Re: [PATCH 3/3] docs: explain how to deal with files that are always modified

From: Martin Ågren <martin.agren@gmail.com>
Date: Sep 13, 2020, 15:13 UTC
Message-ID: <CAN0heSp-Uhp9QZdjV3GeUkhMn513-GADJg1D9UXsrB7ok8J_gw@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <20200912204824.2824106-4-sandals@crustytoothpaste.net>

On Sat, 12 Sep 2020 at 22:52, brian m. carlson <sandals@crustytoothpaste.net> wrote:

>
> Users frequently have problems where two files differ only in case,

s/files/filenames/ ? Anyway, clear enough here, but let's keep it in mind when reading the proposed FAQ entry..

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> causing one of those files to show up consistently as being modified.
> Let's add a FAQ entry that explains how to deal with that.
>
> In addition, let's explain another common case where files are
> consistently modified, which is when files using a smudge or clean
> filter have not been run through that filter.  Explain the way to fix
> this as well.

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> +Why do I have a file that's always modified?::
> +       Internally, Git always stores file names as sequences of bytes and doesn't
> +       perform any encoding or case folding.  However, Windows and macOS by default
> +       both perform case folding on file names.  As a result, it's possible to end up
> +       with multiple files or directories that differ in case.  Git can handle this

I think this could be clearer with something like s/that differ in case/where their names only differ in case/, i.e., explicitly talking about the names of the files and also sticking an "only" in there.

> +       just fine, but the file system can store only one of these files, so when Git
> +       reads the other file to see its contents, it looks modified.

That concludes my reading of these patches. I only had some minor comments. I think these are good entries to add to the FAQ.

Martin