Xref: utzoo comp.unix.wizards:9107 comp.unix.questions:7411 Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!rutgers!gatech!ncar!oddjob!mimsy!chris From: chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek) Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards,comp.unix.questions Subject: aside on patch and context diffs Message-ID: <11822@mimsy.UUCP> Date: 5 Jun 88 21:47:19 GMT References: <136@rubmez.UUCP> <449@happym.UUCP> <7944@alice.UUCP> <23142@bu-cs.BU.EDU> Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742 Lines: 13 In article <23142@bu-cs.BU.EDU> bzs@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Barry Shein) writes: >... 'patch' can take a context input but that's irrelevant, it hardly >needs nor prefers a context diff to my knowledge, it's just being >accomodating so humans can look at the context diff if something >botches. There is another very good reason to use context diffs with patch, and that is that a one-line change (e.g., fixing a comment) can break a non-context diff too easily. (Also, I like to scan the diffs myself before applying them; it catches a number of bugs handily.) -- In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163) Domain: chris@mimsy.umd.edu Path: uunet!mimsy!chris