From: Andreas Gruenbacher <agruen@suse.de>
Date: Sat, 17 Apr 2010 14:24:17 GMT
Subject: [BUG] Git add <device file> silently fails
Message-ID: <201004171624.17797.agruen@suse.de>

Hello,

there is code in read-cache.c:add_to_index() which checks if a file to be 
added is a regular file, directory, or symlink; this function otherwise 
error()s out.  It looks as if add_to_index() is supposed to be called via:

  builtin/add.c:update_callback() ->
    read-cache.c:add_file_to_index() ->
      read-cache.c:add_to_index()

However, when trying to add a device special file, update_callback() ends up 
never getting called, no error message is produced, and git add silently 
fails:

	$ sudo mknod foobar c 1 3
	$ git add foobar
   $ echo $?
	0

Maybe someone familiar with run_diff_files() can have a look?

Thanks,
Andreas