[Gnu-arch-users] Re: 'arch send' format

[Stefan Monnier]

>> We could have a shell script with a normal patch that shows changes within
>> files. For representing changes to the file structure (like renames,
>> deletes, etc.), we could put shell commands like "mv foo.h bar.h" and so
>> on, so that patches created by people using arch for people using other
>> systems (or even arch, but don't want to "get" the changesets from some
>> archive) can be applied normally.

> People always suggest this when the topic comes up, and it seems like
> a really bad idea to me; it's just too dangerous for people to get in
> the habit of running shell scripts they receive.

Agreed.  Also there's the issue of swaps:

   A => B
   B => A

in a shell script it'd have to be written as

   mv A tmp
   mv B A
   mv tmp B

which is much more difficult to understand (especially when it all gets
mixed in with other swaps and whatever else).

I think the only valid reason not to just use a tarball is because you want
the patch to be readable by a human (which I agree is a very important
property, otherwise I wouldn't have written diff-mode ;-), so clarity is
much more important than "can I easily apply it automatically even if
I don't have tla installed" ?


        Stefan