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Re: git grep doesn't follow symbolic link

From
Ramkumar Ramachandra <artagnon@gmail.com>
Date
Jan 10, 2012, 05:56 UTC
Message-ID
<CALkWK0=-LZH4MYhX50v-RWpGA2r+6q50YxsKaOxc0mJ__yuK7g@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To
<CAPRVejc7xND_8Y=Pb5rYGEcaKYUaX7_WkSro-_EL8tTGxkfY3Q@mail.gmail.com>
Hi Bertrand,
Bertrand BENOIT wrote:
> When using git grep, symbolic links are not followed.
> Is it a wanted behavior ?

I'd imagine so: symbolic links are not portable across different file systems; Git's internal representation of a symbolic link is a file containing the path of the file to be linked to.

> I've not found information about that in documentation, so I do a report.
Hm, the description says:

Look for specified patterns in the tracked files in the work tree, blobs registered in the index file, or blobs in given tree objects.

Hm, "tracked files in the work tree" is definitely sub-optimal: "blobs corresponding to the tracked files in the work tree" is probably better. Then again, I think the description is too cryptic for an end-user: do you have any suggestions? Have we mentioned how Git handles symbolic links anywhere in the documentation? If not, where should this information go?

-- Ram
Previous: Bertrand BENOITNext: Thomas Rast
Message 2 of 10 in “git grep doesn't follow symbolic link”
  1. Bertrand BENOITJan 9, 2012
  2. Ramkumar RamachandraJan 10, 2012
  3. Thomas RastJan 10, 2012
  4. Junio C HamanoJan 10, 2012
  5. Nguyen Thai Ngoc DuyJan 14, 2012
  6. Junio C HamanoJan 15, 2012
  7. Nguyen Thai Ngoc DuyJan 15, 2012
  8. Junio C HamanoJan 16, 2012
  9. Nguyen Thai Ngoc DuyJan 17, 2012
  10. Junio C HamanoJan 17, 2012

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