Re: git format-patch produces invalid patch if the commit adds an empty file?

From: Gwyneth Morgan <gwymor@tilde.club>
Date: Aug 20, 2021, 06:15 UTC
Message-ID: <YR9Iaj/FqAyCMade@tilde.club>
In-Reply-To: <xmqq5yw1ywdk.fsf@gitster.g>

On 2021-08-19 14:09:43-0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:

Show 8 quoted lines

> I do not think our patch injestion machinery in "git apply" minds if
> we added the "--- /dev/null" + "+++ b/<path>" headers (and the
> reverse for removal of an empty file) to the current output, and I
> am not fundamentally opposed to such a change.
> 
> But because it is such a rare event (and a discouraged practice) to
> record a completely empty file, I wouldn't place a high priority on
> doing so myself.

GNU patch chokes in this case with an unquoted filename with spaces. However if we output

	diff --git "a/test cases/common/56 array methods/a.txt" "b/test cases/common/56 array methods/a.txt"

instead of

	diff --git a/test cases/common/56 array methods/a.txt b/test cases/common/56 array methods/a.txt

GNU patch (and Git) will read it correctly. Rather than adding the "---" "+++" lines, could we instead quote filenames in the "diff --git" line when they contain spaces?