Re: [PATCH 1/4] diff/xdiff: refactor EOF-EOL detection

[Jeff King <peff@peff.net>]

On Sun, Jun 06, 2010 at 11:01:02AM +0200, Johannes Sixt wrote:

> > Peff uses --textconv to show changes to the exif information on his
> > photo collections.  If he has any symlinks, and if he finds that
> > removal of "\No newline" is a regression and not an improvement,
> > what recourse does your patch give him?  Saying --no-textconv to
> > work around that regression is not a solution, isn't it?
> 
> Oh, I'm pretty sure that Peff wouldn't use --textconv on his
> repository if he cared that diffs contained complete reproducible
> information.

How did my name get dragged into this? ;P

No, I wouldn't use textconv if I cared that my diffs contained complete
reproducible information. But I think Junio's point is that the presence
of that information is valuable to some users to read, regardless of
applying patches. That is, I took his message to mean that he would want
to have this feature off, even for human viewing of the diff. And there
would be no way to turn off this feature, but not textconv.

I don't necessarily agree with that; I don't personally care when
viewing a symlink diff whether that line is there or not. But if there
are people who do, then you have left them with no way out.

-Peff