Re: [BUG?] Patches created with 'diff.noprefix=true' don't 'git apply'.

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: May 6, 2014, 18:10 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqa9aug4my.fsf@gitster.dls.corp.google.com>
In-Reply-To: <CAO8RVveV4SgXmJzWpYnyB3rnQALQkrrLNtLL5Ej5Y9Mjjekmmw@mail.gmail.com>

Nathan Collins <nathan.collins@gmail.com> writes:

> Hmmm. Maybe a warning that the patch is expected to be in '-p1'
> format, and that setting 'diff.noprefix=true' makes some commands
> generate '-p0' patches?

"some"?  Do you have exceptions in mind?

> But I worry this would just confuse / distract
> the people that don't have 'diff.noprefix=true' set,

Probably. But that would suggest that the place to improve the doc is for diff.noprefix configuration variable, no?

> Better I think would be for 'git apply' to be
> smarter, as you suggest below.

As it is a plumbing command behind "add -p", "am", and friends, I would hate to see "git apply" pretend to be smarter than its users. When the user tells it to use -p0, it shouldn't guess, and when the user tells it to use -p1 by not giving any -p$n, it shouldn't guess.

As long as we make it clear "git apply" without any explicit -p$n means the user is telling it to do -p1 in its documentation, I think it would be fine.

>> I personally think setting diff.noprefix is not very sane (it also
>> breaks "patch -p1"), and I suppose I should have been louder about
>> that when it was introduced.

I share the same feeling ;-) But the boat has sailed, so the best we could do is to warn in its doc (i.e. where diff.noprefix is described) about its pitfalls.