Re: [PATCH 3/3] format-patch: --no-clobber refrains from overwriting output files

From: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date: Feb 23, 2019, 13:34 UTC
Message-ID: <20190223133418.GD22403@sigill.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To: <20190222201111.98196-4-gitster@pobox.com>

On Fri, Feb 22, 2019 at 12:11:11PM -0800, Junio C Hamano wrote:

Show 12 quoted lines

> If you keep an output for an older iteration of the same topic in
> the same directory around and use "git format-patch" to prepare a
> newer iteration of the topic, those commits that happen to be at the
> same position in the series that have not been retitled will get the
> same filename---and the command opens them for writing without any
> check.
> 
> Existing "-o outdir" and "-v number" options are both good ways to
> avoid such name collisions, and in general helps to give good ways
> to compare the latest iteration with older iteration(s), but let's
> see if "--no-clobber" option that forbids overwrting existing files
> would also help people.

I suspect it won't help much, because remembering to use --no-clobber is just as hard as remembering to clean up the stale patches in the first place.

If we were starting from scratch, I'd suggest that --no-clobber be the default[1]. But at this point I wonder if people would be annoyed (because the clobbering behavior is convenient and works _most_ of the time, as long as you don't add, remove, reorder, or retitle patches).

I suppose that implies having a config option, so at least people who want it only have to remember once.

>  Documentation/git-format-patch.txt |  8 +++++++-
>  builtin/log.c                      | 32 ++++++++++++++++++++++++------
>  t/t4014-format-patch.sh            | 16 +++++++++++++++
>  3 files changed, 49 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

The patch itself looks well done.

-Peff

[1] Actually, I'd suggest that --stdout be the default, which is what I
    always use. But then I typically feed the result into mutt anyway.
    Separate files is probably nicer if you're hand-editing.