Re: [PATCH] git-commit: Allow partial commit of file removal.

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Sep 14, 2007, 23:34 UTC
Message-ID: <7vveac95yu.fsf@gitster.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <7vzlzqieko.fsf@gitster.siamese.dyndns.org>

Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> writes:

Show 17 quoted lines

> Gerrit Pape <pape@smarden.org> writes:
>
>> On Wed, Sep 12, 2007 at 04:04:22PM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:
>>>  * In my earlier reply to Gerrit, I hinted that we need to
>>>    update the pathspec semantics in ls-tree to properly fix this
>>>    issue.  I cheated here and have ls-files apply its pathspec
>>>    semantics to the entries from HEAD as well.
>>
>> This fixes the problem reported through http://bugs.debian.org/437817
>> just fine, thanks.  Is this an interims-fix, or should the new option
>> be documented?
>
> I honestly am not convinced it is the right fix.  It has a few
> holes in the logic.
>
> Most notably, I think "git rm --cached A; git commit A" would
> not work.

I managed to convince myself that not committing the removal of A in that case is a _good_ thing, unless somebody comes up with a good counterexample this will most likely go to 'master' over the weekend and then to 'maint'.

Any partial commit "git commit <paths>..." is saying:

	I might have changed stuff in the index and also have
	changes in the working tree.  But I do not care about
	the changes between HEAD and the index.  Honestly, I do
	not understand the index at all, and I do not care about
	what I staged earlier to the named paths either.  Take
	the current state of these paths from my work tree and
	make a commit relative to the HEAD.

So, if you do:

	$ edit new-file old-file
        $ rm gone-file
        $ git rm missing-file
        $ git rm --cached disappeared-file
	$ git add new-file ;# was not in HEAD
        $ edit new-file old-file

Then:

	$ git commit new-file old-file

honors what is in the work tree and picks up the later edits, largely ignoring the changes to the index.

Removal should work the same way to be consistent.

	$ git commit gone-file
	$ git commit missing-file
	$ git commit disappeared-file

should remove the former two but leave the last one alone, as you _do_ still have disappeared-file in the work tree.

As it happens, the version I sent will error out on the last one (disappeared-file case). I think the following patch on top of it "fixes" it, by adding it back to the index and including its contents in the resulting commit.

---

diff --git a/git-commit.sh b/git-commit.sh
index 5ea3fd0..bb113e8 100755
--- a/git-commit.sh
+++ b/git-commit.sh
@@ -404,7 +404,7 @@ t,)
 		(
 			GIT_INDEX_FILE="$NEXT_INDEX"
 			export GIT_INDEX_FILE
-			git update-index --remove --stdin
+			git update-index --add --remove --stdin
 		) || exit
 		;;
 	esac