diff --diff-options argument ignored

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Jelmer Vernooij wrote:
> According documentation the argument --diff-options should be passed
> to the
> external diff program, but they aren't.

Yes they are.

As you may recall, diff --diff-options has been with us for many years,
and continues to work the same as it always has. It has nothing to do
with --using, except that they are mutually exclusive options.

$ bzr diff --diff-options -c
=== modified file 'baz'
*** baz 2008-05-25 07:31:25 +0000
- --- baz 2008-05-25 07:31:39 +0000
***************
*** 1 ****
! bar
- --- 1 ----
! qux

The --using option already allows command options to be specified, so
there's no reason why it would need to support --diff-options.

$ bzr diff --using 'diff -c'
=== modified file 'baz'
*** old/baz 2008-05-25 03:31:25.000000000 -0400
- --- new/baz 2008-05-25 03:31:39.000000000 -0400
***************
*** 1 ****
! bar
- --- 1 ----
! qux

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Hi,

I'm closing this report at Aaron's suggestion
(Won't FIx as it could be possible to support
both at once)

I'll deal with the Debian bug report.

Thanks,

James

bzr should error out if both --using and --diff-options are used.

I reopen this bug. Not only it should print an error when two options are mutually exclusive, but also the documentation should not state quite the opposite:
"--diff-options=ARG Pass these options to the *external* diff program."

Notice the *external* word. It clearly says that this option should be used with conjunction with the --using option to specify external diff's options, not the internal one. The documentation is extremely misleading.

I have just spent 30minutes wondering why the heck my bzr diff doesn't work with external diff correctly. Have I not found this bug by a clear coincidence, I wouldn't have solved it.

This just bit me too. It's very unclear that --using and --diff-options are unrelated.

I think we should definitely at least give an error.

I don't see why insisting on '--using cdiff --diff-options -x' is actually helping anyone. Perhaps if both are given, the options should be appended to the command line. --using could come from a configuration option or alias but the user may wish to give more options.