Re: Procedural question

[Benjamin Kosnik <bkoz at redhat dot com>]

> | Out of curiosity and a desire to not screw up, why do we request that
> | users submit context diffs instead of unified diffs?  I've been having
> | a hellish time getting certain patches to apply, and am thinking that it
> | might be because I've generated them with -u3 instead of -c3.
> 
> I dunno. Personnally, I find -p much readable.

some reasons, in no particular order:

Context diffs can be hand-edited even when the sources have been updated. 
Since gcc/libstdc++ are quickly-moving targets, this is an advantage. 
This also makes the mailing lists into a patch archive, which is of 
long-term archival interest.

-cp is also what g++ diffs use: since g++/libstc++ are essentially two 
sides of the GNU C++ toolchain, some level of procedural consistency is 
desired.

I find -cp diffs to be easier to review in in email form. 
This makes it easier for me to review patches. I know at least one other 
g++ maintainer that feels the same way.


-benjamin