Re: [PATCH] Allow git-diff exit with codes similar to diff(1)

From: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Date: Mar 14, 2007, 01:13 UTC
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0703131757080.9690@woody.linux-foundation.org>
In-Reply-To: <81b0412b0703131717k7106ee1cg964628f0bda2c83e@mail.gmail.com>

On Wed, 14 Mar 2007, Alex Riesen wrote:

>
> This introduces a new command-line option: --exit-code. The diff
> programs will return 1 for differences, return 0 for equality, and
> something else for errors.

I don't think you should need a new command-line option.

Is there any reason to not just do this unconditionally?

> As promised on irc. I'm somewhat confused about diff_tree: it used to
> unconditionally return 0, yet every caller of it saves and passes the
> value!

I think we just never implemented the error codes, but they were always meant to be there.

I also thought I did some early-out logic (for the revision list pruning thing), where the "show_entry()" routine could return a negative value to say "Ok, no need to do anything more" but apparently I never added that..

[ I have this very distinct memory of working on it, but either I was 
  dreaming or I never got it working.. ]

			Linus