Explain the numbers next to file names on MR diffs
As part of tracking down a large file that was accidentally added to the www-gitlab-com
repo, I ended up reviewing Quick action to set issue type as incident upon... (gitlab-com/www-gitlab-com!117922 - merged) to see what had happened. On the Changes tab, next to each file's name, there was a set of numbers. I've highlighted them in this screencap:
In this case, it's 0 → 100644
. I moused over these numbers, expecting a tooltip or an explanation, but there's nothing. It was mystery meat until @phikai and @jay_mccure clued me in: it's a permission setting.
I'll happily document whatever we do, obviously!
Proposal
- Proposal 1: Add a tooltip explaining what the numbers mean.
-
Proposal 2: why not display clear words instead of numbers? If the numbers never change,
(new file)
would make a LOT more sense to me than100644
(though now that I know, I recognize the number forRW-R--R--
).
Extra credit
The lines added / removed, just to the right of these numbers, also need tooltips. I recognize what they are, but from accessibility and UX standpoints a tooltip or some kind of cue would help newer users.
Related to Show file sizes for large binary files in MR diffs (#396636), the other issue I filed after stumbling around.