Re: [PATCH] Make Git accept absolute path names for files within the work tree

From: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Date: Dec 4, 2007, 15:59 UTC
Message-ID: <alpine.LFD.0.9999.0712040756370.2981@woody.linux-foundation.org>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0712041149440.27959@racer.site>

On Tue, 4 Dec 2007, Johannes Schindelin wrote:

> 
> I do remember the hassles I went through with get_relative_cwd() until I 
> broke down and used chdir() two times (ugly).

It really is a pretty heavy and complex operation in UNIX in general (and open to various races too), which is why I'd generally suggest avoiding it if you at all can.

The sad(?) part is, it's fairly trivial to do inside the Linux kernel (but probably not in other operating systems - it's only because of our superior dcache that we could do it). So a special system call would be no problem at all. But obviously very unportable indeed.

			Linus