Re: [PATCH 7/7] xdiff: make diff3 the default conflictStyle

From: Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org>
Date: Jun 11, 2021, 16:41 UTC
Message-ID: <dd5a1b6c-f0d3-f135-d03d-5d1f9205503d@kdbg.org>
In-Reply-To: <875yykipq2.fsf@osv.gnss.ru>

Am 11.06.21 um 13:51 schrieb Sergey Organov:

> I don't get it. Once you have diff3 output, and you want something
> simpler, you just kill the inner section, right? RCS merge output style
> is simply inferior.

There is an important case where RCS style is not inferior: When the base is

then our side makes it

12ABC56

and their side makes it

 12AXC56

then diff3 must display the conflict as

 12<ABC|34=AXC>56

to be technically correct. RCS style can coalesce A and C outside of the conflict and display it as

 12A<B=X>C34

and *that* is the helpful part of this simpler style. You encounter these kinds of conflicts *a lot* when you juggle fixups in a rebase --interactive session.

The thread mentioned earlier upthread explores whether diff3 can do a similar simplification.

-- Hannes