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Re: [PATCH 2/2] xdiff: implement empty line chunk heuristic

From
Jacob Keller <jacob.keller@gmail.com>
Date
Apr 18, 2016, 22:04 UTC
Message-ID
<CA+P7+xrisA0qqQ01GoSUdNm+O85NN9H7arovzqDD2e5GUv2GAw@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To
<1461013950-12503-3-git-send-email-sbeller@google.com>
On Mon, Apr 18, 2016 at 2:12 PM, Stefan Beller <sbeller@google.com> wrote:
Show 42 quoted lines
> In order to produce the smallest possible diff and combine several diff
> hunks together, we implement a heuristic from GNU Diff which moves diff
> hunks forward as far as possible when we find common context above and
> below a diff hunk. This sometimes produces less readable diffs when
> writing C, Shell, or other programming languages, ie:
>
> ...
>  /*
> + *
> + *
> + */
> +
> +/*
> ...
>
> instead of the more readable equivalent of
>
> ...
> +/*
> + *
> + *
> + */
> +
>  /*
> ...
>
> Implement the following heuristic to (optionally) produce the desired
> output.
>
>   If there are diff chunks which can be shifted around, shift each hunk
>   such that the last common empty line is below the chunk with the rest
>   of the context above.
>
> This heuristic appears to resolve the above example and several other
> common issues without producing significantly weird results. However, as
> with any heuristic it is not really known whether this will always be
> more optimal. Thus, it can be disabled via diff.compactionHeuristic.
>
> Signed-off-by: Stefan Beller <sbeller@google.com>
> Signed-off-by: Jacob Keller <jacob.e.keller@intel.com>
> Signed-off-by: Stefan Beller <sbeller@google.com>
> ---

Thanks Stephan and Junio, this looks pretty good. I think before it's merged we'd probably want to implement some sort of attributes which allows per-path configuration, incase it needs to be configured at all.

I've got it applied to my local git, and I'm going to try to run a diff between enabled vs disabled on a large section of the Linux kernel history and a few other projects to see if I spot anything odd.

Thanks, Jake

Previous: Stefan BellerNext: Junio C Hamano
Message 4 of 20 in “xdiff: implement empty line chunk heuristic”
  1. 0/2 xdiff: implement empty line chunk heuristicStefan Beller, Apr 18, 2016
  2. 1/2 xdiff: add recs_match helper functionStefan Beller, Apr 18, 2016
  3. 2/2 xdiff: implement empty line chunk heuristicStefan Beller, Apr 18, 2016
  4. Jacob KellerApr 18, 2016
  5. Junio C HamanoApr 18, 2016
  6. Jeff KingApr 19, 2016
  7. Stefan BellerApr 19, 2016
  8. Jeff KingApr 19, 2016
  9. Stefan BellerApr 19, 2016
  10. Stefan BellerApr 19, 2016
  11. Jeff KingApr 19, 2016
  12. Jacob KellerApr 19, 2016
  13. Junio C HamanoApr 19, 2016
  14. Michael S. TsirkinApr 20, 2016
  15. Junio C HamanoApr 20, 2016
  16. Jeff KingApr 20, 2016
  17. Junio C HamanoApr 20, 2016
  18. Junio C HamanoApr 19, 2016
  19. Junio C HamanoApr 18, 2016
  20. Stefan BellerApr 18, 2016

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