Re: symbolic links in Git for Windows v2.27.0, was Re: [ANNOUNCE] Git for Windows 2.27.0-rc2

From: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
Date: May 29, 2020, 05:56 UTC
Message-ID: <nycvar.QRO.7.76.6.2005290748580.56@tvgsbejvaqbjf.bet>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqsgfizmcf.fsf@gitster.c.googlers.com>

Hi Junio,

On Fri, 29 May 2020, Junio C Hamano wrote:

Show 22 quoted lines

> Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de> writes:
>
> > Dear Git users,
> >
> > On Tue, 26 May 2020, Johannes Schindelin wrote:
> >
> >> I hereby announce that Git for Windows 2.27.0-rc2 is available from:
> >>
> >>     https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/releases/tag/v2.27.0-rc2.windows.1
> >
> > Git for Windows v2.27.0 will be out on Tuesday (or even on Monday if Git
> > v2.27.0 is released early enough). It has a (last-minute) bug fix where
> > the length of symbolic links that is recorded in the Git index is the
> > _actual_ length of the link target, so that `git status` agrees between
> > Git for Windows and WSL Git.
> >
> > Unfortunately, that means that every existing checkout that contains
> > symbolic links tracked by Git will report them as changed until `git add
> > <path-to-symlink>` (or `git add -u`) is called.
>
> So, this is not something "git update-index --refresh" would be able
> to fix?

I just tested this, and no, it does not fix the issue.

The bug in question records the length of _any_ symbolic link as 4096 in the index, and an `update-index --refresh` with a fixed version of Git apparently does not update that (the contents did _not_ change, after all).

Ciao, Dscho

Show 12 quoted lines

>
> >
> > In cases where users use both Git Bash and another version of Git, this
> > might cause the problem where one of them will always report the symbolic
> > links as modified in `git status`, but not in `git diff`.
> >
> > Sorry about the late heads-up, I only just realized that this might pose a
> > problem. Granted, symbolic links are not all _that_ common on Windows.
> >
> > Ciao,
> > Johannes
>