Re: [PATCH v2] Do not show "diff --git" metainfo with --no-prefix

From: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Date: Jan 16, 2008, 03:26 UTC
Message-ID: <alpine.LFD.1.00.0801151919440.2806@woody.linux-foundation.org>
In-Reply-To: <alpine.LFD.1.00.0801151902080.2806@woody.linux-foundation.org>

On Tue, 15 Jan 2008, Linus Torvalds wrote:

> 
> If we do any git-specific stuff, we need to have that "--git" thing there. 
> That is *not* just limited to the prefix, but to all the other things git 
> diffs can do: renames, mode changes, etc.

Side note: the fact that git-apply itself might have issues with a "--no-prefix" patch is really a red herring, because while it's true that you would normally not do it for git, it's even more true that we haven't actually started teaching git about it and the cases where you *would* use it (eg recursive subproject diffs etc).

So I do not think it's true that "--no-prefix" (or --src/dst-prefix) necessarily implies "no-git" at all. It *can* do so, but it's not a given thing, and almost certainly isn't in the long run with submodule support.

So it would be kind of sad if we mixed it up with the prefix decision, when it really is something totally separate. Many other SCM's may want a simple "-p1" patch (BK did, for example), and that doesn't make them particularly "git-like". And conversely, git itself will want more than a simple "-p1" patch for subproject handling.

		Linus