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Re: [PATCH 3/3] t3600: test rm of path with changed leading symlinks

From
Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date
Apr 5, 2013, 04:59 UTC
Message-ID
<7vsj35efne.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To
<20130405000009.GA27775@sigill.intra.peff.net>
Jeff King <peff@peff.net> writes:
> Here's a replacement for patch 3, then. I wasn't sure if the
> editorializing in the last 2 paragraphs should go in the commit message
> or the cover letter; feel free to tweak as you see fit.
They look fine as they are.
> That means the worst case is not the accidental loss of content,
> but rather confusion by the user when a copy of a file another
> part of the tree is removed.

A copy of a file that is on the filesystem that may not be related to the project at all may be lost, and the user may not notice the lossage for quite a while. A symlink that points at /etc/passwd may cause the file to be removed and the user will hopefully notice, but if the pointed-at file is something in $HOME/tmp/ that you occasionally use, you may not notice the lossage immediately, and when you notice the loss, the only assurance you have is that there is a blob that records what was lost _somewhere_ in _some_ of your project that had a symlink that points at $HOME/tmp/ at some point in the past.

"Exists somewhere, not lost" is not a very useful assurance, if you ask me ;-)

Previous: Jeff KingNext: Jeff King
Message 17 of 18 in “Behavior of git rm”
  1. jpinheiroApr 3, 2013
  2. Jeff KingApr 3, 2013
  3. Junio C HamanoApr 3, 2013
  4. Jeff KingApr 3, 2013
  5. Jeff KingApr 4, 2013
  6. 1/3 rm: do not complain about d/f conflicts during deletionJeff King, Apr 4, 2013
  7. 2/3 t3600: test behavior of reverse-d/f conflictJeff King, Apr 4, 2013
  8. 3/3 t3600: test rm of path with changed leading symlinksJeff King, Apr 4, 2013
  9. Junio C HamanoApr 4, 2013
  10. Jeff KingApr 4, 2013
  11. Junio C HamanoApr 4, 2013
  12. Jeff KingApr 4, 2013
  13. Junio C HamanoApr 4, 2013
  14. Jeff KingApr 4, 2013
  15. Junio C HamanoApr 4, 2013
  16. Jeff KingApr 5, 2013
  17. Junio C HamanoApr 5, 2013
  18. Jeff KingApr 5, 2013

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