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:

mr-numbers

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 than 100644 (though now that I know, I recognize the number for RW-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 - closed), the other issue I filed after stumbling around.

Edited by Amy Qualls