Re: Please support add -p with a new file, to add only part of the file

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Jan 10, 2012, 19:33 UTC
Message-ID: <7vd3ar9wto.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <20120110183833.GA15787@sigill.intra.peff.net>

Jeff King <peff@peff.net> writes:

Show 6 quoted lines

>> Even if you start with "add -N", there won't be individual "hunks" you can
>> pick and choose from diffing emptiness and the whole new file, so you end
>> up using "edit hunk" interface.
>
> I don't think the main impetus for this is that people necessarily want
> to pick and choose hunks from added files.

Well, read the subject of your e-mail and tell me what it says ;-)

And that is why I was contrasting an imaginary workflow to use the existing "add -p" with requested "allow it to be used with new files" with what somebody may "emulate" without help from "add -p" machinery, which is:

	$ cp newfile.c newfile.c-saved
        $ edit newfile.c ;# delete all the things you do not want for now
        $ git add newfile.c
        $ mv newfile.c-saved newfile.c

I just had to point the above out, even though I agree with the use case you shown below for final verification. They are quite different topic, as "git diff" won't be very useful for 'inspect changes' step in the "new file" case to begin with.

Show 15 quoted lines

>   $ hack hack hack
>   $ git add -p ;# inspect and add changes
>   $ git commit
>
> which is very similar to the traditional git workflow:
>
>   $ hack hack hack
>   $ git diff ;# inspect changes
>   $ git add foo ;# add changes
>   $ git commit
>
> I find myself using "add -p" almost exclusively these days, as it
> combines the two middle steps (and even though I usually am just hitting
> "y" after inspection, when I _do_ want to make a change, I am right
> there in the hunk selection loop already).