Feedback on merging via bzr

[Reinhard Tartler]

On Mo, Jan 18, 2010 at 04:45:53 (CET), Scott Kitterman wrote:

> This method of diffing works fine, except that the previous branch has
> to be re- downloaded each time the diff is done.  In this case I was
> trying to remove extraneous white space changes that had crept into
> the packages so it took several tries to get them all.  For larger
> packages or people with a slow internet connection, the need to
> re-download the diff will have a substantial negative impact.

As already mentioned, fetching both branches (the ubuntu and debian
import) into a local repository mitigates this problem. The
'grab-merge'-like wrapper that you proposed could and probably should do
exactly that.

> Additionally, I miss a way to diff just the debian directories.  For
> new upstream releases (which this wasn't, so I didn't hit it) I find
> this a critical way to review the packaging differences between the
> old and new packages.

This is possible and in fact for me a killer argument for using DVCS
tools for managing packages in the first place:

bzr diff --old lp:debian/package debian/control

for diffing only debian control, or 

bzr diff --old lp:debian/package debian

for diffing the debian subdirectory only.


-- 
Gruesse/greetings,
Reinhard Tartler, KeyID 945348A4