severity 817982 wishlist thanks On Sat, Mar 12 2016, Robert Luberda wrote:
> 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 can see why the extra information can be surprising.
> 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"?'
The line by line differences are still present, and always had
metadata (file, line numbers). The metadata has been expanded, and
clearly delineated from the content differences.
I don’t see extra information as a bug; and clearly, our
opinions on the aesthetics differ.
> 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).
As long as the information is present I have no objection to a
more compact display. Patches welcome.
manoj
--
Life is like a tin of sardines. We're, all of us, looking for the
key. Beyond the Fringe
Manoj Srivastava <sriva...@acm.org> <http://www.golden-gryphon.com/>
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