Re: [PATCH] format-patch: remove existing output-directory

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Jun 14, 2013, 13:55 UTC
Message-ID: <7vip1gssoh.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <20130614130910.GF23890@serenity.lan>

John Keeping <john@keeping.me.uk> writes:

Show 15 quoted lines

> On Fri, Jun 14, 2013 at 06:13:33PM +0530, Ramkumar Ramachandra wrote:
>> The following command
>> 
>>   $ git format-patch -o outgoing master
>> 
>> does not ensure that the output-directory outgoing doesn't already
>> exist.  As a result, it's possible for patches from two different series
>> to get mixed up if the user is not careful.  Fix the problem by
>> unconditionally removing the output-directory before writing to it.
>
> I don't think this is the correct behaviour.  I can think of cases where
> I would want to output multiple things into the same directory.
>
> It may be better to issue a warning when this happens, or die and
> provide a flag to let the user bypass that.

Absolutely. I think this too dangeous, and will kill the possibility to further improve "format-patch -v$n".

An option (and configuration that expresses the user's wish) to error out when -o diretory exists is probably as far as we would want to go. Removal is way too much to accept without risk of hurting users.