On 14/06/2024 18:39, Alan Mackenzie wrote:
Does etc-update or dispatch-conf not give you the option to selectively update and/or to diff the file?
In theory, yes. In practice, dispatch-conf just offers a single ~130-line long hunk, which is useless for distinguishing wanted pieces of code from old superseded code. As I say, what's missing is the old repository version, which would allow a diff3.
etc-update certainly, and I would be surprised if dispatch-conf didn't, does offer you a diff.
The (faulty) assumption here is that the user actually knows how to make use of a diff!
Certainly true for me, and quite likely for a sizeable minority, I predate both Linux and Windows by quite a large margin, and have never been part of the Unix eco-system. I use linux because it's better than Windows, I use gentoo because I want to learn, but I'm not comfortable with pretty much the entire development ecosystem including things like diff.
I so rarely use diff, that I find it simplest to run a diff (which tells me *what* has changed, then I open both old and new in kate, and manually investigate. It may be more work than using diff properly, but once I factor in the cost of working out how to use diff it's not worth it. It's doubly not worth it because I'll have forgotten all that hard work next time I need it!
Cheers, Wol
