How do I get ediff-buffers3 to ignore space changes?

How do I get ediff-buffers3 to ignore space changes?

[Lennart Borgman]

I asked this before in another thread, but it seems quite hard so I am
making a new thread.

First: Is there anyone who actually have succeeded in getting
ediff-buffers3 to ignore white space changes? In that case how and on
what platform etc?

I thought that maybe it was something missing in the gnuwin32 port of
diff/diff3 (which are from 2004), but that does not seem to be the
case. I tried using cygwin's version and I see the same problem there.


This is a bit annoying for me. I am trying to merge some changes to
org.el. I get 1200 diffs. I can stand some hundreds, but not 1200.

Re: How do I get ediff-buffers3 to ignore space changes?

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Lennart Borgman <lennart.borgman@gmail.com>
> Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2011 22:29:48 +0100
> 
> First: Is there anyone who actually have succeeded in getting
> ediff-buffers3 to ignore white space changes?

Please explain what exactly you mean by "ignore white space changes".
What do you want Ediff to do for changes that involve white space?

Off-hand, I'd suggest to try using "-bBw" in the Diff switches.  But
if that doesn't do what you want, it means you didn't explain what you
expect to happen.

Re: How do I get ediff-buffers3 to ignore space changes?

[Lennart Borgman]

On Sat, Feb 5, 2011 at 10:09 AM, Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:
>> From: Lennart Borgman <lennart.borgman@gmail.com>
>> Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2011 22:29:48 +0100
>>
>> First: Is there anyone who actually have succeeded in getting
>> ediff-buffers3 to ignore white space changes?
>
> Please explain what exactly you mean by "ignore white space changes".

If there are only white space changes then I want ediff to not tell me
about this difference (and not show it).

> Off-hand, I'd suggest to try using "-bBw" in the Diff switches.  But
> if that doesn't do what you want, it means you didn't explain what you
> expect to happen.

It made no difference for ediff-buffers3. I still have 1200 diffs.

However when I try to run ediff-buffers (just two buffers) I now get
"invalid switch (shown in *ediff-errors*).

Those options I changed where `ediff-diff-options' and
`ediff-custom-diff-options'.

I am sorry but I do not understand what is unclear in my description.

Re: How do I get ediff-buffers3 to ignore space changes?

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Lennart Borgman <lennart.borgman@gmail.com>
> Date: Sun, 6 Feb 2011 15:46:37 +0100
> Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org
> 
> On Sat, Feb 5, 2011 at 10:09 AM, Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:
> >> From: Lennart Borgman <lennart.borgman@gmail.com>
> >> Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2011 22:29:48 +0100
> >>
> >> First: Is there anyone who actually have succeeded in getting
> >> ediff-buffers3 to ignore white space changes?
> >
> > Please explain what exactly you mean by "ignore white space changes".
> 
> If there are only white space changes then I want ediff to not tell me
> about this difference (and not show it).

What exactly does "only white space changes" mean?  Can you show an
example of two chunks of text that have "only white space changes"?

And btw, are the EOL formats of the buffers the same?

> > Off-hand, I'd suggest to try using "-bBw" in the Diff switches.  But
> > if that doesn't do what you want, it means you didn't explain what you
> > expect to happen.
> 
> It made no difference for ediff-buffers3. I still have 1200 diffs.

This invokes the diff3 command, which cannot ignore whitespace.
Sorry, I thought about ediff-buffers (just 2 buffers).

> However when I try to run ediff-buffers (just two buffers) I now get
> "invalid switch (shown in *ediff-errors*).

I don't see this error.  Maybe you should file a proper bug report.

Re: How do I get ediff-buffers3 to ignore space changes?

[Lennart Borgman]

On Sun, Feb 6, 2011 at 6:17 PM, Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:
>
> What exactly does "only white space changes" mean?  Can you show an
> example of two chunks of text that have "only white space changes"?

Just difference in tabs and/or spaces.

> And btw, are the EOL formats of the buffers the same?

All of them have unix EOL.

> This invokes the diff3 command, which cannot ignore whitespace.

Thanks, that is a problem.

>> However when I try to run ediff-buffers (just two buffers) I now get
>> "invalid switch (shown in *ediff-errors*).
>
> I don't see this error.  Maybe you should file a proper bug report.

Maybe. It turns out in the end that this is probably a problem with
tabs vs space. Do we have a policy for the Emacs repository regarding
tabs vs spaces?