Re: [PATCH] Re-re-re-fix common tail optimization

[Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de>]

Hi,

On Mon, 17 Dec 2007, Junio C Hamano wrote:

> Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de> writes:
> 
> >> >> But as at least one released version of GNU diff has a pretty 
> >> >> serious bug, I would rather not rely too much on diff.  (BTW this 
> >> >> was the reason I wanted --no-index so badly.)
> >> >>
> >> >> So yeah, the second "diff" cannot be "git diff".  Maybe "cmp", but 
> >> >> not "git diff".
> >> > 
> >> > Well cmp would be fine as well, seeing all we want is a boolean "is 
> >> > this the same or not" answer. (I'm not familiar with the GNU diff 
> >> > bug you speak of, but was it so bad that it couldn't even get 
> >> > *that* answer right?)
> >> 
> >> Heh, there's at least one distribution out there (Suse 10.1) that 
> >> comes with a *cmp* that doesn't get that answer right if its output 
> >> is connected to /dev/null, which is the case when you simply 'make 
> >> test'.
> >
> > Yeah.  That's what it was.  I even posted a patch to GNU diff, only to 
> > find out that it was already fixed in CVS.  Sigh.
> 
> Wait.  Are you still talking about diff or cmp, or are you saying that 
> your earlier statement about avoiding GNU diff due to its bugs is 
> unfounded?

I do not remember offhand.  I only remembered that it was the GNU diff 
package.  But maybe it was only the "cmp" tool.  Symptoms were that tests 
were failing without "-i", but succeeding with "-i".

Okay, I found the mail:

http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/25107/match=cmp

Seems it was only "cmp".

Sorry for the noise,
Dscho