diff -u, -e

Cathey, Jim jcathey at ciena.com
Fri Jun 26 19:19:03 UTC 2009


We have a product that uses diff (non-u) outputs
as part of what it presents to the operator.
(The old-style < and > marked lines.)  BB diff
doesn't have the -u option, and always seems to
emit the new -u format, so it would be awkward for
me to implement the diff-using feature on our
next-gen platform.  (Gratuitous operator-seen
changes in our product line's behavior are unwelcome.)

Would there be any objection to my teaching diff
that it could have an optional -u argument, and that
if enabled then -u formatting would not be the default?
I think there would be very little code involved in this,
and then I could go on to implement that product's feature.

What about the -e (ed-script) format output?  Same question,
we have another related feature that uses that internally.
(No, -e is never the default output format!)

There is zero interest here in supplying a separate diff,
flash is getting kind of full.

-- Jim






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