Re: Why doesn't git-apply remove empty file

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Aug 13, 2008, 00:25 UTC
Message-ID: <7vod3xpxq2.fsf@gitster.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <38b2ab8a0808120917h10f15c81v4d1f04c0174dc994@mail.gmail.com>

If you want to create an empty file, the patch would look like this:

        diff --git a/bar b/bar
        index 257cc56..e69de29 100644
        --- a/bar
        +++ b/bar
        @@ -1 +0,0 @@
        -foo

On the other hand, if you want to remove an empty file, the patch would look like this:

        diff --git a/bar b/bar
        deleted file mode 100644
        index 257cc56..0000000
        --- a/bar
        +++ /dev/null
        @@ -1 +0,0 @@
        -foo

A patch generated by non-git tools would lack "index" and "deleted" lines, but they will still have difference between "bar" and "/dev/null" on the postimage filename (i.e. "+++" line), and git-apply leaves an empty file for the former, and removes the file for the latter patch.