svn generates long lists of empty diffs with --diff-cmd

Discussion:

Alexey Neyman

2017-04-20 00:59:13 UTC

Hi,

I noticed that SVN generates a lot of spurious diffs when using a
--diff-cmd option that look like this:

Index: arch/alpha/boot/tools/objstrip.c
===================================================================
Index: arch/alpha/boot/Makefile
===================================================================

Is it possible to suppress such empty diffs? This makes the tools like
ReviewBoard (www.reviewboard.org) examine a lot of unchanged files and
slows them down considerably and unnecessary.

Regards,
Alexey.

Bert Huijben

2017-04-20 13:52:47 UTC

Permalink

-----Original Message-----
Sent: donderdag 20 april 2017 02:59
Subject: svn generates long lists of empty diffs with --diff-cmd
Hi,
I noticed that SVN generates a lot of spurious diffs when using a
Index: arch/alpha/boot/tools/objstrip.c
==========================================================
=========
Index: arch/alpha/boot/Makefile
==========================================================
=========
Is it possible to suppress such empty diffs? This makes the tools like
ReviewBoard (www.reviewboard.org) examine a lot of unchanged files and
slows them down considerably and unnecessary.

What argument do you pass to --diff-cmd ?

Is it possible that the files are actually different, but your diff command reports that they are not different (e.g. after normalizing whitespace). I think this header is printed on changed files, right before invoking the diff command.

Bert

Regards,
Alexey.

Alexey Neyman

2017-04-21 04:58:32 UTC

Permalink

Post by Bert Huijben

What argument do you pass to --diff-cmd ?

svn diff --diff-cmd=diff

Post by Bert Huijben
Is it possible that the files are actually different, but your diff command reports that they are not different (e.g. after normalizing whitespace). I think this header is printed on changed files, right before invoking the diff command.

No, plain 'svn diff' does not show any differences, not even properties.
For example:

[***@rhel-build2 src]$ svn diff $URL/SETUP.bash SETUP.bash
[***@rhel-build2 src]$ svn diff --diff-cmd=diff $URL/SETUP.bash
SETUP.bash
Index: SETUP.bash
===================================================================

Alexey.

Alexey Neyman

2017-04-21 05:44:20 UTC

Permalink

Post by Alexey Neyman

Post by Bert Huijben

What argument do you pass to --diff-cmd ?

svn diff --diff-cmd=diff

Post by Bert Huijben
Is it possible that the files are actually different, but your diff
command reports that they are not different (e.g. after normalizing
whitespace). I think this header is printed on changed files, right
before invoking the diff command.

No, plain 'svn diff' does not show any differences, not even
SETUP.bash
Index: SETUP.bash
===================================================================

Some more information:
- While the properties on the file itself are the same, the inherited
properties differ (at least, svn:mergeinfo on the parent directory).
- This behavior is observed on 1.10.0-dev, 1.9.x and 1.8.x. Subversion
1.7.x does not display these spurious "Index:" lines.

Regards,
Alexey.

Alexey Neyman

2017-05-05 15:50:07 UTC

Permalink

Post by Alexey Neyman

Post by Bert Huijben

What argument do you pass to --diff-cmd ?

svn diff --diff-cmd=diff

Post by Bert Huijben
Is it possible that the files are actually different, but your diff
command reports that they are not different (e.g. after normalizing
whitespace). I think this header is printed on changed files, right
before invoking the diff command.

No, plain 'svn diff' does not show any differences, not even
SETUP.bash
Index: SETUP.bash
===================================================================

- While the properties on the file itself are the same, the inherited
properties differ (at least, svn:mergeinfo on the parent directory).
- This behavior is observed on 1.10.0-dev, 1.9.x and 1.8.x. Subversion
1.7.x does not display these spurious "Index:" lines.

So, given the information above, can it be considered a bug/regression?

Regards,
Alexey.

Post by Alexey Neyman
Regards,
Alexey.

Daniel Shahaf

2017-05-06 01:59:36 UTC

Permalink

Post by Alexey Neyman

Post by Alexey Neyman
No, plain 'svn diff' does not show any differences, not even properties.
SETUP.bash
Index: SETUP.bash
===================================================================

So, given the information above, can it be considered a bug/regression?

Sure.