textproc/xxdiff-scripts 4.0.1nb5 NetBSD

xxdiff is a computer program that allows a user (usually a software developer of some sort) to easily visualize the differences between files. The manner and goal for which this process is applied over multiple files is highly dependent on the application, and most of the time is driven by custom user scripts.

For example, a configuration management engineer in a company might provide some kind of merge policing environment, that allows software developers to review changes in files for the purpose of accepting or rejecting a submitted changeset to a codebase. Another example is that of a developer wishing to review the changes he made to a checkout of files from a source-code management system such as CVS, Subversion, ClearCase, Perforce, etc.

xxdiff has been developed in a corporate environment with hundreds of users. Over time, it has been progressively augmented with features to allow it to better interact with caller scripts, and many of Python scripts were provided as open source on the internet, to perform various common tasks. It was only natural that at some point in time common code between these programs should be shared in a library, and a Python package provided to ease the task of writing other, new, custom scripts.