Re: [PATCH 2/2] git-format-patch: Document format for binary patch

From: Bagas Sanjaya <bagasdotme@gmail.com>
Date: Mar 25, 2021, 06:22 UTC
Message-ID: <678c0fa9-8ae5-f8ae-b93a-3d68c7c11c8f@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqa6qszbdv.fsf@gitster.g>

On 25/03/21 00.53, Junio C Hamano wrote:

Show 19 quoted lines

> I do not think this is all that useful; it clutters the description
> for a reader who is not interested in reimplementing an encoder or a
> decoder from the document.
> 
> And it is way too insufficient for a reader who wants to reimplement
> an encoder or a decoder.  For example,
> 
>   - It does not say anything about what the delta is and how it is
>     computed.
> 
>   - The 'z' is redundant; the more important is to say that the first
>     byte signals how many bytes are on that line and it is a mere
>     artifact that we cram up to 52 bytes on a line.
> 
>   - It does not say anything about how the binary patch ensures that
>     it is reversible (i.e. can be given to "git apply -R").
> 
> Thanks.
>

Hmmm...

I write this patch from "naive" observation of git format-patch's behavior when given binary files in the commit.

Perhaps someone which is more familiar in base85 {en,de}coder and binary patch in general can write better documentation than what I send here.

-- 
An old man doll... just what I always wanted! - Clara