[darcs-users] Feature request: Print paths relative to the current directory

[Ben Franksen]

Hi Wolfgang

I agree wholeheartedly and would very much like a switch to turn on relative 
path names, as you propose. Please list me as supporter if you create a 
ticket.

Cheers
Ben

Wolfgang Dobler wrote:
> I haven't found an existing bug for the following, seemingly natural,
> feature request:
> 
> Suppose I have the following directory structure under revision control:
> 
>   level0/
>   |-- top-level.file
>   `-- level1/
>       `-- some.file
> 
> and some.file gets changes somehow without my revision control system
> knowing yet.
> 
> I cd to level1, ask about changed files, and record the change. In CVS,
> SVN or git, this looks like
> 
>   cd level0/level1
>   svn status
>   # prints:
>   # M       some.file
>   svn commit some.file
> 
> In darcs, however, we have
> 
>   cd level0/level1
>   darcs whatsnew
>   # M ./level1/some.file -1 +1
>   darcs record ./some.file
> 
> Being both lazy and afraid to mistype filenames, I am used to copy and
> paste the file name in question, which works fine for CVS/SVN/git. For
> darcs however, I thus get
> 
>   darcs record ./level1/some.file
>   # WARNING: File 'level1/level1/some.file' does not exist!
>   # Recording changes in "level1/level1/some.file":
>   #
>   # darcs failed:  None of the files you specified exist!
> 
> So my workflow involves two more steps: curse loudly, then strip the file
> name (with an extra iteration if I am yet deeper in a darcs working
> directory and don't get the stripping right at my first attempt).
> 
> I much prefer the other VCs' presentation here. With git, my
> copy-and-paste approach works even when top-level.file gets changed:
> 
>   cd level0/level1
>   git status
>   #       modified:   ../top-level.file
>   git commit ../top-level.file
> 
> 
> Now there probably are some reasons for darcs' design, and we certainly
> cannot simply change the default behaviour. But I would like to see a flag
> (that I can put in my ~/.darcs/defaults) giving me git's file name
> handling here:
> 
>   cd level0/level1
>   darcs whatsnew --relative-filenames
>   # M ./some.file -1 +1
>   # M ../top-level.file -2 +17
>   darcs record ./some.file ../top-level.file
> 
> 
> If others have been missing this feature, too, I'll submit a ticket.
> 
> 
> W o l f g a n g