Bug#40650: dpkg: Show diff when upgrading a conffile

[Martin Schulze <joey@tapiola.Infodrom.North.DE>]

Anders Hammarquist wrote:
> > >   When a modified conffile is updated, dpkg shows a prompt with the options
> > > (if I remember this correctly): "Y/N/Z".  I generally use the opportunity to
> > > execute the command 'diff -u conffile conffile.dpkg-dist |& less' and see what
> > > would change if I entered "Y".  It would be incredibly useful if there were a
> > > "D" option which executed this command automatically, and however pasta-like
> > > dpkg's code is, I imagine that the following pseudocode would work:
> > >   if (userchoice == 'D')
> > >     {
> > >       char *temp=malloc(200+2*strlen(conffilename));
> > >       sprintf("diff -u %s %s.dpkg-dist 2>&1 | less",temp);
> > >       system(temp);
> > >       free(temp);
> > >     }
> > 
> > Better use less -E so you won't end up *in* less until the diff is bigger
> > than your screen size.  It's an interesting feature request and I guess
> > that I would like it.
> 
> Better yet, use sensible-pager (not everyone has less installed).
> less -E has "interesting" effects in xterms (and other terminals with
> an alternate buffer), so you really don't want to do that.

Agreed.

Regards,

	Joey

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