retitle 417932 running debdiff on .orig.tar.gz and .diff.gz
stop
I suppose it depends on the exact package and the way the changes are
done; lenghty details follow.
I can understand why it's useful to diff the tarball AND the .diff.gz
when:
- this is a new upstream release
- some changes are done directly in the .diff.gz and not via
debian/patches and hence might move between the diff and tarball
I use debdiff in a number of cases on *.changes or *.deb between
uploads of my packages, but I would like to use debdiff when I'm
sending patches to the security team (I currently use interdiff), when
I'm preparing a NMU (I'm using nmudiff, but often save the file and
exit Mutt to check it), and when I'm reviewing packages to sponsor.
The reason I've asked for the change is mostly for the last use case
where I basically mirror my own way of preparing a new upstream
release: I diff the upstream tarballs and do the related packaging
changes. When I'm asked to sponsor a new upstream release, I'll
typically depack both upstream tarball, diff them manually, then I'll
try to diff the two .diff.gz via interdiff or if this fails diff the
two unpacked debian/.
I understand why some person would find the current behavior
interesting, so I retract my initial request and propose an alternate
change instead: allow to run debdiff on tarballs and on .diff.gz files.
This would save me from unpacking the upstream tarball alone (which
often requires wiping an unpacked package tree), and from diffing and
interdiffing manually with the proper options. I would then basically
adapt my uses to be:
debdiff <old>.orir.tar.gz <new>.orig.tar.gz
debdiff <old>.diff.gz <new>.diff.gz
While running debdiff on .dsc file will probably not be in my personal
interests, I suppose it could simply be the result of concatening the
results of the above two commands.
I hope I expressed my needs clearly enough and the propsal makes sense.