From: Jeff King Date: Tue, 03 Sep 2013 07:12:56 GMT Subject: Re: [PATCH 3/4] t: rev-parse-parents: avoid yoda conditions Message-ID: <20130903071256.GD3608@sigill.intra.peff.net> In-Reply-To: <1378103439-3225-4-git-send-email-felipe.contreras@gmail.com> On Mon, Sep 02, 2013 at 01:30:38AM -0500, Felipe Contreras wrote: > Just as 5 == X is weird, so is comparing first the expected value, and > then the value we are testing. So switch them around. Actually, our normal comparison order for test output is "test_cmp expect actual", as it shows a test failure as a diff with the expected output as the base (i.e., the diff shows what went wrong). That reasoning does not apply to "test a = b", which shows no output at all. However, if you want to clean up and modernize these tests, it would probably be better to simply convert them to use test_cmp. I wonder if we should have a: test_cmp_args () { echo "$1" >expect && echo "$1" >actual && test_cmp expect actual } to let these remain one-liners like: test_cmp_args "$(git rev-parse start)" "$(git rev-parse final^1^1^1)" -Peff