Re: git-diff on touched files: bug or feature?

From: Joel Reed <joelwreed@gmail.com>
Date: Aug 2, 2007, 13:25 UTC
Message-ID: <20070802132541.GA9247@localdomain>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0708021315510.14781@racer.site>

On Thu, Aug 02, 2007 at 01:19:55PM +0100, Johannes Schindelin wrote:

<snip>

Show 9 quoted lines

> For performance reasons, git always compares the files' stat information 
> with that stored in the index.
> 
> By updating the file, you make that check fail always.
> 
> Without updating the index (which is not a read-only operation, and 
> therefore must not be done when doing a read-only operation like diff), 
> you will therefore _destroy_ the main reason of git's kick-ass 
> performance.

The idea that read-only operation like diff shouldn't update the index makes a lot of sense.

But, as a user of git and not a git developer, I certainly _thought_ that git-status was a read-only operation as well. Now I know it isn't, but this doesn't seem very consistent.

jr