On Tue, 4 Oct 2005, Magnus Damm wrote:
>
> Huh, I thought that the first line in a unified patch started with
> "---", and that the lines above were treated as garbage.
Indeed, that's true of traditional unified diffs. That's why my tools
started using "---" in the first place. Cutting off at the "---" means
that it's _guaranteed_ that we never include any valid patch in the
description by mistake rather than applying it.
And I _used_ to just hand-edit emails so that things like "Please apply"
and "Thanks", and "diff -urN" didn't show up.
However, note that "git diffs" can actually contain renames, so a git diff
may have relevant stuff before the "---". For example:
diff --git a/arch/v850/kernel/asm-consts.c b/arch/v850/kernel/asm-offsets.c
similarity index 100%
rename from arch/v850/kernel/asm-consts.c
rename to arch/v850/kernel/asm-offsets.c
diff --git a/arch/v850/kernel/entry.S b/arch/v850/kernel/entry.S
--- a/arch/v850/kernel/entry.S
+++ b/arch/v850/kernel/entry.S
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
#include <asm/irq.h>
#include <asm/errno.h>
-#include <asm/asm-consts.h>
+#include <asm/asm-offsets.h>
/* Make a slightly more convenient alias for C_SYMBOL_NAME. */
is a real diff as far as git is concerned, and is obviously much more
readable (and much more compact) than the traditional broken "delete file
and re-create it under another name" kind of diff.
So "^diff --git " is actually the real marker for where a git diff starts.
> Relying on "diff -" or "Index: " seems wrong. Try diffing two files by
> "diff -u file1 file2" and look at the output - the first line is
> "---"... This extra "---" you are proposing seems like a workaround to
> me.
With traditional unified patches nothing _relies_ of "diff -" or "Index:",
exactly because "---" is _always_ seen as the beginning of the patch. But
even then the patch applicator often wants to see the "diff -" or "Index:"
line, because it can use them to disambiguate file names.
So there are real _technical_ reasons so make sure that we know where the
diff starts, and "---" is a good marker, because it's a marker that is
guaranteed to be there, regardless.
But even apart from those technical reasons, I don't want the first "diff
-urN ..." or "Index:" line to show up as a commit message. So the tools
will _also_ break the commit messages at those markers, but that's a hack.
So the _real_ rule is that we break at "---". No ifs, buts, or maybes. And
no, it's not "extra" or "optional" or "unnecessary".
And it also allows people to put extra commentary, like a diffstat, or a
private message to me about why I should apply the patch.
Linus
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to [email protected]
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
[Index of Archives]
[Kernel Newbies]
[Netfilter]
[Bugtraq]
[Photo]
[Stuff]
[Gimp]
[Yosemite News]
[MIPS Linux]
[ARM Linux]
[Linux Security]
[Linux RAID]
[Video 4 Linux]
[Linux for the blind]
[Linux Resources]
