aside on patch and context diffs

[Chris Torek]

In article <23142 at bu-cs.BU.EDU> bzs at bu-cs.BU.EDU (Barry Shein) writes:
>... 'patch' can take a context input but that's irrelevant, it hardly
>needs nor prefers a context diff to my knowledge, it's just being
>accomodating so humans can look at the context diff if something
>botches.

There is another very good reason to use context diffs with patch,
and that is that a one-line change (e.g., fixing a comment) can break
a non-context diff too easily.  (Also, I like to scan the diffs myself
before applying them; it catches a number of bugs handily.)
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain:	chris at mimsy.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris