Re: Bug#286938: diff: could support comparison among remote files (fwd)

[Bob Proulx]

Patricio Rojo wrote:
> I actually agree with you now... It was just that because of the pretty
> standard use of that syntax in many programs I thought that there was
> some friendly library that could have taken care of opening the right
> input or output data stream.

Libraries are part of the program.  Even as a library used by the
program it "bloats" it.

> Maybe now a version of the script that Bob indicates can be included in
> the diff package as rdiff.sh or something like it? I don't know whether
> that will require too much extra and unnecessary maintenance work,
> though.

Personally, I would not include it.  Better as a personal preference
than as something that would be good for the general population.  But
thanks for the vote of confidence in my quick hack anyway.

> Anyways, thanks for your help and for considering my propositions:)...

I like Andreas's comment:

Andreas Schwab wrote:
>    diff file.txt <(ssh mycomp.mynet.com cat /tmp/file.txt)

That allows URLs to be used when used with wget and other 'net aware
programs.  Consider the following expansion on the above idea.

  diff file.txt <(wget -O- http://mycomp.mynet.com/file.txt)

Run any command with generic URLs!

Bob