cdiff command name conflicts with colordiff

[AloisMahdal]

cdiff is great, I already got pretty much used to it. Today I was considering making an unofficial RPM package for it. However. it turns out the cdiff binary conflicts with a binary of the same name provided by colordiff package.

What now? Should we give cdiff an alternate name?

[ymattw]

Hi, I guess the name conflict is not a rare case, please just follow whatever existing convention for such case. I am totally ok with an alternate name. BTW cdiff should cover all features of colordiff, you may also consider give colordiff an alternate name :D.

[AloisMahdal]

Well, I'm not sure how rare, but I guess not common, since (IMO) it's better to have unique name. It helps promote and support the project (you don't have to clarify you mean another cdiff) and helps users who already use the other cdiff and would like to install your program.

IOW, the best way seems to be to rename the binary, once and for all, to something that is free in all major distributions. Also that's what Fedora packaging guide says.

I know, it might be too much to ask, but to me it seems better than the other two options: use alternate name and keep explaining and clarifying ad nauseam, or just avoid major distributions.

(And yeah, colordiff's cdiff binary has been in Fedora for at least 12 years (could be more as 12yrs is most I can look up), so I don't think it would be polite to ask them to rename it :-))

[amirouche]

xdiff is a good name. Like the best diff tool around.

[AloisMahdal]

OK, /usr/bin/xdiff seems to be free on Fedora and Debian. At first search, closest possible confusion seems to be xxdiff, which is a GUI diff tool in Debian and Fedora, and a PHP extension called xdiff.

[AloisMahdal]

What about ymdiff ("@ymattw's diff")? Search does not bring anything anywhere.

[gwerbin]

Yet another reason to change the name: "c-diff" is medical slang for Clostridium difficile, a nasty gastrointestinal bacterium. Trust me, you don't want to name your program after C. difficile.

I also wouldn't recommend xdiff because it's apparently taken by LibXDiff.

I vote for either ymdiff, or even just ydiff which is:

1. a tribute to your username
2. is just one letter off from xdiff
3. kind of skeumorphic because if you squint really hard the letter "Y" suggests "side-by-side-ness" and "merging two things together", which are apropos for this program.

[AloisMahdal]

Any progress on this? I know it would be a tough change, but IMO worth it to give this project a unique standing.

(BTW today I discovered git --word-diff and it's cool but cdiff/ymdiff still performs better in many cases!)

[ymattw]

I tend to use ydiff (similar to diff -y for side-by-side view). Could you confirm this is still not taken in Fedora package index?

[ymattw]

I was stuck at work so took sometime fixing this :P. Pypi package has been updated, homebrew Formula renaming is pending for review.

[AloisMahdal]

OK, I tried looking for:

• spec file repo on Fedora (http://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/ydiff/),
• ydiff bin in Fedora (dnf provides '*bin/ydiff'),
• ydiff package on Debian (web package search and rmadison ydiff),
• ydiff file in Debian (web package search).

No results found for any of these. I have no idea how to check other distros.

[AloisMahdal]

OTOH, simple duckduckgogo search gave me:

• https://github.com/bartuer/ydiff "a language-aware tool for comparing programs"

• https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5767664

  5 years old and contains dead link

OT-yet-another-H, ymdiff only gives irrelevant results (eg. 'ymdiff' being typo or some code) and 4th result is this PR! :)

[ymattw]

Thanks for the info. I guess it's not possible to find a unique project / binary name yet relevant and meaningful (ymdiff is not meaningful). I am fine with other ydiff projects (pretty dead and not well maintained). Look like we do not have conflict with ydiff on major distros. I've committed the changes anyway ;).

[ymattw]

This was fixed in version 1.1.