[PATCH v2] diff: --no-index should ignore the worktree
- From
Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
- Date
- Aug 10, 2025, 00:20 UTC
- Message-ID
- <xmqq1ppk58ob.fsf@gitster.g>
The act of giving "--no-index" tells Git to pretend that the current directory is not under control of any Git index or repository, so even when you happen to be in a Git controlled working tree, where in that working tree should not matter.
But the start-up sequence tries to discover the top of the working tree and chdir(2)'s there, even before Git passes control to the subcommand being run. When diff_no_index() starts running, it starts at a wrong (from the end-user's point of view who thinks "git diff --no-index" is merely a better version of GNU diff) directory, and the original directory the user started the command is at "prefix".
Because the paths given from argv[] have already been adjusted to account for this path shuffling by prepending the prefix, and showing the resulting path by stripping the prefix, the effect of these nonsense operations (nonsense in the context of "--no-index", that is) is usually not observable.
Except for special cases like "-", where it is not preprocessed by prepending the prefix.
Instead of papering over by adding more special cases only to cater to the no-index codepath in the generic code, drive the diff machinery more faithfully to what is going on. If the user started "git diff --no-index" in directory X/Y/Z in a working tree controlled by Git, and the start up sequence of Git chdir(2)'ed up to directory X and left Y/Z in the prefix, revert the effect of the start up sequence by chdir'ing back to Y/Z and emptying the prefix.
Reported-by: Gregoire Geis <opensource@gregoirege.is> Helped-by: Ramsay Jones <ramsay@ramsayjones.plus.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> --- builtin/diff.c | 15 +++++++++++++++ t/t4053-diff-no-index.sh | 17 +++++++++++++++++ 2 files changed, 32 insertions(+)
diff --git a/builtin/diff.c b/builtin/diff.c index 9a89e25a98..0b23c41456 100644 --- a/builtin/diff.c +++ b/builtin/diff.c @@ -487,6 +487,21 @@ int cmd_diff(int argc, init_diff_ui_defaults(); repo_config(the_repository, git_diff_ui_config, NULL); + + /* + * If we are ignoring the fact that our current directory may + * be part of a working tree controlled by a Git repository to + * pretend to be a "better GNU diff", we should undo the + * effect of the setup code that did a chdir() to the top of + * the working tree. Where we came from is recorded in the + * prefix. + */ + if (no_index && prefix) { + if (chdir(prefix)) + die(_("cannot come back to cwd")); + prefix = NULL; + } + prefix = precompose_argv_prefix(argc, argv, prefix); repo_init_revisions(the_repository, &rev, prefix); diff --git a/t/t4053-diff-no-index.sh b/t/t4053-diff-no-index.sh index 01db9243ab..44b4b13f5d 100755 --- a/t/t4053-diff-no-index.sh +++ b/t/t4053-diff-no-index.sh @@ -26,6 +26,23 @@ test_expect_success 'git diff --no-index directories' ' test_line_count = 14 cnt ' +test_expect_success 'git diff --no-index with -' ' + cat >expect <<-\EOF && + diff --git a/- b/- + new file mode 100644 + --- /dev/null + +++ b/- + @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + +frotz + EOF + ( + cd a && + echo frotz | + test_expect_code 1 git diff --no-index /dev/null - >../actual + ) && + test_cmp expect actual +' + test_expect_success 'git diff --no-index relative path outside repo' ' ( cd repo && Range-diff against v1: 1: 456a265746 ! 1: 4166ccb163 diff: --no-index should ignore the worktree @@ builtin/diff.c: int cmd_diff(int argc, + * prefix. + */ + if (no_index && prefix) { -+ chdir(prefix); ++ if (chdir(prefix)) ++ die(_("cannot come back to cwd")); + prefix = NULL; + } +
-- 2.51.0-rc1-130-g831cc762e6