From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Nov 28 10:03:25 2007 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C280C16A417 for ; Wed, 28 Nov 2007 10:03:25 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from xfb52@dial.pipex.com) Received: from blaster.systems.pipex.net (blaster.systems.pipex.net [62.241.163.7]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8685F13C442 for ; Wed, 28 Nov 2007 10:03:25 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from xfb52@dial.pipex.com) Received: from [192.168.23.2] (62-31-10-181.cable.ubr05.edin.blueyonder.co.uk [62.31.10.181]) by blaster.systems.pipex.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id A77B5E000781; Wed, 28 Nov 2007 10:03:22 +0000 (GMT) Message-ID: <474D3CEA.2020505@dial.pipex.com> Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2007 10:03:22 +0000 From: Alex Zbyslaw User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-GB; rv:1.7.13) Gecko/20061205 X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Chuck Robey References: <539c60b90711271248o6eb0b9fw757e40fbcdfdb3c2@mail.gmail.com> <20071127151259.H27150@wonkity.com> <474CA85D.6080501@chuckr.org> In-Reply-To: <474CA85D.6080501@chuckr.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: User Questions Subject: Re: how to compile and install a new driver X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2007 10:03:25 -0000 Chuck Robey wrote: > Nice description, but you'd better include enough info so that they > could make FreeBSD-stype diffs: diff has the unfortunate default of > making an output that is compatible with ed(1). This supplies > extremely little information to use, in case the file you're trying to > patch with that diff has changed, and is also damned hard for mere > humans to understand. There are two other options you can give to > diff that change the format: -c gives "context" diffs, and -u gives > "unified" diffs, and the -u is the option that is standard with FreeBSD. It's not FreeBSD's default, it's POSIX's and has been the default behaviour of diff since forever (i.e. before -c or -u had even been invented); it is also the default behaviour of diff on every version of Linux I've ever used as well and probably every unix-like box you can get your hands on. Backwards compatibility *is* a wonderful thing. -u is a newbie to the diff world of options and is the strongly *preferred* way of providing patches, and probably not just for FreeBSD. It's generally the easiest for humans to read and the best for general use, though -c isn't that hard either and can sometimes be easier to comprehend. --Alex