From: Junio C Hamano Date: Thu, 02 Oct 2025 05:19:48 GMT Subject: Re: How mantainers check Git diffs and patches? Message-ID: In-Reply-To: Henrique Soares writes: > On Wed, Oct 01, 2025 at 09:41:46AM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote: >> Patches are medium for reliable transmission. Once you apply the >> patch to your tree (perhaps giving it its own topic branch, perhaps >> to a detached HEAD with the full intention that you will discard it >> after you are done inspecting the change the patch brings in), you >> can use any regular tools you use while developing and reviewing >> your own code. > > It makes totally sense. So I suppose you avoid to review the code just > checking the e-mail patch in e-mail client, but first applying locally > and then check it in your code editor in a separate branch, worktree or > whatever, then back to e-mail thread and comment the code, right? The other way around. With experience with the codebase, you'd learn to tell if a small-looking patch is truly small and only need the patch text to judge, would be helped if I have another window and have the code that would be modified if I were to apply the patch without actually applying, or its ramification is deep enough that I better apply it before making the final decision. For a truly complex patch series I'd first apply them and then read with "git log --reverse -p" with wider context (e.g., -W or -U8), occasionally looking at the entire file at the step in question with something like "git show HEAD~4:path/to/that/file". It does not happen all that often, but it is not so rare.