Re: [PATCH] config.txt: clarify core.checkStat = minimal

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Aug 16, 2018, 17:01 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqin4afdoj.fsf@gitster-ct.c.googlers.com>
In-Reply-To: <20180816155647.10459-1-pclouds@gmail.com>

Nguyễn Thái Ngọc Duy  <pclouds@gmail.com> writes:

Show 5 quoted lines

> The description of this key does not really tell what 'minimal' mode
> checks exactly. More information about this mode can be found in the
> commit message of c08e4d5b5c (Enable minimal stat checking -
> 2013-01-22).
>

While I agree that we need to do _something_, I am not sure if this change adds sufficient value. I _think_ those who wonder if they want to configure this want to know what are _not_ looked at (relative to the "default") more than what are _still_ looked at, partly because the description of "default" is already bogus and says "check all fields", which is horrible for two reasons. It is unclear what are in "all" fields in the first place, and also we do not look at all fields (e.g. we do not look at atime for obvious reasons).

So perhaps

	When this configuration variable is missing or is set to
	`default`, many fields in the stat structure are checked to
	detect if a file has been modified since Git looked at it.
	Among these fields, when this configuration variable is set
	to `minimal`, sub-second part of mtime and ctime, the uid
	and gid of the owner of the file, the inode number (and the
	device number, if Git was compiled to use it), are excluded
	from the check, leaving only the whole-second part of mtime
	(and ctime, if `core.trustCtime` is set) and the filesize to
	be checked.

or something?

Show 18 quoted lines

> Signed-off-by: Nguyễn Thái Ngọc Duy <pclouds@gmail.com>
> ---
>  Documentation/config.txt | 2 ++
>  1 file changed, 2 insertions(+)
>
> diff --git a/Documentation/config.txt b/Documentation/config.txt
> index fd8d27e761..5c41314dd5 100644
> --- a/Documentation/config.txt
> +++ b/Documentation/config.txt
> @@ -466,6 +466,8 @@ core.checkStat::
>  	and work tree. The user can set this to 'default' or
>  	'minimal'. Default (or explicitly 'default'), is to check
>  	all fields, including the sub-second part of mtime and ctime.
> +	'minimal' only checks size and the whole second part of mtime
> +	and ctime.
>  
>  core.quotePath::
>  	Commands that output paths (e.g. 'ls-files', 'diff'), will