I have a few devices running Arch… Rasperrys, laptops, a NAS, etc

After an update I’ll run pacdiff to check for any updated configurations to look out for.

On the laptops I’ll use meld to compare and it’s nice to visually pick and choose what to update.

But for the headless units, I’m using vimdiff and it’s sometimes difficult to see what to change - esp. when a few lines in a block of changes needs picking and choosing.

What other approaches are you using for this?

  • @Andy
    3•10 months ago

    meld really is my favorite, but there’s also mcdiff from mc, in combination with your editor of choice (use_internal_edit=false). If you can like the internal editor, though, that’s got to be a better experience.

    I find a bunch of the themes are unreadable, so am rotating and eliminating with this Zsh function:

    mcdiff () {
  emulate -L zsh

  local skins=(
    gotar
    gray-green-purple256
    modarin256-defbg
    modarin256
    modarin256root-defbg
    modarin256root
    sand256
    seasons-autumn16M
    seasons-spring16M
    seasons-summer16M
    seasons-winter16M
    xoria256
    yadt256-defbg
    yadt256
  )

  local skin=${skins[RANDOM % $#skins + 1]}

  print -rl -- "Using skin: $skin:t:r"
  =mcdiff -c -S $skin $@
}

    For a non-interactive diff viewer I find riff’s output pretty legible.

    Other than that, I’ve used a combination of tools with a broot config to browse and manage the diffs…

    • SayCyberOnceMoreOPEnglish
      3•10 months ago

      Thanks. Interesting points to look at there. I like the look of riff for config comparison we do at work too - thanks!