Hi,
GNU time's texinfo documentation copies GNU hello's "Reporting bugs"
node, because it is good general advice for reporting bugs. However, I
noticed that the @pxref leads to nowhere. That is, using this command:
$ info '(hello)Reporting bugs'
You won't be able to click the reference to diffutils manual. This can
also be seen with this warning:
$ make html V=0
Making html in po
make[1]: Entering directory '/home/collin/.local/src/hello/po'
make[1]: Nothing to be done for 'html'.
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/collin/.local/src/hello/po'
make[1]: Entering directory '/home/collin/.local/src/hello'
MAKEINFO doc/hello.html
hello.texi:305: warning: no htmlxref.cnf entry found for `diff'
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/collin/.local/src/hello'
The simple fix is to change the @pxref to this:
@pxref{Top,, Diff, diffutils, Comparing and Merging Files}
However, I noticed that the suggestion into the manual is to use
'diff -c'. I assume this was written in the CVS days, since git users
will be much more accustomed used to 'diff -u'.
How about we suggest 'git format-patch' instead? For most projects which
use 'git' that is the common way to do things. It is nice for
maintainers since it preserves authorship when applying with 'git am'.
Proposed patch attached.
Collin
>From cfb2dccbdfbdf035e00010b29ed1120c136610c7 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
Message-ID: <cfb2dccbdfbdf035e00010b29ed1120c136610c7.1769313076.git.collin.fu...@gmail.com>
From: Collin Funk <[email protected]>
Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2026 19:40:41 -0800
Subject: [PATCH] doc: suggest 'git format-patch' for contributing changes
* doc/hello.texi (Reporting bugs): Suggest 'git format-patch' instead of
'diff -c' for contributing patches.
---
doc/hello.texi | 8 ++++----
1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
diff --git a/doc/hello.texi b/doc/hello.texi
index 6aabd64..e3a2353 100644
--- a/doc/hello.texi
+++ b/doc/hello.texi
@@ -301,10 +301,10 @@ @node Reporting bugs
better to include too much than to leave out something important.
@cindex patches, contributing
-Patches are welcome; if possible, please make them with @samp{@w{diff
--c}} (@pxref{Top,, Overview, diff, Comparing and Merging Files}) and
-include @file{ChangeLog} entries (@pxref{Change Log,,, emacs, The GNU
-Emacs Manual}). Please follow the existing coding style.
+Patches are welcome; if possible, please make them with @samp{@w{git
+format-patch}} and include @file{ChangeLog} entries (@pxref{Change
+Log,,, emacs, The GNU Emacs Manual}). Please follow the existing coding
+style.
@node GNU Free Documentation License
--
2.52.0
