Re: diff-apply-hunk broken

[Stefan Monnier]

> I find it valuable feedback when I can see at a glance whether a diff
> was computed locally or remotely.  A simple example where it might help
> is this: A user makes a mistake setting up his vc-cvs-stay-local
> variable.  As a result, he gets remote diffs when he actually wants them
> to be local.  If he can't tell from the output what happened, it might
> be difficult for him to realize the problem.

If he can't tell from the time it took, then does the difference matter ?

> But if the disply is still different anyway, that's enough of a visual
> clue I think.

I'm not wedded to the current format, so feel free to change it.
I just chose an existing format to minimize people's surprise.

>> > Second, I couldn't find documentation for the "-L" option in the GNU
>> > diff manual, although it is quite happy with that option (--label, which
>> > seems equivalent, is documented).
>> The manpage definitely mentions -L as does `diff --help'.

> What version are you referring to?  In GNU diffutils 2.8.1-6 (Debian
> unstable), diff -L is neither mentioned in the manpage, the info manual,
> nor diff --help.  The -L option is mentioned, however, for diff3 (in all
> three places).  As far as I can tell, 2.8.1 is the most recent version. 
> Please confirm whether you have a version where diff -L is documented. 
> Otherwise, I'll file a bug report to the diffutil guys.

On a RedHat 9 system:

   ~-0% uname -a
   Linux asado.iro.umontreal.ca 2.4.20-30.9 #1 Wed Feb 4 20:44:26 EST 2004 i686 
athlon i386 GNU/Linux
   ~-0% diff --version
   diff (GNU diffutils) 2.8.1
   Copyright (C) 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
   
   Ce programme est fourni sans AUCUNE GARANTIE, tel que permis par la loi.
   Vous pouvez le redistribuer selon les termes de « GNU General Public License 
»,
   lire le texte du fichier COPYING pour plus de détails.
   
   Écrit par Paul Eggert, Mike Haertel, David Hayes,
   Richard Stallman et Len Tower.
   ~-0% man diff | grep .-L 
          -L étiquette
   ~-0% LANG=C man diff | grep .-L
          -L label
   ~-0% 


On a Mac:

   ~-0% uname -a
   Darwin empanada.local 7.3.0 Darwin Kernel Version 7.3.0: Fri Mar  5 14:22:55 
PST 2004; root:xnu/xnu-517.3.15.obj~4/RELEASE_PPC  Power Macintosh powerpc
   ~-0% diff --version       
   diff - GNU diffutils version 2.7
   ~-0% man diff | grep ".-L"
          -L label
   ~-0% 


-- Stefan