diff 
>     --git": 
> 
> Why should git get special treatment in this way, compared to other VCs?
> Just wondering ...

Because unlike other VCs, it has made some very useful and vital
extensions to the diff format. Especially (for me) the introduction of a
means of specifying the mode for files. And they seem to be edging their
way toward "de facto standard" status.

Other VCs aren't doing this AFAIK, apart from ones that copy the git
format (Mercurial does this, when asked to).

> It seems far from impossible to me that git will change its preferred
> conventions in the future.  GNU diff doesn't seem like the place to
> track vc development ...

Well, it seems to be pretty stable, and with a few tools already copying
it, it seems unlikely it'll actually become backward-incompatible. It's
just a set of extensions to the unified diff format, AIUI.

(FWIW, I'm much more a Mercurial enthusiast than a Git enthusiast; but
the Git folks seem to have done something pretty smart to diffs, and
other tools (or at least Mercurial) seem to be copying it.)

Having a diff that handles git-format patchfiles would be a great boon,
for some applications of quilt, I'd think; particularly if one wants to
include overlay patches that include executable scripts.

-- 
Micah J. Cowan
http://micah.cowan.name/