Re: [bug?] git-format-patch produces a 0-byte long patch for the first commit

From: Thomas Rast <trast@student.ethz.ch>
Date: Mar 23, 2009, 16:29 UTC
Message-ID: <200903231729.08216.trast@student.ethz.ch>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0903231119110.4871@axis700.grange>

Guennadi Liakhovetski wrote:

Show 5 quoted lines

> mkdir x
> cd x
> git-init
> echo hi > greating
> git-commit -a

[...]

> git-format-patch HEAD^ produces an error,

There is no HEAD^ in this case. HEAD is always the currently checked out commit. Since it has a root commit, it has no parent, so you cannot apply ^ ("the first parent of") to it. Similarly, HEAD~2 will not work if HEAD~1 has no parent, etc.

> git-format-patch -1 produces a 0-byte long patch.

That is admittedly weird and probably deserves a fix and/or suggestion to use --root.

I'm not sure what else I can add to the explanations I gave on IRC.

-- 
Thomas Rast
trast@{inf,student}.ethz.ch