How to get a list of changed files with VC?

[Michael Heerdegen]

Hello,

For el-search' `change' pattern, I need the following functions:

#+begin_src emacs-lisp
(defun el-search--changed-files-in-repo (repo-root-dir &optional commit)
  "Return a list of files that changed relative to COMMIT.
COMMIT defaults to HEAD."
  (cl-callf or commit "HEAD")
  (let ((default-directory repo-root-dir))
    (mapcar #'expand-file-name
            (split-string
             (shell-command-to-string
              (format "git diff -z --name-only %s --" (shell-quote-argument 
commit)))
             "\0" t))))

(defun el-search--file-changed-p (file revision)
  "Return non-nil when FILE has changed relative to REVISION."
  (cl-callf file-truename file)
  (when-let ((backend (vc-backend file)))
    (ignore-errors
      (let ((default-directory (file-name-directory file))
            (vc-git-diff-switches nil))
        (and
         (with-temp-buffer
           (= 1 (vc-call-backend backend 'diff (list file) nil revision
                 (current-buffer))))
         (with-temp-buffer
           (= 1 (vc-call-backend backend 'diff (list file) revision nil
                 (current-buffer)))))))))
#+end_src

I didn't find something like this existing in VC (or did I miss it?).


More specific questions about my implementation:

1.  The implementation of the first function
`el-search--changed-files-in-repo' is currently git-specific, but I
didn't find a way to implement it with functions that VC defines to make
it work for other version control systems.  Any idea?

2.  The second function `el-search--file-changed-p' doesn't have this
problem.  However, I gained it from trial and error.  Does the
implementation make sense?  How can I avoid binding vc-git-diff-switches
-> nil (I get an error for some files if I don't).  And I also need to
wrap the thing inside `ignore-errors' to avoid a more complicate
`condition-case' where I don't fully understand which errors I need to
catch.

Any help for a better implementation is greatly appreciated.


TIA,

Michael.