Full files in changesets?

[Michael Ellerman]

On Sun, 29 May 2005 14:46, Aaron Bentley wrote:
> I'm not proposing adding a syntax error all the time, but there are
> changes patch cannot apply.  For those cases, I think introducing a
> syntax error is better than the alternative, which is to have patch do
> an incomplete job, while giving the impression that it has done a
> complete one.

Ok for patches that patch can't apply I see your point. And I agree it should 
break early and obviously rather than silently not do what you want.

> Renames are on the fringe, because patch can apply them, but only at the
> cost of much verbosity in the changeset.
> ...
> Definitely not all changesets.  Maybe not rename changesets.  I think
> it's the best option for changesets with binaries, though.

I think the difference is that there's a standard well accepted way of sending 
rename patches, which is admittedly verbose, but human readable and *does not 
require bzr* to consume. Not using that format would IMHO be a bad design 
decision.

Binaries on the other hand can not be expressed using patch, so you're not 
breaking compatibility. Although it'd be interesting to see how 
svn/cvs/bk/etc do binary changes and whether there's any standard that's 
useful to follow.

I also think if you're going to have bzr patches that can't be applied with 
patch, you can't call them patches. And changesets that contain a binary 
patch should be clearly marked as such.

eg.

## bzr changeset
## you can apply this changeset with "bzr receive" or "patch"
##
## revision-id: mbp at foo-2005010101055555-sajhdakjsdhkjahsdkja
## predecessor: john at bar-kasjdlkajsdlkjaskld-asdjhasdkjhasdhahd
## comments:
##   Here is my nice patch.
## date: 2005-04-01 12:34:23
## ....

## bzr changeset
## you can apply this changeset with "bzr receive"
##
## Warning: This changeset can not be applied with patch as it
## contains a binary diff. The receiver of this patch must use
## bzr receive to apply it.
##
## revision-id: mbp at foo-2005010101055555-sajhdakjsdhkjahsdkja
## predecessor: john at bar-kasjdlkajsdlkjaskld-asdjhasdkjhasdhahd
## comments:
##   Here is my nice patch.
## date: 2005-04-01 12:34:23
## ....

As an aside, I wonder if anyone's thought of updating the patch(1) format to 
do less verbose renames? You'd still require one copy of the full text, but 
that's better than two.

cheers

-- 
Michael Ellerman
IBM OzLabs

email: michael:ellerman.id.au
inmsg: mpe:jabber.org
wwweb: http://michael.ellerman.id.au
phone: +61 2 6212 1183 (tie line 70 21183)

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors,
we borrow it from our children. - S.M.A.R.T Person
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