Bug#1123807: diffoscope on *.changes should list changes/dsc/buildinfo differences first

[Otto Kekäläinen]

Package: diffoscope
Version: 309
Severity: wishlist

When using diffoscope to compare the .changes files of a old and new
version of a package, could the output list the differences so that
these files are prioritized and first in the e.g. the HTML report:

1. .changes
2. .dsc
3. .buildinfo
4. .debian.tar.cxz
5. upstream .tar.gz
6. everything else (.deb files)

As a person reading the diffoscope report, it would make sense to read
first the overall information, then the changes in the Debian sources,
then upstream source changes (if any) and only after that the changes
in the resulting .deb files, control files, binaries etc

The main motivation here is to align with typical workflow of a
maintainer comparing changes before and after, where the top-level
changes are more important than every single binary file change.

Additionally, if .changes comparisons would be prioritized like this,
it would have the extra benefit of ensuring that the top-level
information is always diffed, and if the package is large with lots of
binaries and the --timeout is used and it takes along time, the report
would at least have all the important stuff and only secondary .deb
binary differences would be omitted.

By the way, the new experimental timeout feature is great, I am now
using it all the time!
(https://manpages.debian.org/unstable/diffoscope-minimal/diffoscope.1.en.html#timeout)