Re: [RFC] patch's default backup behavior

On Fri, Apr 8, 2022, 9:26 PM Kyle Evans <kevans@freebsd.org> wrote:

> Hello!
>
> FreeBSD's patch follows historical patch(1) behavior w.r.t. backups,
> where a backup is created for every file patched.
>
> I'd like to test the waters on switching this to the GNU behavior,
> which feels a whole lot more reasonable. Notably, they'll only create
> backup files if a mismatch was detected (presumably this means either
> a hunk needed fuzz or a hunk outright failed). This yields far fewer
> backup files in the ideal scenario (context entirely matches), while
> still leaving backup files when it's sensible (base file changed and
> we might want to regenerate the patch).
>
> Thoughts / comments / concerns? Cross-posted this to a couple of
> different lists to try and hit the largest number of stakeholders in
> patch(1) behavior.
>

Could one select the old behavior? Or would it just be a change? A new -V
value?

I like the Idea.

Warner

Thanks,
>
> Kyle Evans
>
>