Re: [PATCH] gitk: Use git-difftool for external diffs

From: Paul Mackerras <paulus@samba.org>
Date: Nov 19, 2009, 22:21 UTC
Message-ID: <19205.50406.91209.309984@cargo.ozlabs.ibm.com>
In-Reply-To: <20091119193913.GA25410@gmail.com>

David Aguilar writes:

Show 16 quoted lines

> On Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 08:03:31PM +1100, Paul Mackerras wrote:
> > David Aguilar writes:
> > 
> > > This teaches gitk about git-difftool.  A benefit of this change is
> > > that gitk's external diff now works with read-only repositories.
> > 
> > What version of git does git difftool first appear in?  I prefer not
> > to introduce hard requirements on very recent versions of git into
> > gitk.
> > 
> > Paul.
> 
> git-difftool appeared in git 1.6.3.
> 
> If this patch is not going in then how do you suggest we fix the
> read-only repository bug?

I have no problem with using git difftool if the underlying git is new enough, I just don't want gitk to explode when it isn't.

If the underlying git isn't new enough then we should probably make a directory under $TMPDIR with a reasonably unpredictable name.

Also, I don't think we should remove the ability for the user to choose which external diff tool to use; if we're using git difftool then we should pass the selected tool with the -t option of git difftool. Maybe we need a "use default from git config" option as well, though.

Paul.