Package: ucf Version: 3.0035 Severity: important The `show differences between versions' screen shows some stat informations that take the whole first screen of output - see the attached screenshot.png - which is very strange.
I've already noticed that the actual file differences are shown after scrolling down the screen, but my first impression when I saw the initial screen was `What the ... is this??? Why it shows some devices, inodes, sizes, timestamps, etc on a screen called "Line by line differences between versions"?' I guess this has been done because of #812321, whose submitter asked for `differences between the old and new file for permissions and ownership', (which actually would makes sense to me as well), but I don't think he expected to get 20 lines of some strange output to analyze to spot any actual differences by hand. In my opinion the feature requested in #812321 could be better implemented in several ways, for example: 1. By showing two lines only, something like: Old file mode: root.root 0644 New file mode: root.root 0755 if there is actual difference. 2. In a diff --git way, e.g.: diff --git a/makefile b/makefile old mode 100644 new mode 100755 index 5479b48..fe2a8ae --- a/makefile +++ b/makefile @@ -1,3 +1,4 @@ +# test MKDIR = mkdir -p The "old/new mode" lines can be extended to display ownerships, or alternatively it could be displayed in additional "old/new owner/group" lines. Obviously as in the point 1, the lines should be displayed only if they are different. 3. Or owner/permissions could be shown instead of timestamps in diff headers, i.e. replace --- /etc/apt/listchanges.conf 2016-03-12 10:57:25.000000000 +0100 +++ /etc/apt/listchanges.conf.new 2016-03-12 11:01:58.000000000 +0100 with --- /etc/apt/listchanges.conf root.root 0644 +++ /etc/apt/listchanges.conf.new root.root 0644 (In my opinion this would be the best approach, however the drawback of it is that some people might consider timestamps, especially the old one, as a valuable piece of information in some cases). Regards, robert -- System Information: Debian Release: stretch/sid APT prefers unstable APT policy: (990, 'unstable'), (200, 'testing') Architecture: i386 (i686) Kernel: Linux 4.4.0-1-686-pae (SMP w/1 CPU core) Locale: LANG=pl_PL.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=pl_PL.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash Init: sysvinit (via /sbin/init) Versions of packages ucf depends on: ii coreutils 8.25-2 ii debconf 1.5.59 ucf recommends no packages. ucf suggests no packages. -- Configuration Files: /etc/ucf.conf changed: -- debconf information: * ucf/changeprompt: install_new * ucf/show_diff: * ucf/changeprompt_threeway: install_new * ucf/conflicts_found: ucf/title:
