Re: bug: git-diff silently fails when run outside of a repository (v1.5.4.2)

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Apr 29, 2008, 22:53 UTC
Message-ID: <7vabjc5l3r.fsf@gitster.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <3c6c07c20804291304n36976417wf3c2a13303aa3133@mail.gmail.com>

"Mike Coleman" <tutufan@gmail.com> writes:

> At least in version 1.5.4.2, git-diff silently fails when not run
> inside a repository.  It should give an error diagnostic, especially
> since "no output" would otherwise be a meaningful response.

Unfortunately this does not have enough information to go by, as unlike many other programs, "git diff" contains a hack to be usable as a better (for certain definition of "better" I may not necessarily agree with) GNU diff replacement when run outside a repository.

i.e.

	mkdir -p /var/tmp/junk
        cd /var/tmp/junk
        rm -fr .git ;# make sure it is not a repository
	echo >a hello
        echo >b world
	git diff --color a b

is supposed to work.