Subject: Re: [PATCH] range-diff: add a --no-patch option to show a summary

From: Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 05 Nov 2018 22:00:59 +0100

On Mon, Nov 05 2018, Eric Sunshine wrote:

> On Mon, Nov 5, 2018 at 3:07 PM Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <[email-masked]> wrote:
>> Add a --no-patch option which shows which changes got removed, added
>> or moved etc., without showing the diff associated with them.
>
> This option existed in the very first version[1] of range-diff (then
> called branch-diff) implemented by Dscho, although it was called
> --no-patches (with an "es"), which it inherited from tbdiff. I think
> someone (possibly me) pointed out that --no-patch (sans "es") would be
> more consistent with existing Git options. I don't recall why Dscho
> removed the option during the re-rolls, but the explanation may be in
> that thread.

Thanks for digging. Big thread, not going to re-read it now. I'd just
like to have this.

> I was also wondering if --summarize or --summary-only might be a
> better name, describing the behavior at a higher level, but since
> there is precedent for --no-patch (or --no-patches in tbdiff), perhaps
> the name is fine as is.

I think we should aim to keep a 1=1 mapping between range-diff and
log/show options when possible, even though the output might have a
slightly different flavor as my 4th paragraph discussing a potential
--stat talks about.

E.g. I can imagine that range-diff --no-patch --stat --summary would not
show the patch, but a stat as described there, plus e.g. a "create
mode..." if applicable.

This change implements only a tiny fraction of that, but it would be
very neat if we supported more stuff, and showed it in range-diff-y way,
e.g. some compact format showing:

    1 file changed, 3->2 insertions(+), 10->9 deletions(-)
    create mode 100(6 -> 7)44 new-executable

> The patch itself looks okay.
>
> [1]: https://public-inbox.org/git/8bc517e35d4[email-masked]/