Re: [RFC] patch's default backup behavior

On Sun, Apr 10, 2022 at 10:48 AM Gary Jennejohn <gljennjohn@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Sun, 10 Apr 2022 10:21:56 -0500
> Kyle Evans <kevans@freebsd.org> wrote:
>
> > On Sun, Apr 10, 2022 at 5:33 AM Matthias Andree <matthias.andree@gmx.de> wrote:
> [big SNIP]
> > > I checked POSIX 2018, apparently the backup files (.orig) are only
> > > required if -b is given, so omitting them would seem fine to me, and the
> > > rationale section suggests that for consistency with other utilities,
> > > the default would be to NOT save .orig file, but the -b option can be
> > > used to request them being written (but then consistently on all files
> > > not just those without rejects - also because there is no working patch
> > > -R for ed-style diffs.).
> >
> > I'd actually be OK with that, too, to an extent.
> >
>
> Please do not change the behavior of the -b flag!  I make patches to
> /usr/src/ to eliminate things I don't want compiled in when I run
> buildkernel and buildworld and then move the resulting .orig backups
> to the original file names to eliminate those changes.
>

No one has proposed changing the behavior of the -b flag (that would
be silly), but rather the default behavior (sans -b flag). The -b flag
is the proposed solution to maintaining the status quo across such a
change if it happens.