Re: How should I handle binary file with GIT

From: Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>
Date: Apr 5, 2006, 20:20 UTC
Message-ID: <7vy7yjzsdp.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0604051521480.2550@localhost.localdomain>

Nicolas Pitre <nico@cam.org> writes:

Show 13 quoted lines

> On Wed, 5 Apr 2006, Junio C Hamano wrote:
>
>> We've been trying to keep our diff output reversible (e.g. we
>> show what the filemode of the preimage is), so if we take the
>> above route, it probably should record deltas for both going
>> from preimage to postimage _and_ going the other way (unless
>> xdelta can be applied in-reverse, which I do not think is the
>> case).
>
> You cannot reverse a delta.  However if you were able to apply a delta 
> from preimage to postimage that means you must already have had preimage 
> in your object store.  Therefore reverting such a patch would simply 
> involve restoring preimage.

The case I had in mind was where you shipped a tarball of the tip to somebody (or "a shallow clone"), and after seeing him having problems with that release, sending him a patch telling him "reverting this might help, could you please give it a try?"

Of course you could be nicer to him and generate the reverse diff on your end in such a case instead.