Re: why do people introduce stup^Wstrange changes to quilt 3.0 format
Norbert Preining <preining@logic.at> writes:
> Is there a rational behind not allowing any fuzz?
Fuzz indicates that the source file has changed since the patch has been
generated, which means that the patch may no longer apply properly. Fuzz
is a guess of convenience by the patch program that the result is
*probably* what was intended.
But fuzz indicates there may be a problem; for example, I've seen patches
apply with fuzz that add duplicate lines to a file (because the lines were
added upstream in a different location), resulting in everything from
compilation errors to serious hidden bugs in the program.
Therefore, I think it makes sense to require the maintainer to confirm
that, yes, the patch applied with fuzz still makes the correct change and
isn't indicative of an error. A good way to indicate that is to unfuzz
the patch.
--
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
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