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Re: [PATCH] Show binary file size change in diff --stat

From
RDRogan Dawes <lists@dawes.za.net>
Date
Apr 4, 2007, 13:34 UTC
Message-ID
<4613A974.60808@dawes.za.net>
In-Reply-To
<200704041414.14797.andyparkins@gmail.com>
Andy Parkins wrote:
Show 29 quoted lines
> Previously, a binary file in the diffstat would show as:
> 
>  some-binary-file.bin       |  Bin
> 
> The space after the "Bin" was never used.  This patch changes binary
> lines in the diffstat to be:
> 
>  some-binary-file.bin       |  Bin 12345 -> 123456 bytes
> 
> The very nice "->" notation was suggested by Johannes Schindelin, and
> shows the before and after sizes more clearly than "+" and "-" would.
> If a size is 0 it's not shown (although it would probably be better to
> treat no-file differently from zero-byte-file).
> 
> The user can see what changed in the binary file, and how big the new
> file is.  This is in keeping with the information in the rest of the
> diffstat.
> 
> The diffstat_t members "added" and "deleted" were unused when the file
> was binary, so this patch loads them with the file sizes in
> builtin_diffstat().  These figures are then read in show_stats() when
> the file is marked binary.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Andy Parkins <andyparkins@gmail.com>
> ---
> This is a resend; I still wish for it every time I see a --stat with
> binary files changed.
> 
> Is there any objection to it that I can address?

Well, how about my comments in <45E67978.9030805@dawes.za.net>, suggesting that the edit difference (number of steps required to transform one to the other) would be a better indication?

I think it is better because it is consistent with what we currently do for text files: show the number of lines added/deleted.

For binary files, it would be consistent to show the number of bytes added/deleted. I have not investigated the output format for the libxdiff binary patch format, but hopefully it would not be too difficult to calculate the deletions and additions.

Rogan
Previous: Andy ParkinsNext: Geert Bosch
Message 2 of 12 in “Show binary file size change in diff --stat”
  1. Show binary file size change in diff --statAndy Parkins, Apr 4, 2007
  2. Rogan DawesApr 4, 2007
  3. Geert BoschApr 4, 2007
  4. Rogan DawesApr 4, 2007
  5. Andy ParkinsApr 4, 2007
  6. Rogan DawesApr 4, 2007
  7. Johannes SchindelinApr 4, 2007
  8. Rogan DawesApr 4, 2007
  9. Linus TorvaldsApr 4, 2007
  10. Johannes SchindelinApr 4, 2007
  11. Linus TorvaldsApr 4, 2007
  12. Junio C HamanoApr 4, 2007

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