[Gnu-arch-users] Re: File history and line annotation

[Stefan Monnier]

>> I.e. from a set of code lines, I want to see all the diff+log that resulted
>> in those lines.  Also, often enough the diff+log is not what I want because
>> it just corresponds to a re-indent or a move, so I often also want to see
>> the parents of those diffs (i.e. the diff+log that resulted in the text that
>> was then changed by those diffs), their parents's parents, ...
>> until I really find the diff+log where the code was originally added.

> It seems that you speak about the complete file history.

No: only the part that affects some set of code lines.

> It's quite possible you may be more efficient with a web based interface.

I'm interested in a command-line tool on top of which a web-based (or
rather Emacs-based ;-) interface can be built.

> Can you formalize such "trace-code" command, its input and output?

It could look like:

   tla trace-code FILE FROM TO REV

and return all the diff+log that together result in lines FROM..TO of
revision REV of file FILE.  Hopefully the output would be written in such
a way that it is easy to mechanically extract further "FROM TO REV" triplets
in order to call the command again to get the trace-code explaining how the
code modified by one of the diff+log ended up the way it is and thus work
your way back in the history of the relevant piece of code through
reindentations, moves, typos, ... until you get to the actual meat
(typically the one or two diff+log that really introduced the piece of code
you're wondering about).


        Stefan