DistDiff - visualizing changes in Linux Distros

It isn't really easy to release stable updates for Linux distribution. You have to check, that all applications will work properly after update. They can be divided into two big groups: basic (from distribution) and personal (installed by user from other sources). Basic apps could be easily checked by installing them into updated distribution. Then they are checked manually. But we don't know anything about applications from second group. So, you have to not only check efficiency of them, but have to watch list of all changes in packages.

Compatibility of changes in system libraries can be checked with tool ABI Compliance Checker. To check changes in other packages we have developed tool DistDiff. It helps visualize changes in all packages of distribution and quickly look through them for violations of the compatibility. You have to input into tool only two directories: with old and new packages. In default mode tool checks changes in interface files (libraries, modules, scripts and others), which can potentially affect on compatibility. It can also check all files with option "-all-files".

It is based on tool we have developed earlier PkgDiff. It was also developed to visualize and compare changes in packages.

— Andrey.ponomarenko (talk) • 16:02, 13 May 2013 • no comments

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